IRONY

"In the hour of need, believe me that there's no one you'd rather have at your side than a Pashtun." Chapter 12

"Now, no matter what the mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft. Do you understand that?" p. 17

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"Homes that made Baba’s house in Wazir Akbar Khan look like a servant’s hut." (Page135)

REPORT:

   Early in the novel Baba had explained to Amir after the kite running tournament, "'When you kill a man, you steal a life." "You steal his wife's right to a husband; rob his children of a father. When you tell a lie, you steal someone's right to the truth. When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness" (Hosseini 18). This is extremely ironic because Baba had been lying to Amir his whole life. Stealing his right to the truth. He never told Amir about Hassan being his half-brother, even on his death bed. It was Rahim Khan who had told Amir.

     Baba had said to Amir in chapter 12 that "in the hour of need, believe me that there's no one you'd rather have at your side than a Pashtun." Amir is a pashtun that didn’t stand up for Hassan. Instead he just watched with fear and guilt. Hassan on the other hand is a hazara who would do anything for Amir if he needed help. From this you can sense some irony in the fact that Amir, a Pashtun didn’t help Hassan when he was by his side.

   Amir stated on page (135), “Homes that made Baba’s house in Wazir Akbar Khan look like a servant’s hut.” Irony is definitely detected in this quote because Amir talks about his and Baba’s life in Afghanistan, and then Baba contrasts the fact that he had more wealth in Wazir Akbar Khan, than in present America. You can also sense the amount of Irony in this quote, because Amir and Baba are essentially contrasting a poor country Afghanistan to a wealthy Country America. This sense of irony can also be related to present day, when an Immigrant from another country makes that transition to a country like America or Canada.

Themes

THEMES

“There is a way to be good again" (1.3).     

“real brains of the government" as Farid says (21.12).   http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Leadership_g403-Leader_With_Team_on_jigsaw_puzzle_p93547.html

“That was a long time ago, but it’s wrong what they say about the past, I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out. Looking back now, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”

http://www.freedigitalphotos.net/images/Other_Objects_g271-Open_Blank_Ancient_Book_p143771.html

Report:

            Throughout the story a variety of themes are portrayed by the author. The three that stood out the most include the search for redemption, the intersection between politics and personal lives, and the persistence of the past.

Earlier in the novel, Amir feels the need to make a big impact, and make Baba feel happy. Knowing that his mother had a huge choice to sacrifice her life for him, Amir feels like he has to fill a huge void. In order to make Baba proud, Amir though that winning the kite running tournament would make Baba a proud father and change their relationship. A big search for redemption in this novel involves Amir’s guilt resulting from not helping out Hassan when he was in desperate need. Throughout the last half of the novel, most of Amir’s decisions result from his feeling of guilt towards Hassan. He feels as if he needs to make up for what he had done. Early in the book Baba explains to Amir that “a boy who doesn’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.” Amir feels like that has to change when he becomes an Adult, standing up for what was right.

The impact of politics and personal lives had a dramatic change in the novel’s plot. When Amir and Hassan were children, Kabul seemed like a calm and beautiful place. The plot slowly began to change after the Soviet invasion and from there Kabul got worse and worse. The establishment of the republic gave Assef the opportunity to harass Amir. When the Taliban’s began to take over, Baba and Amir were basically forced to flee to America. With the Taliban controlling most of Kabul, Assef was given a major role and Hassan had been murdered. These events change Amir’s destiny, later making him go back to Kabul.

Most of the characters in the novel feel a tremendous amount of influence from the past. Sohrab’s past really affects his behaviour in the novel. The physical and sexual abuse he had gone through makes him scared, insecure, and he no longer can trust anyone. He later attempts to commit suicide because of his parent’s death, and not wanting to go back to the orphanage. In Amir’s case the past changed his destiny. He would never forget and let go from the day he watched Hassan get raped. In the beginning of the book Amir says “I had become what I am today, at the age of twelve.” Later in the novel Amir uses his past guilt and poor decisions as motivation to save Sohrab.