Kite Runner 3

The novel The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is about a child, Amir, that has always been bullied by another boy, Assef, throughout his life. Assef always abused Amir and his half brother, Hassan, in stronger numbers of people like when Amir and Hassan were peacefully going to climb a tree, but Assef and his two friends, Wali and Kamal, decide to attack them. Another time in their childhood where Assef raped Hassan with Wali and Kamal holding him down. This shows how much of a bully he was when he was young, but by the time he got to adulthood and he meets Amir again, he challenges Amir to a one on one fight.

“If it’s him, you let him pass!” Assef screamed. The two men flinched but nodded again. They turned to go. One of them reached for Sohrab. “Let him stay,” Assef said. He grinned. “Let him watch. Lessons are good things for boys.” The guards left. Assef put down his prayer beads. Reached in the breast pocket of his black vest. What he fished out of that pocket didn’t surprise me one bit: stainless-steel brass knuckles.” (Page 287)

This quote shows the arrogance Assef has. He is positive that he will win just because he has the advantage of some brass knuckles over Amir’s bare and wimpy fists. He would of won if not for Sohrab’s advantage over Assef’s brass knuckles, a slingshot. Sohrab’s slingshot gave him more attacking range, allowing him to shoot Assef from afar. The brass ball shot by Sohrab would blind one of Assef’s eyes, letting Amir and Sohrab to flee. This shows how the one time Assef is fought with in an unfair advantage towards him, he loses.

This also shows how mentally disturbed Assef is. He wants Sohrab to experience a bloody fight to the death. This would damage Sohrab’s life mentally no matter if he shot Assef to save Amir or not. Assef always had a problem with killing or hurting innocent people. Assef did nothing but worsen the lives of thousands. He deserved way more than a metal ball in his eye, but I did enjoy it when it happened.