Honesty and Trust The Ways of Maintaining His Friendship with Amir

“Amir agha and I are friends,” Hassan said. He looked flushed Hosseini 63-64. Despite what Assef says is true or not Hassan trusts Amir. He trusts that Amir regards him as his best friend, not a pet. And what Assef says does not affect his loyalty to Amir. He still does not give the blue kite to Assef because it is for Amir Hosseini 64. What Hassan does for Amir reflects his honesty and trust, one of the characteristics of friendship that is important in making a good friendship. Honesty and trust are important elements in friendship since through honesty and trust one can measure the quality of friendship. It is also important because honesty is closely linked to trust and together they build a base of friendship to be strong and healthy. One will try to be honest with his close friend in giving affirmation or correction in order to develop his potency and character. He will also trust his friend to share his feelings whenever he wants to. In summary, honesty and trust are strongly needed in building a good quality of friendship. 4.2.2.2 Emotional Respect According to Peterson 1, the second characteristic of friendship is emotional respect. This emotional respect includes the feeling of love, receiving and understanding. Emotional respect will give a strong support to a friendship because through love we will not leave our friend who is in trouble. From the novel, we can see that Hassan’s love is seen when he will always defend Amir without being asked like when he points to Assef’s eyes with his slingshot when he intimidates Amir and blocks his way home Hosseini 36-37 and also when he runs the cut kite at the tournament right after the kite flies Hosseini 58-59. His love for Amir affects him greatly in almost everything that he does for Amir. His love also motivates him to have the feelings of receiving and understanding. He receives Amir just the way he is. He loves Amir since they grow up under the same roof and yard and because Amir treats him not like any other servant. Besides, his feeling of receiving and understanding appear because Amir is not violent, but he tends to be a coward and afraid of getting hurt Hosseini 19, and so Hassan always defends him. Hassan’s feelings of love, receiving, and understanding bring a comfort feeling to Amir. In the morning before the kite tournament Amir admits that he feels it comfortable to have someone who always knows what he needs Hosseini 54. On the night of the bombing, for example, Hassan asks Amir to climb their tree and read a tale under it Hosseini 33 and before the kite tournament when he feels fear and anxious, Hassan gives him some support by telling him that there is no monster Hosseini 53-54 so that Amir will feel better and confident to fly his kite. The second main characteristics of friendship proposed by Peterson in building a good quality of friendship is by having love, receiving, and understanding which are united in what we call emotional respect. What makes emotional respect become the main elements in friendship is that through emotional respect, we can love and receive our friends just the way they are. Love and receiving that appear will drive one to have an understanding. Understanding will help one to know his close friend’s true characters and make him act more easily in a certain situation. That is why, emotional respect is important in friendship.

4.2.2.3 Service and Loyalty

Besides honesty and trust and emotional respect, other characteristics of friendship stated by Peterson 1 are service and loyalty. Here service refers to some helping action that we can do to our friends. Service may also appear when our close friend wants to share his feelings or problems and we play our role as a good listener to him. While loyalty means that a friend will not speak badly about him when he is not around. In the novel, Hassan shows service and loyalty not merely because he is a servant and it is his duty to serve Amir but what Hassan does is more than what a usual servant will do. For example when Amir eats and complains about his homework, Hassan listens to him. He sings to himself in the foyer as he irons, singing an old Hazara song in his nasal voice Hosseini 23 and also he always defends Amir many times when they play outside Hosseini 20. Everything that he does is sincere. It seems that he does all things for Amir because he is his true brother. What happens at the bombing night when Hassan tries to remind Amir of their favorite things in order to calm him down shows that he wants to gives Amir a secure feeling like a brother to his younger Hosseini 33. Even though they actually are half-brothers, Hassan dies without ever knowing this truth. His loyalty when keeping the cut kite at the tournament shows he is not only a Hazara servant, but a true and faithful friend. After ten years when Hassan and Ali go back to Hazarajat where most Hazara people live, he marries a Hazara girl named Farzana and they have a son, named Sohrab. When Amir and Baba flee to California because of the Russian invasion, Rahim Khan, Baba’s close friend, goes to Hassan and asks him to return to Kabul to keep Baba’s house in case they will be back from California someday Hosseini 197-198. Hassan again shows his loyalty and brings his family to Kabul and together with Rahim Khan he keeps the house. Later when Amir meets Sohrab the young boy tells that his father always talks about his wonderful childhood times with Amir Hosseini 267. Hassan never tells his son about the betrayal. He only tells his son about his friendship with Amir. When Hassan knows that Amir lives in California, he always asks Rahim Khan about Amir with many questions that almost most of them cannot be answered by Rahim Khan. The reason why Hassan and his wife want to go back to Kabul is that he feels that Baba is like his second father Hosseini 182. His spirit to keep his childhood friendship with Amir still lives in his heart. He remembers that there is a wall behind the row of corn that Baba has planted. Hassan and Amir call it “the Wall of Ailing Corn”. When a rocket destroys a whole section of that wall, Hassan rebuilds it with his own hands, brick by brick until it stands whole again Hosseini 183. What Hassan does to rebuild the wall is just because he wants to keep his childhood memories. It seems that he still maintains everything good the same as he still keeps his childhood memories with Amir in that house. It illustrates his loyalty even after Amir is far away in California and no one knows whether he will be back someday or not. In his letter to Amir, he says that he has told much to Farzana and Sohrab about their growing up together and playing games and running the streets. They laugh at the stories of all the mischief Amir and Hassan used to cause Hosseini 189.