~Looking Back~

1. Amir's putting the money under the mattress at Wahid's house.
-"I did something I had done twenty-six years earlier. I planted a fistful of crumpled money under the mattress." Earlier in Amir's life, Amir put a wristwatch and money that he had recieved for his birthday under the mattress of his servant Hassan's bed. He did this out of an act of jealousy and rage. Amir wanted Hassan out of the house, so he framed him to make him look bad in front of Baba. Amir always felt jealous of Hassan, even though Hassan was the servant and Amir was the rich son of a well-known man. He was also upset about what happened to Hassan and figured that if he got rid of the problem, his problems would all go away. Even though Baba did not punish Hassan for the act, Amir always felt guilt of what he had done that day. I think that Amir put the money under the mattress at Wahid's house to purify what he had done years ago and to try and rid of his guilt. This time, he put the money under the mattress out of good will and a good heart. Wahid was very poor and could not afford food for the entire family. The money that Amir gave them, would sure enough give them a little more than they had.

2. The sheep reference to Sohrab.
-"Sohrab's eyes flicked to me. They were slaughter sheep's eyes." Amir looks into Sohrab's eyes and sees the innocent eyes that he once saw when the town was slaughtering the sheep. Back then, Amir thought the sheep knew what was going to happen and that the sheep understood that he was for a "higher purpose." Now he sees this in Sohrab's eyes, the innocent young boy knowing that because he is a Hazara he deserves the pain and lifestyle these Taliban men are giving to him and thinking that this is his "higher purpose." "I thought I saw pleading in Sohrab's eyes." Amir now understands that both the sheep and Sohrab had eyes that were begging for help, eyes that were trying to reach out to someone who could help.

3. Amir's laughter when Assef beats him.
-When Amir arrives at the house of Assef, Assef tells him the story of why he is on a "mission," a mission to kill all of these people. He tells Amir of the story when his father and him were put into jail by the people who were lower than him at one time. Assef had horrible kidney stones that put him in an immense amount of pain. When the guards beat him, they didn't understand that they were actually helping him. Every time they kicked him, he felt relief of his kidney stones. "Oh, the relief!" Assef laughed. The harder they kicked Assef, the harder he laughed. In similarity when Assef was beating Amir, Amir laughed. Amir felt that he too was coming clean of the dirty things inside of him. Finally, he was able to stand up for himself and for what he wanted. He no longer had Hassan there to stick up for him. He was laughing for all the times he had let Hassan take the blame, the pain, and the hurt. He was laughing for all the times he stood there because he was a "Pashtun" and Hassan was a "Hazara." Amir finally felt that he had recieved what he deserved and this gave him a reason of comfort and comic relief.

4. Amir's kite running for Sohrab.
-The kite running at the end of the novel was a foreshadow of what had happened earlier in the story. Amir sat in the park, watching the blue, red, and yellow kite fly among him. He had seen flashbacks of what he came from, but now he was given the chance to have a young boy with him. This conclusion rounds the whole story up. On Independence Day in Afghanistan, Amir and Hassan fly their own kite in the annual Kite Fighting Tournament. Amir is the flyer and Hassan is the kite runner. Hassan was always the runner. In contrary, at the end of the story Amir asks Sohrab if he would like Amir to run the kite for him. Even without saying anything, the smile on Sohrab's face tells it all. Amir now sees the many times that Hassan would "a thousand times over" run the kite for him. Amir now wants the same for Sohrab and he thinks to himself, "a thousand times over."