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Flea Market

Page history last edited by cougar4033@... 15 years, 3 months ago

          The flea market setting is important to the story because it is where Amir meets Soraya. "Lying awake in bed that night, I thought of Soraya Taheri's sickle-shaped birthmark, her gently hooked nose, and the way her luminous eyes had fleetingly held mine. My heart stuttered at the thought of her. Soraya Taheri. My Swap Meet Princess." (142).

            It is a center of work and social life for the Afghans in California.   "On Saturdays, Baba woke me up at dawn. As he dressed, I scanned the classifieds in the local papers and circled the gagage sale ads....We stopped at garage sales and bought knickknacks that people no longer wanted....Then early Sunday mornings, we drove to the San Jose flea market off Berryessa, rented a spotm, and sold the junk for a small profit....By that summer, Afghan families were working an entire section of the San Jose flea market." (137).

            At the San Jose flea market, "there was an unspoken code of behavior among Afghans; you greeted the guy across the aisle, you invited him for a bite of potato bolani or a little qubuli, and you chatted" (120). It was here where Amir first met his bride, Soryana Taheri, who also worked the market. "Tea, politics, and scandal, the ingredients of an Afghan Sunday at the flea market" (120). Amir liked going to the flea market to see all the friendly faces, but he also knew that there, he would see Soryana working in her booth. Baba and Amir would set up "ski jackets with broken zippers, baseball gloves, and brass lamps" (137), all of a typical Sunday display.

            After the death of Amir's father Baba, he does not return to the flea market.  "I sold Baba's VW bus and, to this day, I have not gone back to the flea market" (180). There is no reason for Amir to go to the flea market anymore after he becomes successful as a writer.

 

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