How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
His [Assef's] blue eyes flicked to Hassan. "Afghanistan is the land of Pashtuns. It always has been, always will be. We are the true Afghans, the pure Afghans, not this Flat-Nose here. His people pollute our homeland, our watan. They dirty our blood." He made a sweeping, grandiose gesture with his hands. "Afghanistan for Pashtuns, I say. That's my vision." (5.44)
This guy Assef is a jerk. And just plain evil. His misguided sentiment, though, informs the Taliban massacre Assef participates in at Mazar-i-Sharif. It also informed the Holocaust. (Hosseini consciously references the German concentration camps: Assef's mother is German and Assef actually admires Hitler.) Purity works for some things, like water and grain alcohol, but not the ethnic makeup of a country.
Quote #5
I was eighteen. Her name was Homaira. She was a Hazara, the daughter of our neighbor's servants. [...]
He took a long gulp of his scotch. Coughed. "You should have seen the look on my father's face when I told him. My mother actually fainted. My sisters splashed her face with water. They fanned her and looked at me as if I had slit her throat. My brother Jalal actually went to fetch his hunting rifle before my father stopped him." Rahim Khan barked a bitter laughter. "It was Homaira and me against the world. And I'll tell you this, Amir jan: In the end, the world always wins. That's just the way of things." (8.133-136)
Rahim Khan is telling Amir about an early romance of his with a Hazara woman named Homaira. (Don't forget that Rahim Khan's romance with Homaira parallels Baba's romance with Sanaubar.) The reactions from Rahim Khan's family might strike you as outlandish. Perhaps, though, they tell us a little about the distance between Hazaras and Pashtuns in the Afghanistan of Rahim Khan's early adulthood. Marriage binds two families together and you can see – pretty clearly – the fear expressed by Rahim Khan's mother (she faints) and his brother (he goes to get his gun). But we might want to disagree with Rahim Khan's last statement. Does "the world" always win? In the novel, do social prejudices win out over Amir's love for Hassan? Is Amir's rescue of Sohrab successful?
Quote #6
I remembered something Baba had said about Pashtuns once. We may be hardheaded and I know we're far too proud, but, in the hour of need, believe me that there's no one you'd rather have at your side than a Pashtun. (12.151)
This, friends, is a complicated statement. Sometimes generalizations about a culture don't harm anyone: "We Irish like to have fun." Sometimes they harm everyone and are patently false: "The Irish are a bunch of drunks." So, is Baba's statement here harmless or harmful? Well, does he mean you wouldn't want a Hazara at your side when the going got tough? Maybe some context would help: Amir is recalling Baba's statement during General Taheri's visit to Baba in the hospital. General Taheri, a Pashtun, is a devoted, loyal friend. So, perhaps it's harmless to some degree. If you dig deeper, though, there's more at stake. Remember that Amir, a Pashtun, abandoned Hassan, a Hazara, in the alley. Does Baba's statement mean you want a Pashtun at your side only if you're a Pashtun? And a Hazara at your side only if you're a Hazara? Does Baba's comment further isolate these ethnicities?