Perfect heroes are unrealistic in literature because even though they seem ideal, the characters become flat and unrelatable. Therefore, authors often add other dimensions to characters that reveal their personality flaws and mistakes. Authors are able to use these dimensions to both relate the characters but also teach the readers life lessons from the characters mistakes. For example, in The Kite Runner, Khaled Hosseini crafts multiple ambiguous characters who are good people that make major mistakes. By contrasting these characters to the more pure characters, Hosseini is able to show both the ideal life to live and the ways to do that.
In The Kite Runner, Amir and his father, Baba, display lives of contradictions while Hassan and Rahim Khan live lives of purity. Amir has many flaws as a child. However, he becomes a very moral adult. His character shows how mistakes and the resultant guilt take over lives even if the mistakes were made as a child. This guilt began when Amir and Hassan were young children because they were always best friends but the cultural stereotypes against Hassan and his servant status made Amir never look at him as an equal. While this is understandable for a young boy, Amir is also extremely jealous of Hassan and his relationship with Baba.
Amir feels like Baba should love him more because he is Baba’s son. In the end, this jealousy and lack of respect leads to Amir not protecting Hassan when he witnesses Hassan being raped. However, to add to this situation, Hassan was running after a kite for Amir. He was only in trouble because he wanted to give Amir a gift. His steadfast loyalty for Amir throughout their entire childhood ended when Hassan was raped because he later moved out of the house..
.better person. He is definitely not perfect after he moves to America but he definitely seems to value his son more. Before America, he did not seem to think much of Amir at all but through all of their travels, Baba seems to trust him and think of Amir as more of a man. However, the true immorality of these characters would not be as evident without the addition of characters such as Hassan and Rahim Khan because both of these men are able to show what a pure heart should look like. Neither man is perfect because Hassan leaves the house instead of trying to reconcile his emotions and Rahim Khan keeps the lie from Amir but both seem to genuinely care about their friends.
Most of all, both men seem to put others before themselves at all costs. In The Kite Runner, juxtaposing characters and ambiguous characters are used to show the nature of guilt and decision making.
