The theme of mans inhumanity to man is a theme which makes the reader think about how we torture each other because of our need for power in our lives. It is true as seen in this novel that there are essentially evil individuals who are impossible to redeem and that the evil they do affects all people around them. Assef is such a character. He enjoys hurting others physically, emotionally, and psychologically. If there is a Hell, he is bound for it. However, there is also the evil found in all of us, no matter how good we are most of the time, which allows us to do bad things to those we love the most. The reasons may vary for why we commit such sins, but in the end, it is all about needing some sort of power in our lives. Fortunately, this evil is redeemable when we are ready to atone and right the wrongs we have committed. Amir is such a man. He is essentially good, but the evil he does as a child follows him into his adulthood and he must find a way to expiate those sins for his own sake and also for the sake of Sohrab.
Another theme that is emphasized throughout is that of the fragile relationship between fathers and sons. Amir spends his entire life trying to be the son who will not disappoint his father and making up for the death of his mother who died while giving birth to him. Many of the sins he commits are in the hopes that his father will believe in him, embrace him, and tell him how proud of him he is.
It is only when Amir grows up, watches how valiantly his father faces his own death, and then returns to Afghanistan to right the wrongs he had committed that he realizes that his father had always loved him and was proud of him. It is unfortunate that men find it difficult to show their love to their sons for fear of somehow being less of a man. Amir would have loved to have had such a relationship all of his life and we who watch him struggle to find it identify with his need for parental approval.
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