Close Reading 3/1

"Returning to Kabul was like running into an old, forgotten friend and seeing that life hadn't been good to him, that he'd become homeless and destitute." (246)

Amir decides to return to Kabul and save the one person he has left to help. He made the decision to return to his homeland, the place that he grew up in and lived until war raged over Afghanistan. The place that Amir left was happy, and nothing like the place he has found upon his return. The place he has come upon in order to try and save Sohrab is dirty, filled with people who cannot take care of themselves, and a city living in fear. Amir finds Kabul taken over by the Taliban and he sees first hand the things he only imagined when he read the news stories in San Fransisco of what was happening in Afghanistan.

Hosseini describes the Kabul that Amir returns to find to an old friend that did not have a good life. This simile is so powerful. The Kabul that Amir grew up in, the Kabul that Amir was familiar with, no longer exists. Instead, in its place, is a savage community with people struggling to survive each day. There are so many people who are homeless and people who cannot even afford the basic essentials for life, clean water, food, shelter. Amir has to come to terms with the fact that the life he once knew no longer exists. He cannot return to Afghanistan and find the place of his childhood the anywhere near the same.

Hosseini's choice of the word homeless is more than accurate. So many of the people who are left living in Kabul are homeless. They have no place to go, no way of escape. They are forced to stay and try and make it through each day. They have to try and survive the Taliban. In addition, destitute is also another powerful word choice. Living without basic necessities is what these people do. It is all because of the Taliban and that is what Amir has to see. He has to understand that there are so many more people that do not have the luxuries in life that he has.

This quote in particular finally shows Amir just how lucky he is. He was able to escape the Afghanistan he is now faced with just in time. He did not have to go through this sort of physical suffering that all of these people are going through. Even though he went through mental suffering, he lived in a comfortable place to suffer. These people live on the streets trying to get by each day, suffering twice as much as Amir ever did. In a way, it seems that the reality check may have been one of the reasons that Amir realized just how important it was to find Sohrab no matter what. He was able to see his destiny in the eyes of the starving people of Kabul.