Guilt tends to stay with us as Plato said: "Nothing is more miserable than the mind of a man conscious of guilt." In The Kite Runner Amir lives with the guilt of seeing Hassan being raped. “I opened my mouth, I almost said something. Almost the rest of my life could have gone differently if I had, but I didn't, I just watched Paralyzed." For much of the book we see that Amir lives full of guilt for not helping Hassan and the guilt really gets to him towards the end of the book. Hassan was raped right in front of Amir and did not defend his "friend". But Amir pays a heavy price for not being able to help Hassan. He had two options: “I could go up into that valley, defend Hassan” or “Run” (p. 77). The decision to run affects him and makes him a terrible friend because unlike him, Hassan has always been there for him. "Answer me, dammit!" I wish he would. I wish he would give me the punishment I wanted, so maybe I would finally sleep at night." (p. 92) After the incident with Hassan, Amir had difficulty getting any sleep at night....