It wasn't meant to be, Khala Jamila had said. The Taliban (an Islamic fundamentalist group) finally drove out the Soviet forces, and many Afghans (like Rahim Khan, here) felt hopeful that peace would come at last. Wanted to walk up the front steps where Ali used to make Hassan and me take off our snow boots. It demands it, even more than in times of peace." Amir manipulates his privileged upbringing over his servant and loyal best friend, Hassan, whose aid he fails to come to when Hassan is being raped by older boys after a kite-fighting tournament. Amir also holds some prejudicial attitudes against Hassan for being Hazara, contributing to his inaction. Iago easily riles up his anger by reminding him that Othello, a Moor and therefore an outsider in Venetian society, is set to marry Desdemona. America was a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past. Politics and Society Rahim Khan lives happily with Hassan and his family for a few years, but after he leaves the city for medical care, the Taliban accuses Hassan of trespassing and kills him and his wife. The answer floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara, wasnt he? I was that monster. The Bible says "There is no greater love than to lay down one's life for one's friend.". You couldnt trust anyone in Kabul anymore for a fee or under threat, people told on each other, neighbor on neighbor, child on parent, brother on brother, servant on master, friend on friend. 'My suspicions had been right all those years. The insight into Afghanistan, especially in the era before wars and political instability, gave many Americans a new outlook on a different culture. In the real world, and in the fictional world too. This is Hosseini's critique of the "double standard" he sees for men and for women, in which women are treated as inferior to men, and are punished for doing the same things men do with impunity. I cannot believe it. He pointed to an old man dressed in ragged clothes trudging down a dirt path, a large burlap sack filled with scrub grass tied to his back. Hassan's part in the narrative has ended, as he was killed by the Taliban, but he seems to live on in his son, and Amir continues to live out his own relationship with Hassan and cycle of betrayal/redemption through taking care of Sohrab. Autumn6745. The war is over, Hassan, I said. Long before the Roussi army marched into Afghanistan, long before villages were burned and schools destroyed. 'As it turned out, Baba and I were more alike than I'd ever known. Best to forget." I was only 23 years old.