How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
We saw our first Western together, Rio Bravo with John Wayne, at the Cinema Park, across the street from my favorite bookstore. I remember begging Baba to take us to Iran so we could meet John Wayne. (4.8)
Have you noticed how many references there are in this novel to American films, especially Westerns? The Western mythologizes its male heroes – they're unnaturally silent, strong, and they accomplish ridiculous feats of endurance. No surprise, then, that Baba and Amir would share a love of American Westerns. Baba because it affirms his brand of masculinity and Amir because it depicts men like his father (men he wishes he could be like).
Quote #5
Then, Baba and I drove off in his black Ford Mustang – a car that drew envious looks everywhere because it was the same car Steve McQueen had driven in Bullitt, a film that played in one theater for six months. (4.10)
This black Ford Mustang goes part and parcel with Baba's conception of manhood. (We can't help but notice the touch of irony later when Baba gives Amir an American muscle car – a Gran Torino – as a graduation present. The muscle car, once the hottest thing on the road, is actually eleven years old by the time Baba gives it to Amir.) How does Hosseini mythologize Baba and other Afghan men and simultaneously mock them? How does Amir, in his own life, diverge from his father's ideas of masculinity? In what ways does he subscribe to them?
Quote #6
I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me. I was afraid of getting hurt. That's what I told myself as I turned my back to the alley, to Hassan. That's what I made myself believe. I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. Was it a fair price? The answer floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara, wasn't he? (7.140)
In this passage, Amir watches as Assef rapes Hassan. It's horrific and cruel. Somehow, Amir believes he can win his father's love if he brings back the blue kite Hassan ran down. And he's right, to an extent. Following his victory in the kite tournament, Amir and his father become closer than ever before. But Amir is also tragically wrong. Amir ignores – by not defending Hassan – some of his father's most cherished principles: honor, pride, and bravery. In order to seem like a man in his father's eyes, Amir actually does the most shameful thing he could do: abandon (and later betray) Hassan.