Afghanistan’s Context
1979- Soviet invade Afghanistan
America supply Mujahadeen weapons against the Russians
1996- Taliban liberate Afghanistan
9/11 attacks- America kill Bin Laden and invade Afghanistan
Assef
4
“A savage sort of grin”
“Not entirely sane”
“Reputation for savagery”
“his people pollute our homeland, they dirty our blood”
Baba
4
“Mr hurricane, my father was a force of nature”
“Attention shifted to him like sunflowers turning to the sun”
“Real men didn’t write poetry”
“I worshiped Baba with an intensity approaching the religious”
The new baba
4
“Hadn’t be been taller in Kabul?”
“A place to mourn”
“His eyes watering from fatigue”
“Like the widower who remarries but can’t let go of his dead wife”
Chapter 7
Flashbacks= fragment narrative
Sense of pannic, distraction, longing for better time
Reference to nurse and brotherhood
Hierarchy and Status
3 vs 3
Amir (Pashtun)
“Hassan never denied me anything”
“Gold stitched tapestries.. a crystal chandelier”
“When we were done playing… Hassan and I parted ways”
Hassan (Hazara)
“You! the Hazara! Look at me when I’m talking to you!”
“He wrinkled his nose when he said Shia, like it was some sort of disease”
“The walls stood bare, save for a single tapestry”
America vs Afghanistan
5
- larger political world makes impact on personal and domestic
“Before mines were planted like seeds of death”
“Kabul had become a city of ghosts”
“America was a river, roaring along, unmindful of the past”
“The past claws it’s way back out”
Amirs guilt
5
“I hurled a pebble at the bear when no one was watching”
“You’re a coward! Nothing but a goddam coward”
“Hassan’s final sacrifice for me”
“I flinched, like I had been slapped”
“I hurled the pomegranate at him”
