Homework#6 Wed-Thurs 2

 "A part of me was hoping someone would wake up and hear, so I wouldn't have to live with this lie anymore." (86 Hosseini) The  author has developed the overall theme of “Does everything Really have a price?” The main character Amir hears it first from the worst kid in town Assef, and later from the drugged Russian soldier as Amir and his father are being smuggled out of Kabul. The character comes to a cross roads several times in the book so far once where he decides whether to help his best friend or stand and watch.

 The author sets the stage for this conflict because of the fight that the main character Amir,  and his friend Hassan almost got into with Assef whom they would later find out is much more corrupt than they thought, when going to their favorite spot to hang out.  Amir makes the decision to stand and watch and is haunted by it forever. This creates a feeling of guilt in him and although he wants to tell his father what happened and that he stood by and watched his best friend be rapped while his friend defended him over a kite he wants to please his father and knows that his father would condemn him.(Hosseini 74-76) Amir begins to wonder  if this is the price that Hassan has paid for being his friend. For being shunned and picked on and defiled.

Amir also questions himself after the incident and his motives for trying to impress his father and at what price does that come? Amir’s father doesn’t think he is a real man and should be studying something else besides writing and should have honor, and courage, and like sports, however Amir prefers to write and read instead of rough house with the other boys. He questions that in his quest to impress his father at the kite competition he is more worried about the kite than his friend who could have been killed by Assef. Ultimately he makes the decision to impress his father than save his friend.

When Amir and his father were being smuggled out of the country a drugged Russian soldier wanted to defile a married woman so Amir’s father stood up to him and Amir really thought it was his death until he heard a shot and no cry. However he started to question again the fact that everything has a price. That their freedom would cost his father’s life and probably that of the young wife’s as well had the commanding officer not stepped in.

Overall Amir has begun to question everything since the incident with Hassan, and not doing something will be something he will never forgive himself for. I think that the the theme “Does everything really have a price?” Will continue to develop into a more complex theme throughout the book.

1. Why didn't Amir tell Rahim Khan what he had seen of he trusted him so much more than his own father?

2. Why does Ali not tell Amir's father?

3. Why do you think the author keeps reiterating that "everything has a price" besides the overall theme?