"Assef Is Nothing More Than an Evil Thug" How Do You Respond to Assef's Character and Role in the Kite Runner as a Whole?

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“Assef is nothing more than an evil thug.” How do you respond to Assef’s character and role in The Kite Runner as a whole? When the character of Assef is first introduced in The Kite Runner he is already portrayed to be a thug. Before Assef is psychically put into a chapter in the novel he is referred to ‘”The Ear Eater” and the “sociopath” as Amir likes to call him, this makes the reader have a negative outlook on him as a character as it hints at his violent nature. It could be argued that Assef represents all things wrong in Afghanistan; he is the neighbourhood bully who intimidates the weakest of people and beats them with his “brass knuckles”, he could be considered to be the representation of the Taliban, as he later joins the Taliban who wishes to rid Afghanistan of Hazaras, he tries achieves this by raping Hassan at a young age and later killing him. Assef, with his half-German heritage and admiration for Hitler is emphasized, as a symbol for the European occupation of Afghanistan and how Europe has destroyed a country that was once very important. He makes the claim that Hitler is his role model, which further reinforces the reader’s negative view on him. Assef is a fundamental role in the novel as the he allows the reader to view the other character’s traits, for example in the rape scene (chapter 7); the reader gets to view Amir in a different way to how he would have been seen before “I just watched. Paralyzed.” Which is a contrast from his usual self that would have helped Hassan but in this case he couldn’t. Assef highlights the flaws in Amir’s character, without Assef the rape would never have happened and Amir wouldn’t have been given the opportunity to show his true heroism and Hassan his trust and loyalty towards Amir, due to the rape actually taking place the reader doesn’t get to see Amir and any way heroic but in fact like a coward “I ran

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