Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Firstly, the chapter has a lot of description about Hassan. Amir describes Hassan as having "A perfectly round face" and also comparing him to a chinese doll "chiselled from hardwood". He then goes onto describe Hassan's cleft lip, saying it was where "the chinese doll maker's instrument may have slipped", so is saying they Hassan is almost perfect, but not quite. He has a flaw, and the characters is stories that have a flaw generally turn out to be the villain or the underdog, so the author is leaving subtle hints to as what we may expect from Hassan in the rest of the book.

A few pages later, the narrator mentions "Hazaras". This is a contextual reference, as Amir is a Pashtun and Hassan is a Hazara. He also speaks about the Hazaras not being in the textbooks, and from research, I found out that this was because the Pashtuns were in control at the time, so had erased Hazaran people's history from pretty much all of the school books. Amir also goes on to say that the Pashtuns had "persecuted and oppressed the hazaras". I didn't know anything about these different types of people, so this is a contextual reference in the book, which I enjoyed researching.

There are also a few more aspects to do with teh context of religion and time in chapter 2, for example in Hassans room, there is a tapestry with the words "Allah-u-akbar", which after some research I found out it meant "God is the greatest". This is relevant to their religion, Islam.

As described in the first chapter, Amir talks about Hassan, and how he compares the two of them to the "pair of kites". There is another reference that shows how close they are, on page 10 saying ...

"Then he would remind us that there was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could break.

Hassan and I fed from the same breast. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard. And under the same roof we spoke our first words."

These few lines really highlight how close Amir and Hassan were as children, and shows that they had "brotherhood", and the similarities of their first actions shows that they were in some ways like twins.

"Mine was Baba

His was Amir. My name"

This shows the importance of Amir to Hassan, but Amir not saying Hassan as his first word, strikes a chord with us, and with Amir himself, as he goes on to say "I think the foundation for what happen in the winter of 1975 was already laid in those first words." This doesn't give us much more information about the event that occurred, but gives us a feeling that it will involve Hassan.

These past few lines were told to Amir by Ali, who is a new character introduced to us in chapter 2. He also has a disability, who's lower lip muscles were paralysed by Polio, and also walks with a limp. This could tie in with the idea of the villains or underdogs having a deformity, so Khaled Hosseini may be trying to imply something about Ali's character here. Although by how he is described, it does not seem like he would seek vengeance on anyone, even though he has been picked on by the neighbourhood children, being called Babalu or Boogeyman. He does not care about what they think, as according to Amir, he loves Hassan too much to care.

One other character that is mentioned in more detail is Baba, Amir's father. Amir's mother died during child birth, and Baba has taken care of him. Baba is a well respected man, as the narrator says "everyone agreed that Baba had built the most beautiful house". This shows that Baba takes a lot of pride, and cares what others think about him. But he does have a smoking room, and smoking is frowned upon in their religion, so this may cause a bit of controversy to what other people think of him.

Overall this chapter summaries a lot of Amir's past, giving us more information about the character of Hassan, the man who is believed to be Hassans father, Ali, and Amir's own father, Baba. This chapter does seem reliable, even though it is written in first person, as there aren't many opinions in there, the narrator is just stating the facts of what happened at this period of time.