5 Quotes

1.)"What was so funny was that, for the first time since the winter of 1975, I felt at peace. I laughed because I saw that, in some hidden nook in a corner of my mind, I’d been looking forward to this."
-This is what Amir was thinking right before Assef was about to really beat him up in exchange for Sohrab. He knows he's going to be really messed up since Assef has his brass knuckles and guards waiting outside the door but he finds solace in this because in a way, it makes him feel as if he's about to finally get the punishment he was wanting from Hassan for being a bad friend all of those years. He obviously wasn't looking forward to it, but he felt as if he almost had it coming and it was his real way to feeling redemption and guilt be lifted.


2.) ‘For you, a thousand times over,’ I heard myself say.
- This is what Amir says to Sohrab but also what Hassan says to Amir towards the beginning of the book during the kite race. I feel like this quote is a really good quote to start and end the book with because it shows an undying love/loyalty to the characters that are saying it. At the end of the book Amir is once again in the same kite race situation he was in during the winter of 1975 except this time he's with Hassan's son and he says it to him as he runs to get the kite. The roles reverse and show that there's finally redemption and balance for Amir.

3.) "Then Hassan did pick up the pomegranate. He walked toward me. He opened it and crushed it against his own forehead. ‘There,’ he croaked, red dripping down his face like blood. ‘Are you satisfied? Do you feel better?’ He turned around and started down the hill."
-Hassan is showing his loyalty to Amir in this quote. This takes place after Hassan’s rape when Amir tries hanging out with him for the first time, which doesn’t go well. He begins to throw pomegranates at Hassan trying to provoke him and get a reaction so he’ll feel somewhat punished/relieved by not intervening during his rape. Instead of Hassan throwing one back at Amir like he was begging, Hassan decides to pick up the pomegranate and smash it against his own head. Things between them weren’t the same after this moment.


4.) ‘Hassan’s not going anywhere,’ Baba snapped. He dug a new hole with the trowel, striking the dirt harder than he had to. ‘He’s staying right here with us, where he belongs. This is his home and we’re his family. Don’t you ever ask me that question again!’
-This quote is a major part of the story looking back, it was alluding to the fact that Hassan is indeed Baba’s son and Amir’s brother. Amir was asking his father to look for new servants and Baba became filled with rage and resentment immediately, it even scared Amir. This was foreshadowing what would eventually unfold for Amir later, learning the tragic truth of his childhood.


5.) I thought about Hassan’s dream, the one about us swimming in the lake. There is no monster, he’d said, just water. Except he’d been wrong about that. There was a monster in the lake. It had grabbed Hassan by the ankles, dragged him to the murky bottom. I was that monster.
- Amir is a “monster” because he feels like he had the power to change that entire situation or even the outcome of his life from that defining moment. He refers to Hassan’s dream because Hassan had previously used it to comfort him and let him know that everything would be fine, the tables turned and in the end it showed a lot about Amir’s character and integrity. This was his betrayal.


6.) There is a way to be good again, he’d said. A way to end the cycle. With a little boy. An orphan. Hassan’s son. Somewhere in Kabul.
- This, to Amir, was his chance for redemption. There was a way for him to rectify his past and try to fix his wrongs and that was by doing right by Hassan by saving his son. His cycle of lies, deceit, betrayals, and fear would finally come to an end. I hope that for Amir this was more out of wanting to do the right thing rather than doing it for his personal relief. I don’t think in the end that Amir could necessarily fix his past or the events that occurred during his childhood, it was too late for that but he did redeem himself, he learned and grew, and put himself in danger.

-Tanner Niemann