Chapter 21

Amir and Farid cross the river, and Amir is surprised to see that most of the houses in the Wazir Akbar Khan district still have roofs and standing walls, as well as trees. Amir spots his house, remembering the directions Baba gave him as a child. Amir has an analepsis about him and Hassan as children, when they were great explorers. Amir goes up to the house, seeing how it had decayed, how the weeds had grown through. This could highlight the cracks in Amir, how he used to be pure and sinless until he was 12, and then things started going down hill, especially after he left Kabul. Amir asks Farid for 10 minutes, so he can go and explore the hill him and Hassan used to conquer.

He goes up the hill to the cemetery, where Hassan had buried his mother. Kabul is really what links Amir to everyone in his family, he may not really feel like them, but Kabul is what keeps them together, linked in. The pomegranate tree hadn’t bourne fruit in years, and looked lifeless now. Amir searches for the carving in the tree, and sure enough it’s still there, but a little dulled. It still clearly read “Amir and Hassan. The sultans of Kabul.” Amir has another analepsis to back when he and Hassan were children. Farid breaks this silence with a honk of the car horn, breaking Amir from his trance, and it was time to go.

Amir and Farid find a hotel to stay in, but pass several more red pick up trucks before they find it. Amir thinks it is very expensive, being $75, but then again, the money is not going to someone who doesn’t need it, it will probably be spent on food to feed their children. There is a dried bloodstain on the wall, again foreshadowing the danger that Amir is about to come into. Farid goes out with Amir’s money to buy food, and Amir says the only thing that hadn’t changed about Kabul was how tasty and succulent the kabobs were.

They begin to tell jokes at each other, about women, and Amir laughs, mostly at how Afghan humour has not changed. The jokes were called “Mullah Nasruddin” jokes, and Amir knows countless ones. This shows a lot about the Afghan culture, and how it differs from western culture.

 The next day they go to the Ghazi stadium. He goes past a child selling “sexy pictures”, which really shows how desperate the times were, as a child would sell inappropriate material just for some money for food. Amir and Farid find a seat, and just after the half time whistle blew, a pair of red pick up trucks came in. The Talib’s got a man and a woman out of the trucks, and the woman kicked and screamed. Amir says the sound of that scream will never be forgotten, which shows how desperate she was to be set free. Anamorphism is used to describe the sound – “the cry of a wild animal”. They said a prayer, and the cleric yelled out “Brothers and sisters. We are here today to carry out Shari’a”. They begin to throw rocks at the people who are blindfolded and tied up. Amir closed his eyes, trying to block out what was going on around him, just like he did with Hassan, as he tried to pretend it was not happening. After it was over, the corpses were tossed on the back of the red trucks and left, and the second half got underway.