Courage has many facets, though it is most obvious in the face of peril to the portrayer. When a person acts courageously at the risk of themselves, they are reacting with genuine bravery. More subtle, and perhaps more difficult to face, is the danger imposed by oneself—the price of confronting one’s own shortcomings. In this sense, Amir is able to display some sort of courage by the end of the novel, even though he lived in arguable cowardice for the majority of his life.

Hassan and Baba are both elaborate specimens of bravery. Both are willing to sacrifice themselves for the sake of others, whether the price be death, cruelty, or shame. Throughout much of his life, Amir idolizes Baba for his ability to stand for what he believes in. Much of Amir’s childhood revolves around the rumor of his fathers’ struggle with a bear—rarely would another child be able to boast that his father had done the same. This story, though, is not one I would consider genuinely brave, for Baba did not fight the bear for noble purposes. In his later, teenage years, Amir witnesses a much better example of Baba’s courage: that in which Baba protects a woman he does not know from rape by a guard, though he faces what could be the end of his life. The discreet question, then, is why Baba acts the way he does, which is a much more delicate question than whether or not he is courageous. Baba may be morally upright, but for the most part he is centered around the idea of honor. He cannot stand the thought of being regarded as dishonorable, and because of this he feels he must protect the honor of others. It would be a disgrace to his nature to have allowed a woman to get raped when he could have done something, anything, to prevent it from happening.

Hassan shows a different sort of courage, one founded in deep loyalty and moral rigidity. When Hassan stands up to Assef as a young boy to protect Amir from harm, Hassan is “doing the right thing” for his friend. He knows that threatening Assef will put him in danger, but he is more concerned with Amir’s immediate wellbeing. Only a few chapters further into the novel, Hassan faces cruel and abhorrent consequences for crossing Assef and is raped. He was willing to sacrifice his own wellbeing for Amir’s simple desires, foolish as they might have been. Furthermore, when Amir is so distraught by shame that he attempts to get rid of Hassan, Hassan is once again willing to bear the brunt of the consequences of Amir’s cowardice. He does not tell Baba what Amir allowed to happen, he does not pressure Amir to ask for forgiveness (or even slacken his loyalty to Amir), and he is willing to lie for perhaps the first time to suit Amir’s initial lie of thievery.

So who, in comparison, wins the title of bravest character, Baba or Hassan? In an area Hassan never seems to have neglected, Baba did make one major fault: he never told anyone, not even his illegitimate son, that he was Hassan’s true father. It was a matter of pride, almost exclusively; Baba feared the reaction of Afghan society to the idea that he might have slept with a friend and servant’s wife, a Hazara girl. It would be dishonorable to be recognized as having relations with, what is in that cultures’ mind, a woman of low status, particularly illegitimate relations. Baba denies his cardinal rule against thievery (of truth, in this case) to keep from losing face. Hassan never betrays his morality, though perhaps his unwavering loyalty can be considered a fault by critical audiences. In what we know of Hassan and Baba, though, Hassan wins the title of bravest character.

Amir lives for decades with the guilt of his greatest cowardice, his horded secret: that he witnessed Hassan’s rape and did not intervene. That he was shameful, that he allowed himself to be preoccupied with self-hatred, in itself shows a certain level of courage. Amir does not lie to himself about what sort of person he is; he bears the full force of his own spite. Undoubtedly, this does not redeem him from his treachery against Hassan, but it does draw the readers to a certain compassion for Amir. Nearer the end of his life Amir does in fact face his fears and take on a role of bravery: he leaves his safe, comfortable life in California to listen to Rahim Khan, rescue Hassan’s orphaned son Sohrab, and face the sociopathic Assef in a scuffle that leaves Amir disfigured. Indisputably, this does not compensate for the years of cowardice, but it does alleviate some of the sting associated with it. It is safe to say that while Amir is not a brave character, he does portray a few admirably brave moments throughout the book.

In essence, courage and morality are strong themes throughout The Kite Runner that compromise much of the attraction of the novel. Because courage is not a black-and-white concept, it is possible to paint each developed character with an entire grayscale portrait of bravery and cowardice. In the end, each character comes out with bits of each tone.