Assef tells Amir that he will have to fight him to earn Sohrab’s freedom. He slips on his infamous brass knuckles and proceeds to beat Amir almost to death, until Sohrab brings the fight to a halt by aiming his slingshot at Assef and demanding him to stop. When Assef lunges for Sohrab, he shoots his eye out with the slingshot, and Sohrab and Amir are able to escape.
Gleiten: 2
MAN vs SELF
After Amir witnesses Hassan’s rape but was too scared to step in, he avoids Hassan out of shame and guilt. He eventually tries to get Hassan to hit him with a pomegranate, in a desperate attempt to get Hassan to show some anger towards him so that he can assuage his guilt. But Hassan refuses to throw anything back at Amir, and eventually takes a pomegranate and crushes it against his own forehead.
Gleiten: 3
MAN vs SOCIETY
Assef, an older boy who is a racist and a sociopath, corners Amir and Hassan and pulls out his brass knuckles to beat Amir because Amir is friends with Hassan, a Hazara. Amir thinks to himself that Hassan is not his friend; he is his servant. The thought of admitting that a Pashtun is friends with an Hazara is unforgivable in Amir’s social circle.