There was a pomegranate tree up on a hill near Amir's house, where both he and Hassan would go to talk, play, and read stories. Their friendship developed under, around, and in this tree. Amir even carves the words "Amir and Hassan, Sultans of Kabul" into the tree, legitimizing their friendship with the permanence of writing. During their childhood, this tree produced the best tasting and most ripe fruit, more than fit for consumption and enjoyment. However, after Hassan's death, Amir goes to visit the tree and finds it barren and without produce; he also can't find the words he had engraved into the tree, symbolizing that the era of his friendship with Hassan was truly over and would never be revived, just as the tree would never be revived. This tree isn't a pomegranate tree for no reason; pomegranates symbolize a few things that double as characterization of Amir and Hassan. First off, the pomegranate connotes divine reward, which is something that Hassan would certainly get and something that Amir would strive for but would not believe he could achieve. Pomegranates also symbolize resurrection in Greek connotations, which is significant in that the tree is dead when Amir comes to it as an adult, suggesting that Hassan's physical friendship could not be saved, although his spirit would be resurrected in Amir and in Sohrab. In Shakespearean setting, pomegranates symbolize innocence, which is a sensible comparison since both boys had a great deal of naivety and innocence before Hassan's rape. |
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Assef interpreted this moment in an unsettling way, since he believed that it was predestined for him to live, and later on, for him to design a plan for the ethnic cleansing of Afghanistan. Assef laughs because out of deliriousness and triumph at a hollow victory. Amir, however, had been facing Assef off in a fight when he came across the same situation. As Assef brutally beat him, Amir began to laugh himself, in the same manner as Assef had, as each punch and kick came faster and more powerfully, Amir laughed louder:
Both novels concerned some interesting concepts, including the one of fleeting happiness and question of the longevity of joy and life. Alaska Young embodied this question, what with her perpetually shifting moods of happiness and depression. Pudge always worried about this question, with Alaska being the subject of his happiness, with her emotional shifts or final disappearance being the thing of Pudge's pain. As for The Kite Runner, Amir's overall life was filled with simple joys with an overshadowing threat of withdrawing all happiness. Amir was the subject of his deceased mother's joy. Both Amir's mother and Pudge are afraid of losing what is most important to them, and right before they both lose what is most important to both of them, they experience a apex of joy and happiness. Pudge cannot foresee what is to come, but Amir's mother is already afraid of losing such elation:
“Life and summer are fleeting,’ sang the bird. ‘Snow and dark, and the winter comes. Nothing remains the same.”
One popular pop Muslim singer is Sami Yusuf, and one of his songs was included in the IMDb soundtrack for The Kite Runner. I recommend everyone to check it all out! Here are the lyrics:
Going straight to the part of the song that is English, I can point out that this song would most likely be relatable to Amir, who, for most of his life, lived with the guilt of his past sins. Just as Mr. Yusuf likens his sins to "the highest mountains," Amir also views his wrongdoing as a mountain that cannot be scaled. Mountains cannot be moved, just as Amir can't move Hassan from his mind. Amir also doesn't believe himself to be a good person, just as this song suggests the number of good deeds to be the size of small pebbles, in comparison to the highest mountains that inhibit Amir from developing emotionally and psychologically. This song also serves as a contrast, since Amir is unreligious for a majority of his life. Only when he sees his chance to redemption slipping with the attempted suicide of his deceased friend Hassan's son does he pull out the namaz rug and bend down his head in prostration and fervent prayer
Amir considers himself an immoral human being throughout the book, because of that day in Afghanistan, in that dingy the alley, where Amir had all the power to be the hero and save his friend Hassan from sexual assault, but instead chose to be the winner. From that day forward, Amir becomes a marked man, as his life turns towards a road of conflicted happiness and afflicting pain. However, it is not until Amir is a married man that he turns back to Afghanistan to meet with an old friend and set everything right again. Amir doesn't embark on a journey to save Hassan's son to be a hero; he does so out of human decency, which is what truly makes this novel relateable, even to the most ordinary person.
When Amir rescues Hassan's son, Sohrab, he slowly begins to transform into a new man, in subtle ways; in fact, Amir begins to embody Hassan and his responsibilities, in a way that Amir, and Sohrab, can help Hassan live out the life he was not destined to keep. Amir's first transformation begins as soon as he finishes a fight with the man who had kidnapped Sohrab in the first place; the doctors at the hospital Amir is admitted into tell him that "the impact (of the fight)" had cut (Amir's) upper lip into two... clean down the middle... Like a harelip" (297) Amir sustains a deep cut to his lip that is similar to the cleft lip Hassan had when the two were innocent, young childhood friends. This signifies that Amir had done something noble by saving Sohrab, and that this was something his late friend would have done. Beyond this, Amir starts to become fatherlike in his love for Sohrab, though he doesn't conciously notice this himself. It takes the comment of another father, who observes Amir's distress when he loses Sohrab at a hotel, for Amir to notice what role he had now taken: "I don't take your money (to drive you to wherever Sohrab is) ... I will drive you because I am a father like you" (315). Of course, we must take care to point out that Amir does not become the perfect father, and he rather makes a few grave mistakes with even graver consequences when Amir deals with Sohrab; nevertheless, it is Amir's efforts that make him a good human being, not his mistakes. |