The Kite Runner Chapters 20-21

The Kite Runner, Chapters 20-21

(Hassan-Ali, Amir-Baba, Farid, Sohrab, Zaman, Sofia (A. mother), (Assef : raper, Taliban)

Chapter 20

Summary : Amir went back in Kabul with Farid, who is a friend of Amir and he helps him. Amir wants to find Sohrab, he is Hassan’s son. He was sent to an orphanage when Hassan and his wife were killed by the talibans. Amir wants to take him to America with him, but when he arrived in the orphanage, zaman, who is the director of it, said that a Taliban official took Sohrab with him a month ago and that he will be at the soccer game the next day.

Themes :

Change in Kabul

• Destroyed villages due to the war (burned-out soviet tanks, overturned Russian jeeps, no more trees (cut down by soviets to hide the snipers and by afghans for the wood))
• No more jobs (the beggar who was a teacher in the university, because of the war)
• Orphans (way more than before : hazara (=not Pashtun (amir)) parents were killed) or the widowed mothers can’t afford food for their children so they put them in orphanages (they can’t work anymore because they are women so they have no choice to put their children in orphanages)
• New smell (in Kabul) (diesel instead of lamb kabob)
• Violence (Talibans who use the smallest provocation as an excuse for violence,
• Baba’s orphanage destroyed (the new one has bad conditions (very cold in the winter, not enough beds and food)

Change in Afghan politics and society

• Talibans have taken the control of Afghanistan (because    = armed militia and pashtun students of the islam), they have taken the control of Afghanistan and want to establish the peace by applying a strict islam religion, for example the women can’t go to school and work anymore, there are public executions and men have to wear a beard ,

Parents – children relationship

• Amir takes risks for his nephew (by going in Afghanistan, which was a very dangerous county because of the war)

• Amir asks for his mother (the old beggar was a teacher like Sofia (hassan’s mother), and the beggar has given to hassan more informations about his mother than Baba, because Baba was distant with Amir and he used to speak more with Hassan, who was his child

Redemption

• Wants to save Sohrab because he indirectly killed Hassan and  his wife, (if he hadn’t make Hassan and Ali leave the house, they would have probably come with Amir and Baba to the USA and they would have survived

Chapter 21

Summary : Farid and Amir drive through Kabul and Amir wanted to see his old house, he had good and bad memories and then they went in a hotel. The next day they went to the soccer game and they saw the public execution at halftime of the game.

Themes

Amir’s memories

• of Hassan (they found a turtle and painted it, and then he remembers watching Hassan and Ali going away, he fells guilty because it was his fault Hassan and Ali left : Ali wanted to protect his son from Amir, he let Hassen get raped without helping him and after that he has hidden some of his birthday gifts under Hassan’s pillow so he could be fired by Baba, Baba knew that Hassan is his son so he wanted Ali and Hassan to stay at home, nevertheless Ali and Hassan left the house

-he remembered the pomegranate tree too, he carved “Amir and Hassan. The sultans of Kabul”, that means that they were inseparable and they still separated themselves

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