"For you, a thousand times over"

This quote has become one of the most significant and memorable quotes from the novel. Hassan originally says it to Amir at the beginning of the novel, to show his loyalty, love and dedication to Amir. At the end of the novel, Amir jumps into Hassan's spot and ask Sohrab if he can run the kite for him, and when Sohrab nods, he says to him,

"For you, a thousand times over." (391)

"I ran. A grown man running with a swarm of screaming children. But I didn't care. I ran with the wind blowing in my face, and a smile as wide as the Valley of Panjsher on my lips. I ran." (391)

Amir is trying to prove his love and devotion to Sohrab and wants Sohrab to accept him as his father. Amir is dying for his approval. This quote is so important because Hassan said this to Amir right before he ran his last kite ever, and was raped by Assef in the alleyway. Hassan did get the kite just like he told Amir he would.

Now Amir just wants to express his love to Hassan through Sohrab and almost use him as a way to see Hassan - Sohrab's looks, and actions remind Amir of Hassan.

Quote Importance

1. "I was learning that Baba had been a thief. And a thief 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 honour." (237)

It's ironic that Baba told Amir that theft was the only sin, and how awful it was for people to steal things, when Baba stole such important pieces of everyone's life. Baba isn't the bad guy, no one really is, but his decisions made such huge impacts on everyone's lives and couldn't have changed the outcomes to some of them. In a way, Baba was selfish. He could have chose to tell Hassan and Amir about their brotherhood, but he did not want to ruin the family's reputation or his own. I wish Amir and Hassan had grown up so differently. Amir would have treated Hassan so much better if they were brothers.

2. "My body was broken - just how badly I wouldn't find out until later - but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed." (303)

This quote occurs when Amir is being beaten by Assef when going to see the Taliban. After Amir abandons Hassan, he struggled with getting over his actions for the rest of his life. He tried ignoring him, running away, forgetting about it, but nothing ever worked. He still had nightmares, and he still had a guilty conscience. But once Assef starts beating Amir, he feels healed, like he's finally gotten rid of the skeletons he hid in the closet for so many years. He is finally getting what he ultimately deserved. He had even gone looking for punishment in the past, when he told Hassan to hit him with the pomegranates, because he felt there would be at leats some justice for what he did to Hassan. Only did Assef's beating begin to relieve Amir's mind though, and psychologically healed him, despite the pain.

3. "What if you get tired of me? What if your wife doesn't like me?" (340)

Sohrab says this to Amir, when Amir asks him to come live in America with him and his wife. It's extremely sad that a child worries about these types of things. Kids are supposed to be care free, and to run around and have fun before they are forced to grow up and start a life. Sohrab's childhood was taken from him. His parents are gone, he lived in an orphanage, he was raped by Assef, and is now trying to be adopted by Amir. Sohrab had experienced more trauma before he was a teenager, then some people do in an entire life time. No child should have to go through any of that, and no child should have to ask any guardian if they will get "tired" of them. It's sad that that's what's going through Sohrab's head.

The Cleft Lip Symbol

Hassan's cleft lip is one of his most memorable, vivid attributes and one of the most referred to features that Amir uses to describe him to the reader. The split in the top of Hassan's lip marks Hassan's true status in society. It acts as a symbol of poverty, which is one of the things that separates him from Amir, because Hassan and his family do not have the money to fix it. Instead, Baba, Hassan's biological father, chooses to pay for Hassan's surgery as a way of showing his secret fatherly love to him. When Amir runs into Assef, Assef beats him and leaves him with a similar scar as the one that Hassan had. Amir's identity becomes merged with Hassan's. Amir grows a backbone and learns to stand up for people he cares about, just like Hassan did for him, and he becomes a father figure to Sohrab. A little piece of Hassan will always be with Amir now, reminding him of his unforgettably, loyal brother.

The Great Chain of Being

Doing my Hamlet questions, I skimmed over the Great Chain of Being again, and realized that it could relate to the lives of Amir and Hassan and the pecking order within Kabul. Amir's family came from wealth, which meant that he and his father were looked at as one of the higher ranked families in Kabul. Whereas, on the opposite end of the spectrum, the Hazaras were looked at as the least important, and poorest of the rest of Kabul. Harazas were so hated and looked at as "gross" that they even had a specific city where most of them lived, Hazarajat.

Amir and Baba's family could be looked at as the "Gentry" or "Nobles" of Kabul, however Hassan and Ali were considered the "Serfs" of Kabul and were treated terribly because of it.

I hate that societies like these still exist in this world. I don't believe in communism, but I want everyone to be kind, and treat people equally. There should be no pecking order in society based on wealth or status. People should never be treated like less than human beings. I think that's why I fell in love with Hassan's character. He was the underdog from day one, and I've always been cheering for him.

Once the chain falls apart though, chaos ensues, like we've been learning in Hamlet. In The Kite Runner, the chain breaks because Hassan ends up being Baba's son, and that messes up the entire chain of status. How could a servant be such a well-known, respected man's son? The world of Amir crumbles and he is forced to clean everything back up by saving Hassan's son. The chain wasn't meant to be broken.

Amir & Soraya

Amir and Soraya's marriage is extraordinary to me. I had never seen the importance of Soraya in the book really, until they got married. She has proved herself, a loving, supportive wife to Amir and I have fallen in love with her character.

"Soraya dedicated herself to taking care of my father. She made his toast and tea in the morning, and helped him in and out of bed. She gave him his pain pills, washed his clothes, read him the international section of the newspaper every afternoon. She cooked his favourite dish...and took him out every day for a brief walk around the block." (181)

Soraya was never expected to do any of these things. She could have simply just looked out for her immediate family: herself and Amir, but because she is such a good person, she goes out of her way to help others as well.

"Soraya pulled me to her and the tears finally came." (185)

After Babe passed, Amir tried not to show his emotion and attempted to hide his feelings, but he knew that Soraya would never judge him for being upset. Amir is able to confide in her how he truly feels and can even cry in her arms for comfort.

"I remember you telling me that. How long will you be gone?" (201) Soraya asks Amir about going back to Kabul. This shows Soraya's understanding and support. She knows that Amir must go, and she doesn't even attempt to stop him, because she wants what's best for him. All she wants is for him to be safe though.

When Amir calls Soraya, and tells her that he wants to adopt Sohrab, he is forced to tell the entire story of Hassan in order to explain himself.

"Then I did what I hadn't done in fifteen years of marriage: I told my wife everything. Everything. I had pictured this moment so many time, dreaded it, but, as I spoke, I felt something lifting off my chest. I imagined Soraya had experienced something very similar the night of our khastegari, when she'd told me about her past." (342)

After explaining everything to her, Soraya said the most important thing she has ever said in the novel, which was,

"But I know this much: You have to bring him home. I want you too." (342)

This statement from Soraya proves how loyal, understanding, supportive and loving she is, and I love her for it. Not once did she ask Amir about why he acted the way he did, or why he never told her earlier. She never judge him, or made him feel ashamed because of it. She never used it against him afterwards for the sake of evil in a fight. She was gracious and she was sweet.

I wish every relationship could have elements of Amir's and Soraya's relationship to it. Part of it is their maturity, but part of it is their personality, and their forgivingness of flaws. I feel like in today's society that is a very uncommon trait to come by. Everyone is so critical of each other and it makes it difficult to find someone that will just love you for who you are as an individual, for all of your flaws. I'm glad that Soraya ended up making a positive change in Amir's life. She often put a smile on his face when he really needed one. And I'm glad she turned out to be so much more important than I remember her being. I know this story is fiction, but it still makes me happy thinking about how happy they are together.

Redemption

Even though I have already seen this movie, like I said before, the plotlines and outcome were of total surprise to me. I guess the movie didn't stand out as much for me a couple years ago as much as the novel does for me right now.

At the beginning of the novel, when Rahim Khan calls Amir and says, "There is a way to be good again," I had totally forgotten about. I had forgotten what Amir had to be good for, and why he had to redeem himself. Now that I am finished the book, and it has all come back to me, I'm trying to decide if Amir actually did redeem himself, and made himself "good again."

When Amir finally saved Sohrab from Assef's cruel hands, it made me incredibly angry that he was just going to bring him to a random family's home and leave him there. There were at least thirty pages of Amir and Sohrab talking about where he was going to go, and them staying in hotels waiting to go to John and Betty Caldwell's. That's not how Amir would become good again. Then when John and Betty turned out not being real people, it finally hit him. Rahim Khan planned this, and the fake couple, so that Amir would adopt Sohrab and bring him home like he should of a long time ago, (But Amir didn't know about Sohrab at that time). If the novel was going to end with Amir bringing Sohrab to a foster home, I was going to be heartbroken that that's how to be "good again."

After Amir's meeting with the immigration lawyer Omar, Omar says to him,

"I meant to tell you in there, about what you're trying to do? I think it's pretty great." (357)

It is pretty great, and that's exactly how it should have ended up. Rahim Khan didn't mean for Sohrab to go anywhere but with Amir.

The relationship between Amir and Sohrab confused me, but Amir tries so hard to make little Sohrab happy. Even when Sohrab doesn't speak to him, Amir keeps talking to him, stays in a positive frame of mind and never gets upset with him for not trying to accept Amir as his guardian.

"He held my glance, then looked away, his face set like stone. His eyes were still lightless, I saw, cacant, the way I had found them where I had pulled him out of the bathtub. I reached into the paper bag between my feet and took out the used copy of the Shahnamah I had bought at the Persian bookstore. I turned the cover so it faced Sohrab. 'I used to read this to your father when we were children. We'd go up the hill by our house and sit beneath the pomegranate...' I trailed off. Sohrab was looking through the window again. I forced a smile. 'Your father's favourite was the story of Rostam and Sohrab and that's how you got your name, I know you that.' I paused, feeling a bit like an idiot. 'Anyway, he said in his letter that it was your favourite too, so I thought I'd read you some of it. Would you like that?' (371)

Amir said to Sohrab,

'You know, I've done a lot of things I regret in my life,' I said, 'and maybe none more than going back on the promise I made you. But that will never happen again, and I am so profoundly sorry. I ask for your bakhshesh, your forgiveness. Can you do that? Can you forgive me? Can you believe me?" (374)

"As I waited for his reply, my mind flashed back to a winter day from long ago, Hassan and I sitting on the snow beneath a leafless sour cherry tree. I had played a cruel game with Hassan that day, toyed with him, asked him if he would chew dirt to prove his loyalty to me. Now I was the one under the miscroscope, the one you had to prove my worthiness. I deserved this." (374)

I think by the end of the novel, I was convinced that Amir had redeemed himself, and had freed himself from his guilt. Everything that he went through with Assef, and the convincing Sohrab to come to America, and the visa for Sohrab, proved that Amir would go to any lengths for Hassan. I'm really disappointed that Hassan never got to see Amir's sorrow and that Amir never got to apologize to Hassan. I also wish they both knew that they were brothers at the end and that they could live happily ever after, but I guess nothing really works like that. I just got so attached to Hassan and now it's so difficult to end the book knowing he never knew that they were brothers.

I'm glad Amir made the effort that he did with Sohrab. I guess that in itself was the happy ending.

Ignorance & Kindness

Growing up, I always got really upset when someone treated me badly, insulted me, bullied me and picked on me for no reason. I was a nice kid, I wasn't mean to people and I was a talented athlete. I never understood why people would pick on me in elementary school or insult me. For all I knew, why wouldn't people like me? I had a lot of likeable qualities. I was good at school, and I always offered to help people when they didn't understand. I played on every sports team - volleyball to rugby. I was kind, and had a lot of friends, and I treated me friends like gold. I sacrificed a lot for my friends to feel good and be happy.

There were a group of boys who made fun of my clothes and my red hair a lot. I was a free spirit, never conforming to what was stylish, but wore whatever I liked and that was all that mattered to me. But when people started noticing that I was different, and didn't wear the same things as them, didn't do my hair the same as them, and wasn't a "girly girl" like the other girls at school, they treated me differently. One day, they all yelled at me down the hall, "Faggot boots! Emily has such faggoty boots on haha!" My confidence in myself and the fact that I liked being different changed from that day on.

In The Kite Runner, there is a section of the novel that reminds me of my favourite quote ever.

"Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle."

Those boys probably didn't know that I came to their school as a new kid because my parents had just gotten divorced. But I probably didn't realize that Mike's dad had beaten him since he was 5 years old, and had self-esteem issues. In order to build himself up, he had to bring others down.

When Amir and Sohrab go to the American embassy, trying to get Sohrab to the United States and adopted by Amir, Amir encounters a man that just encourages him to give up. He says it's not possible and that he should just put him back in an orphanage.

Amir says to Mr. Andrews, "They ought to put someone in your chair who knows what it's like to want a child." (348)

As Amir walked out of his office, he said to Mr. Andrew's secretary, "Your boss could really use some manners." (349)

She says to Amir, "Poor Ray. He hasn't been the same since his daughter died. Suicide." (349)

Amir needs to remember that everyone is fighting a hard battle in their life, that others probably don't know about. It's terrible to think that Mr. Andrews' daughter committed suicide, and Amir probably felt awful. But the lesson of that quote is that no matter how people treat you, you need to understand that their is probably a personal reason for their actions, and you may not understand why they are acting like that, but you have to know that their life is probably very difficult. There are probably things that are just as upsetting in their life, as there are in yours. Everyone is fighting their own, hard battle, so be kind.