Point of View

The story is presented in first person from the limited perspective of Amir. Amir is a very serious and introspective young man who grows into a similarly serious adult. He is angry at himself as a youngster because he was afraid to intervene when Hassan was attacked. Amir labels himself a coward and Hassan’s very presence reminds Amir of his cowardice. He takes inappropriate action in his efforts to deal with is guilt. He believes that Hassan’s absence would make the situation easier to bear and he tells a lie, labeling Hassan a thief, in an effort to accomplish that. He then hates himself for that as well. While the first-person perspective is typically slanted in favor of the person telling the story, that is not the case in this story. In fact, it seems that Amir is brutally honest. He talks about...