Amir
The narrator and central character. He is talented and cowardly as a boy, and the novel follows his slow, painful attempt to become someone better. His arc is the book.
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Characters
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Characters
Who matters and what they help you prove.
Hassan
Amir's closest friend and, unknown to both of them, his half-brother. Hassan is loyal, brave, and forgiving to a degree that makes Amir's betrayal harder to stomach. He is killed by the Taliban before Amir can make things right with him directly.
Baba
Amir's father. Physically imposing, morally admired, and secretly compromised. He shapes Amir's values and his insecurities in equal measure. His hidden affair with Ali's wife is the secret that reframes the whole story.
Assef
The novel's primary villain. A violent, ethnically fanatical boy who grows up to become a Taliban official. He assaults Hassan as a child and later keeps Sohrab as a slave. He and Amir have a final confrontation that is both literal and symbolic.
Sohrab
Hassan's son and Amir's nephew. He is the person Amir must save to begin making things right. Sohrab is traumatized and nearly unreachable by the end of the novel, and his slow, partial thaw is the closest thing to hope the book offers.
Rahim Khan
Baba's oldest friend. He is the one who keeps track of what happened in Afghanistan after Amir left, and he is the one who calls Amir back. His line about there being a way to be good again is the hinge the second half of the novel turns on.
Soraya
Amir's wife. She is honest about her own past in a way Amir cannot be about his, which makes her a quiet contrast to him throughout the second half of the novel.
Ali
Hassan's father and Baba's servant. He is dignified and loyal. When Amir frames Hassan, Ali chooses to leave rather than stay in a household where his son was accused. He does not know the full truth about Hassan's parentage.
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