Dear Reader,
Something that completely shocked me that I read from chapters sixteen to twenty two of The Kite Runner occured on page 225. After Amir visits Rahim Khan, it is revealed to him that Baba was Hassan’s father; not Ali. Amir realizes Hassan was his half brother, and he never knew it throughout his entire life; that is until now. He remembers the time Baba told him that theft was the biggest sin of all because you are taking someones rights that they are entitled to, and yet he had been a thief himself. Amir thinks to himself, “And a theif of the worst kind, because the things he’d stolen had been sacred: from me the right to know I had a brother, from Hassan his identity, and from Ali his honor.” It really surprised me that Baba kept this secret from Amir his whole life, even when he knew he was going to die soon. He still did not reveal his secret. It was an unexpected point in the book that I did not see coming at all. Also, Amir’s endless thinking to himself made me realize that Baba was a hypocrite for saying that theft was the worst sin, but he stole the most important things anyone could have in their life-the right to know your family. Amir and Baba are both alike because they are both thieves, but in different ways. Were you shocked when this happened? Did you expect that Baba would do that knowing the kind of person he was throughout the entire book?
Something I noticed about Afghan culture was found on page 241. When Amir is staying at Wahid’s home for the night before he continues his journey with Farid to find Sohrab, Hassan’s son. Wahid feeds his guests, Farid and Amir, vegetable shorwa and two loaves of bread. Wahid’s children stare at Amir as he is eating, and he thinks they are in awe about his watch; so he decides to give it to them. A while later he overhears Wahid speaking to his wife, and he thinks to himself, “I understood now why the boys hadn’t shown interest in the watch. They hadn’t been staring at the watch at all. They’d be staring at my food.” Although the family is unable to afford food, and do not know how they are going to support their family, they still feed the guests their food. This shows a lot about Afghan culture since they are hospitable enough to share everything they have. It shows that Afghanistan people put others over themselves no matter what the circumstances are. What feeling did you get when you read this part of the novel? What are your views on Afghanistans after reading this?
Another thing that I was not expecting in the book occured on page 281. Amir is in the large house in Wazir Akbar Khan trying to get Sohrab when he realizes the man who is holding him captive is Assef. “But he was already here, in the flesh, sitting less than ten feet from me, after all these years. His name escaped my lips: ‘Assef.’ ” I was completely shocked that Assef was the man in the room with him. The man who when he was a child spoke of Hitler being his idol, was the “big man” of Afghanastan. I wondered how this could be, and why he was causing all of this hell to his homeland. I realized afterwards that all of this happened for a reason when Assef and Amir fight to see who Shorab goes with. I realized this was the revenge he was craving, the one thing that would take his guilt away for what he did the night Hassan was raped. I realized this was what he had been waiting for, he could be forever relieved and in peace now. The accidental meeting with Assef after several years had turned out to be a good, and bad thing for Amir in many ways. How did you view this scene? Were you expecting Assef to be Afghanastan’s leader? Sincerely, Destiny Messier
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