Chapters 21-25 (The Kite Runner)

Chapters 21-25

Amir continues farther into Kabul, and sees all the violence and brutality of the Taliban. People are dead on the streets and men are fighting over body parts. Everything Amir sees makes him realize that his childhood was very sheltered and he never had to endure real violence or cruelty. Amir drives into his neighborhood and finally comes to his old house. He is soon frisked by guards who stand outside the house and then proceed to take him into a room upstairs. Amir then awaits to have a meeting with the Taliban. He then thinks about how long it’s been since he had seen Assef, who is in fact the very person he is meeting with. Amir also speculates if he even deserved the decency and goodness he had in his childhood and life. Amir seems to realize that he had a good life growing up and that he occasionally took it for granted. Amir while in the hotel room with Assef, also has to endure the pain that Hassan had suffered that day that Amir didn’t help him in the alley with Assef. Assef fights Amir and half way through Amir starts to laugh uncontrollably and finally thinks he is at peace. Everything fades in and out while Amir is in and out of perception while he fights with Assef to give him the child. While in this state Amir dreams of his father wrestling a bear, however when the wrestler looks up it isn’t Baba, it’s Amir. Amir had slipped back into consciousness when he saw Sohrab with a slingshot and a brass ball in it. Sohrab shot it at Assef and saved Amir. When he finally awake, Amir is with a doctor, who tells him he has suffered many injuries. They had escaped. Amir then gets Hassan’s son Sohrab into the United States. They stay in a hotel room and Sohrab becomes intrigued by the color tv in the room and the painting on the wall. Farid, the driver tells Amir he must leave once they were situated. Amir repays him by giving Farid money. Amir drifts into sleep and when he wakes up Sohrab is gone. Amir looked for him at the Mosque. He found him in a field of grass near the mosque. When they got back to the hotel room, Amir calls lawyers and speaks to an immigration lawyer about adopting Sohrab. Amir tells Sohrab that he has to stay in an orphange for a little while. He doesn’t take it well and cries himself to sleep in Amir’s arms. Amir’s wife calls and says they can get him in without bringing Sohrab to an orphanage, but when Amir goes to tell Sohrab the news, he is shocked and screams for an ambulance. Sohrab slit his wrists in the bathtub. At the Hospital, the doctors told Amir that Sohrab was alive. Sohrab was alive but very guarded. He didn’t speak for a year. His eyes were vacant and finally one day when kites were flying, Amir took him outside, bought him a kite and taught him how to fly it. Sohrab smiled and one smile gave Amir hope. It will take a long time for Sohrab and Amir to have a good relationship again because Sohrab seemed to think that he couldn’t trust Amir, also he missed his parents and wanted his old life back very much. Finding Sohrab and helping him, gave Amir peace and helped him relieve him of the cruelty he had committed to Hassan when he was younger, and had released some of the demons Amir had.