Baba's House

            The descriptions of Baba’s house give the reader a sense of who Amir’s father was as well has how the family and servants lived in Afghanistan.  The descriptions are compelling of such things as the poplar trees that lined Baba's redbrick driveway, which led to a pair of wrought-iron gates. Baba's house was the most beautiful house in the Wazir Akbar Kahan district. Wazir Akbar Khan is in the northern part of Kabul, a new affluent neighborhood. The house had marble floors and wide windows. A crystal chandelier hung from the vaulted ceiling. There was a two acre backyard with rows of cherry trees. There was a small vegetable garden on the eastern wall. On the south end of the garden, lived Hassan and Ali, in a modest mud hut. Two kerosene lamps lit the hut and two mattresses were on the floor. The boys went to western movies, across from Amir's favorite bookstore. The boys strolled through the musty-smelling bazaars of the Shar-e-Nau section of Kubul. Baba drove a black Ford Mustang. A bowl-shaped hill north of Baba's property in Wazir Akbar Khan had an old abandoned cemetery. Near the entrance to the cemetery was a pomegranate tree. "Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul" was carved into that tree. Winter meant no school and flying kites. Kite-fighting tournaments were an old winter tradition in Afghanistan. In the winter of 1975 the tournament was held in Amir's neighborhood, Wazir Akbar Khan. Baba and Rahim Khan sat on the roof top watching dozens of colorful kites soar through the air. Hassan ran the last kite; a blue kite. He chased that kite wearing his black leather coat, red scarf and faded jeans

            The setting of Baba's house changes after the kite tournament. Amir retreats into the house and avoids Hassan. Amir would stay in his room and read, ignoring Hassan when he asked to go outside. One day Amir asked Baba if they could get new servants. "You bring me shame… Hassan's not going anywhere." (90). Amir framed Hassan for stealing his birthday gift from Baba. When Baba forgave Hassan, Ali did not care and decided to leave the house and move away with Hassan. The day that Ali and Hassan left was the last time we hear about the house. "I saw… that the life I had known since I was born was over." (108).

            Amir returns to visit Baba's house--the house that he and Hassan grew up in.  In the beginning of the story, the house is described as large and beautiful.  "Everyone agreed that my father, my Baba, had built the most beautiful house is the Wazir Akbar Khan district, a new and affluent neighborhood in the northern part of Kabul" (Hosseini 4).  However, when Amir returns to see the house, it is not what he remembered it to be.  "The house itself was far from the sprawling white mansion I remembered from my childhood" (Hosseini 262).  Amir found that all that he remembered from his childhood has changed.

            Although this house is not what he remembered, Amir finds the memory of the beauty of the grounds lived on.  "The poplar trees lined the redbrick driveway, which led to a pair of wrought-iron gates" (Houesini 262).  When Amir revisits his house "Most of the poplar trees had been chopped down-the trees Hassan and I used to climb to shine our mirrors into the neighbors' homes" (Hosseini 264) and "The old metal gates hanging off the hinges were gone.. (Housseini 264).  Although there are physical signs of their past, all that remained were some of the trees but the gate was no longer there.  The most memorable physical setting that returns later in the book is the pomegranate tree.  Amir and Hassan spend a lot of time together around that tree.  "One summer day, I used one of Ali's kitchen knives to carve our names on it" (Housseini 27) at his return, he finds the tree that held so many memories for him, good and bad.  The tree had all but died in the time Amir had been gone.  "The carving had dulled, almost faded altogether, but it was still there: Amir and Hassan. The Sultans of Kabul" (Hosseini 264).  Even through all the physical changes the house and landscaping had endured over the many years away, the proof was in the tree that the time they had spent there was real.