Loyalty
The novel provides many depictions of Hassan's loyalty to Amir. Even after the brutal attack, which eventually eradicated the friendship between the boys, Hassan remained loyal to Amir. Overcome with guilt for his role is watching the attack on Amir and doing nothing to stop it, Amir consistently sabotages the relationship until all is lost.
"HASSAN MILLED ABOUT the periphery of my life after that.
I made sure our paths crossed as little as possible, planned my day that way.
Because when he was around, the oxygen seeped out of the room. My chest tightened and I couldn't draw enough air; I'd stand there, gasping in my own little airless bubble of atmosphere.
But even when he wasn't around, he was.
He was there in the hand-washed and ironed clothes on the cane-seat chair, in the warm slippers left outside my door, in the wood already burning in the stove when I came down for breakfast.
Everywhere I turned, I saw signs of his loyalty, his goddamn unwavering loyalty."
“As I waited for his reply, my mind flashed back to a winter day from long ago, Hassan and I sitting on the snow beneath a leafless sour cherry tree. I had played a cruel game with Hassan that day, toyed with him, asked him if he would chew dirt to prove his loyalty to me. Now I was the one under the microscope, the one who had to prove my worthiness. I deserved this.”