By viewing physical deformities as imperfections, a person makes a judgment about another person's character. In the novel, The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, the author creates characters with many external and internal scars or deformities. A deformity is often used to show weakness or a flaw in a character but, in this book, it turns out to be just the opposite. The deformities found within the novel describe the character and help the reader understand his or her personality, or can even foreshadow who the character will become. Hosseini uses deformities to show the reader how the characters with the physical deformities have an easier time overcoming their flaws than the characters with the internal deformities. .
Hosseini uses Hassan, a Hazara servant, to show how internal strength helps him overcome physical deformities. Hassan's cleft lip and flat-nosed features act as a mirror reflecting his place in society. These features are significant because they symbolize Hassan's poverty and represent his separation from Amir despite their friendship. For a birthday present, Baba, the biological father of both Amir and Hassan, pays for plastic surgery to repair Hassan's cleft lip. Once the surgery is finished, all that is left of Hassan's cleft lip is a faint scar. Despite his inferior status to Amir, Hassan is a loyal friend and shows his interior strength by always defending Amir, such as when he stood up to Assef, a neighborhood bully, by holding a slingshot to his face and mocking him by calling him "One-Eyed Assef" (Hosseini 46). Hassan is also a talented kite runner because he is very fast and his navigation skills are superior to all others. Although Hassan is illiterate, he is still intelligent from a logical standpoint because he is able to point out the flaw in Amir's short story Amir would not have seen on his own. .
Although Hassan and Amir have the same biological father, Hassan is raised by Ali and only ever knows Ali as a father.