Baba couldn't show me the way anymore I'd have to find it on my own.' Ch 13īaba has just died, and Amir is trying to come to terms with his death. 'Listening to them, I realized how much of who I was, what I was, had been defined by Baba and the marks he had left on people's lives. Both Amir and Soraya have pasts that haunt them, but Soraya now at least doesn't have to bear the burden of secrecy along with the burdens of memory and guilt. Amir then has this opportunity to confess, and to start working towards redemption-but he finds that he can't bring himself to tell Soraya the truth. Amir feels somewhat shaken by this revelation, but realizes that it pales in comparison to his own secret betrayals. Soraya then tells Amir about how she ran away with a man when she was a young woman, and how her father had to forcibly bring her back. But I didn't.' Ch 12Īmir has just asked Soraya to marry him, and she has agreed, but she said she had something to confess to first. I opened my mouth and almost told her how I'd betrayed Hassan, lied, driven him out, and destroyed a forty-year relationship between Baba and Ali. Amir is still consumed by guilt and selfhatred for his betrayals, and so he is eager to forget the past and try to lose himself in the strange, overwhelming new world of America and its fast-paced society. Once again Hassan is associated with his cleft lip (harelip), which at this point is a symbol of a lost, happier past. While Baba is distraught at having to leave his beloved home, Amir feels almost relieved to be away from the place where reminders of his past betrayals (abandoning Hassan to be raped, and then framing Hassan for theft) are everywhere. Someplace with no ghosts, no memories, and no sins.' Ch 11Īmir and Baba have now left Afghanistan and moved to America, driven away from their home by violence and Soviet rule. I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far. America was a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past. Kabul had become a city of ghosts for me. Likewise, the theme of violence and rape now broadens to the national scale, most obviously because of the war and violence tearing Afghanistan apart, but also because the country's violation by external Soviet forces constitutes its own kind of "rape." 'Long before the Roussi army marched into Afghanistan, long before villages were burned and schools destroyed. The theme of betrayal is no longer just a personal one relating to Amir, but now seems to be a part of the very consciousness of the war-torn country-violence is everywhere, no one trusts each other, and neighbors betray neighbors for the sake of their own safety. Right now Amir and Baba are fleeing their house because of the political turmoil-Afghanistan has been taken over by a Communist regime, and Russian soldiers have invaded the country. You couldn't trust anyone in Kabul anymore - for a fee or under threat, people told on each other, neighbor on neighbor, child on parent, brother on brother, servant on master, friend on friend' Ch 10Īt this point the novel shifts from the personal story of Amir and Hassan to a larger political scale, as huge events affect Afghanistan and thus the lives of Hosseini's characters. would probably think we'd gone out for a stroll or a drive. Taking this prejudiced view (which Amir doesn't really believe in his heart) would allow Amir to feel a little less guilt for his actions-if the person he's betraying isn't really a person, then it isn't really a betrayal. Because Hassan is a Hazara, he is seen by many Pashtuns as inferior, and even as less than human.
Another element of this scene is how social divisions and prejudice allow Amir to justify his decision to himself. Amir basically sacrifices his relationship with his friend for the sake of his relationship with his father-betraying Hassan as a part of earning Baba's love. Amir is afraid of being beaten up or mocked by Assef, certainly, but more than that Amir decides in this moment that he is willing to abandon Hassan to violence and rape in order to bring back the kite and impress Baba. Not only is Amir essentially betraying his best friend and brother-figure, a boy who is totally loyal and devoted to him, but he is also doing so in a selfish and almost premeditated way. Ch 7 Amir Betrayal Fathers and Sons Violence and Rape Politics and Society This is one of the most crucial scenes in the book, as Amir abandons Hassan to be raped by Assef.
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