Helena VäinmaaAssef – The Kite RunnerAssef may be a minor character in the story, but the small role he plays turns out to be quite important – and influential. He is crucial to Amir and Hassan's growth and changes and represents a sort of Yin-Yang in the book – the kind of dark side that doesn't have a bright spot in the middle. Assef is brutally violent and needlessly cruel. The child lives in the same region as Amir and Hassan, but belongs to a completely different family: being half Aghan and half German, he represents the Nazi side of Afghan culture of the time: loving the concepts of Hitler, he wants to flush out what he believes to be trash and leave only the Pushtan people – this is also the source of his hatred for Hassan, the Hazara, whom he despises as one who does not know better would look at a dog . Assef reportedly said: “Too late for Hitler. But not for us,” where by “we” he means the Pushtans. The boy's weakness is best characterized by his need to feel superior to others; he constantly needs to have power over those around him and hates people who view him as a human being. weak. The brass knuckles he carries with him at all times are more of a symbol of his brutality than an actual weapon / most of the time he only pleases himself and probably has no real loyalty to anyone. His darkness is deep, but he is excellent. by hiding it: he puts on a mask of adults, of parents, who could control and calm his darkness. When Assef reappears in Amir's life, it seems his brass knuckles predicted it. He remained a hateful and arrogant man. man throughout the story – after torturing, killing and molesting many children, Assef forces Amir to fight for Hassan's son named Sohrab. He hadn't changed and... in the middle of a paper... that he had found after all. This time, and Amir fly kites together after finally beating Assef with the slingshot as was promised many years ago, Amir feels like he has returned to the past without feeling the guilt of the treason. He feels like he's back home, and instead of Sohrab, in his dreams, he's with his dear friend Hassan. This time, the kite is somewhat of a symbol of redemption – as if everything is okay again, because Hassan is avenged. Even though Hosseini never tells us whether he was truly redeemed or not, we feel relieved. Kites represent many things: the childhood innocence of playing with a friend, the impossibility of buying love through any action and the pain caused by the attempt, the intense guilt felt because of the betrayal of such a dear friend, and in the end, if not perhaps redemption, at least the possibility of having one.