The Kite Runner- Chapter 24

Summary

• Amir begins to feel the effects of fatherhood through the fear he experiences when Sohrab runs away on the first evening in the new hotel.
• Interest is finally sparked in Sohrab when Amir tells him that Hassan was his half brother and for the first time it appears that Sohrab is willing to go with Amir to America.
• Amir tells Soraya the truth of his past and the guilt seems to lift a significantly as he admits everything he has been holding back for the past 15 years of marriage.
• The complications with the US Immigration and Naturalisation Services render Amir hopeless and he is forced to break his promise that Sohrab may in fact have to be sent back to an orphanage.
• The final part of the chapter reveals Sohrab laying in the bathroom unconscious and the screams of Amir, even when the ambulance has arrived.

      Analysis 

The fatherhood and brotherhood motifs crop up again in this chapter showing Amir’s growth as an adult with responsibilities. It is only through taking care of his half brother’s child that he can redeem himself but also living up to the expectations of his own father who saw him as the same cowardly person who also fled from his sins. The predicament of his and Soraya’s infertility acts as the punishments for all the years that Amir had been hiding the betrayal, but once he faces his past he is rewarded with the child he could have never had.

It takes time before Amir gains Sohrab’s trust, especially after the traumatising experiences at the orphanage, it takes several attempts to reach out for emotional and physical contact. The repetition of Sohrab’s withdrawal shows how distressed he is left from the cruelty of Assef and his resistance to accept Amir’s promises. Contrastingly when Amir and Sohrab finally start to build a stable relationship Amir breaks his promise and to the reader’s frustration the bond is broken.

The final part of the chapter presents emotions on opposite ends of the spectrum which are juxtaposed to emphasise the hope, which is only to be broken by the tragedy of Sohrab’s attempted suicide. This is foreshadowed earlier when Raymond Andrew’s daughter is mentioned, and although we are not told explicitly that Sohrab has made a suicide attempt until chapter 25, the description of the razor is enough for us to infer what has happened. Sohrab’s daily bath is the metaphorical manifestation of the attempt to clean one’s sins and a way he deals with the shame he feels after the abuse. Just when there seems to be progress, the unsettling screams of Amir draw the chapter to an abrupt close with yet another climax to the novel.

Key Quotes

“I will drive you because I am a father like you.” Page 275
“There are a lot of children in Afghanistan, but little childhood.” Page 277
“I think he loved us equally but differently” Page 281
"Do you feel clean yet, Sohrab?" Page 290