The Kite Runner Quotes: Betrayal
- Created by: mhannah
- Created on: 03-05-18 22:15
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- The Kite Runner Quotes: Betrayal
- "But there was something fascinating – albeit in a sick way – about teasing Hassan. Kind of like when we used to play insect torture. Except now, he was the ant and I was holding the magnifying glass."
- Nature metaphor used to explain the dynamic in Hassan and Amir's relationship
- Chapter 6. Hosseini prepares us for Amir's major betrayal of Hassan. Hosseini has Amir betray Hassan – or at least be cruel to Hassan – in all sorts of small ways.
- "I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be...In the end, I ran."
- Amir leaves Hassan in the alleyway. This passage, along with the passage in which Amir plants a wad of cash and his watch under Hassan's mattress, counts as Amir's two major betrayals of Hassan
- Is Amir's silence is a worse betrayal than Amir's cowardice?
- "I lifted Hassan's mattress and planted my new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it...Then I knocked on Baba's door and told what I hoped would be the last in a long line of shameful lies."
- Chapter 9. Amir betrays Ali and Hassan to ease his own guilt but this leads to only more guilt and heartache
- "I was the snake in the grass, the monster in the lake. I wasn't worthy of this sacrifice; I was a liar, a cheat, and a thief...but life would move on. I wanted that, to move on, to forget, to start with a clean slate. I wanted to be able to breathe again."
- Chapter 9, Amir knows that he would be disowned if his actions were revealed. He is guilty but also relieved. His betrayal is an opportunity to start again. Significant that the truth is never revealed. Do we ever forgive Amir?
- Nature imagery employed to show Amir's betraying and deceiving character and actions here
- "Come. There is a way to be good again, Rahim Khan had said on the phone just before hanging up. Said it in passing, almost as an afterthought."
- Chapter 14. Rahim Khan points Amir to Sohrab as a way of redeeming himself; Rahim Khan knows what Amir has done
- "It was a shameful situation. People would talk. All that a man had back then, all that he was, was his honor, his name..."
- Chapter 17. Amir finally knows the truth of his relationship between himself, Baba and Hassan. Amir and Baba share more similarities than they thought-- the burden of guilt
- "His three sons were standing in the doorway watching us. The little one was wearing the watch – it dangled around his twiggy wrist."
- Chapter 19. To undo his actions – or pardon himself – Amir gives Wahid's sons a watch. Links to earlier in the story, Amir put a watch under Hassan's mattress in order to get his half-brother dismissed from the household.
- "[Sohrab:] "You promised you'd never put me in one of those places, Amir agha," he said. His voice was breaking, tears pooling in his eyes."
- Chapter 24. Just when you thought Amir did something nice for a change...he goes back on his promise to Sohrab. Amir's broken promise has disastrous consequences: Sohrab tries to kill himself.
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