The Kite Runner Chapter 18 Analysis

Chapters 11 through 18 are extremely significant to the overall story since they serve as turning points in the novel. Throughout these chapters we learn about the paths each character has taken in their lives as well as the importance of Amir’s childhood in determining his actions and future decisions. It is in this part of the novel where Amir’s decisions begin to gradually reflect the importance of his past relationship with Hassan along with his desire to become the man that Baba always wanted him to be. In chapter 11, 12 and 13 we witness how the move to America represents two different things for Amir and Baba. On one side, Baba sees the move to America as something negative and frustrated due to the fact that he feels completely disconnected from Kabul, which is why he

Although Amir is surprised of hearing from Rahim Khan after 20 years, he is still upset with the fact that Rahim Khan is ill and that despite the life Amir has made for himself in California, he is still not free of the guilt towards Hassan until he finds a way “to be good again.” When Amir arrives to Pakistan he immediately gets a sense of what has happened to Afghanistan in which it’s evident that the fighting destroyed everything, from the buildings Amir knew to the way of life he remembers in Kabul. Amir is forced to face the current situation of Afghanistan, which Rahim Khan refers to in Chapter 15 as, “there are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.” Later on, in chapter 16 we learn that Hassan has a son named Sohrab who acts as an indirect proof that Hassan never forgot Amir, evidenced in the fact that he was named after the character of their favorite story. Amir’s conversation with Rahim Khan is also extremely meaningful due to the fact that Amir founds out that Baba was Hassan’s father and therefore Hassan is his