Baba is a man of great prestige in Kabul, but appears to be extremely harsh on Amir when he was a child. He is a very large and tough man, well known in the city, and as Amir states in the novel, "Tradition has it that my father once wrestled a black bear in Baluchistan with his bare hands" (Hosseini 12). This little detail about Baba lets the reader know that Baba is a man of great courage and strength. Some may think that an honorable man is one without flaws, but many disagree. Every human being makes mistakes, including Baba. When Amir grows up and returns to visit Rahim Khan in Afghanistan, he discovers that his father lied to him his whole life that Hassan was his half-brother. He also finds out from Rahim Khan that all Baba had then "was his honor, his name" (Hosseini 223). He didn't tell Amir and Hassan that they were brothers because they had a different mother and that would cause their entire family to be despised in the city. He did it for their good and wanted them both to grow up as honorable men, like him. There is a difference in making mistakes and trying to do what's best to fix them, rather than making the same mistakes over and over again, which is what Amir seems to do in the novel. Amir was the complete opposite of his father, which made it very difficult for them to have a child