Love and Acceptance

Two boys, the same father, grow up together, raised miles apart.  Hassan has devoted his entire life to serve his half brother Amir, he has given up all of his dignity and pride to ensure Amir's happiness.

Sadly Amir cannot see the truth behind Hassan's devotion, leading him to bring pain to everyone involved.  The desire for love and acceptance prove to negatively affect both of the boys.  Because Hassan is not accepted by his father, he is unable to completely understand how it is possible for Hassan to love him and accept him so completely.  Love or the misunderstanding of that love Amir into a self destructive machine who tears down all who try to do right by him.

Amir's father makes him feel inadequate.  Although his father obviously loves him, he treats that love as more of a responsibility than a gift.  Part of the reason Baba has so much difficulty expressing love for Amir is that Amir's mother died during childbirth, and Baba seems to blame Amir for his mother's death.  Amir knows that Baba resents him for being the cause of his mother's death, he sees very clearly that nothing he can do will ever make up for the toll he took on Baba's life.  Amir bases his entire self worth off of what Baba thinks of him, because Baba regards him poorly, he believes that he truly is less than what could make him good.  The lack of love from Baba creates a low self worth for Amir, this eventually makes Amir turn on Hassan.

Love and acceptance and the desire for them lead Amir to betray Hassan.  This proves that love is a very powerful source, it can make people do crazy and evil things.  Baba thinks that Amir took away his one true love,making it so he cannot properly love or accept Amir.  Because Amir bases himself off of Baba's idea of him, he makes himself believe that he does not deserve to be loved.  As Amir has such low self esteem, he is unable to accept that Hassan could love and accept him as much as what shows.  since Amir cannot accept Hassan's love, he betrays Hassan, he pushes him away, until Hassan ultimately decides to leave.  Amir self destructs and brings down those around him because of the low self esteem he got due to his hostile growth environment with Baba