Amir also committed a sin that negatively affected him throughout his life. This sin occurred when Hassan, Amir's best friend during his childhood, was raped by Assef. This situation occurred while the children were chasing kites. Hassan took the kite first, but Assef insisted that he wanted the kite. Assef also had a racial and religious prejudice against Hassan. Since Hassan did not give the kite, Assef decides to rape him as “punishment”. Instead of helping his friend, Amir simply walked away from the scene and let Hassan be violated in one of the most vulgar ways. After this incident, Hassan calmly returned home and gave Amir the kite for which he was confronted by Assef. The kite in this situation turns out to be an important symbol. While at the beginning of the novel the kite represented happiness and fun for Amir, in this situation it represented sin and guilt for Amir. The only reason Hassan was raped was that he was trying to get Amir a kite. Now the kite reminds Hassan of his misdeeds and will begin to haunt him for a long time. Even though Amir doesn't remember Hassan when he's in America, deep down he still feels guilty. Amir immediately begins to feel guilty when going to Iran when Rahim Khan, Amir's childhood friend, asks him to come. He feels that Rahim Khan has reminded him of his “past of unexpiated sins” (Hosseini 2).