Quote Importance

When I first started reading The Kite Runner, I found many things very interesting on the first page of the novel. The reader is introduced into a character's life that seems to be unfulfilled and full of regret and sorrow. One thing that I found particularly interesting, and thought that maybe it would be important later on, is the quote,

"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 it's way out." (1)

This is the quote that I used in my blog title, hoping that it would be somewhat useful in finding a thesis and various themes. I have finally come to realize that it is a huge part of the novel, and I couldn't be any happier that I chose to use it.

The quote is used as foreshadowing for the reader that there will be something that Amir wants to move on from, escape from, bury away. We are now aware that what Amir said at the beginning of the novel is right. No matter where you go, what you do, and who you try to cut out of your life, the past will come and find you and those people will never really be forgotten.

Amir and Baba move to California,

"For me, America was a place to bury my memories."

Amir thinks that burying his memories will make all of his guilt, anger and regret will just disappear because he moved to another country, never to see anyone from Kabul again. That's not how the past works though. The past claws it's way out.

In the previous post I mentioned how Amir and Baba go out for dinner and celebrate Amir's graduation. Baba mentions that he wishes Hassan could have joined them that night, and Amir's heart breaks at the sound of Hassan's name. Amir thinks that Hassan is forgotten and never to be spoken of again, but he is terribly wrong...