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Pakistan

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

 

Pakistan

The locations in Pakistan provide a significant setting for the story in pages 80-194.  Baba and Amir escape Afghanistan via a long, uneasy ride starting in a cab of an old Russian truck and ending with a smoother ride but inside a fuel tank where it is difficult to breathe.  “What I remember next is the blinding light of early morning as I climbed out of the fuel tank.  I remember turning my face up to the sky, squinting, breathing like the world was running out of air.  I lay on the side of the dirt road next to a rocky trench, looked up to the gray morning sky, thankful for air, thankful for light, thankful to be alive.”  “We’re in Pakistan, Amir,” Baba said. (123)

They leave Pakistan for Fremont, CA and Amir grows up experiencing love and then the  death of his father.  Then Amir gets the phone call from Rahim Khan to return to Pakistan and see him.  “I thought about a comment Rahim Kahn had made just before we hung up.” “Come.  There is a way to be good again.” (192) Pakistan was a place where Amir found temporary relief from the conflict in Afghanistan.  Not only the fighting but the turmoil he felt inside from what he did to Hassan.  Now, Pakistan is where he needs to go to find release from something that has held him in its grip for too long.  He knows that it is the only way he will find sanctuary from all that haunts him. He dreams about Hassan after hearing from Rahim Khan.  He remembers Hassan saying to him, “For you, a thousand times over!” (194)

 In the pages 195-292 Amir's return home to Afghanistan through Pakistan is the main focus.  Amir is told by Rahim Khan what had been happening to the people in Amir's life as well as Hassan's life and his child.  As he visits with Rahim Khan, he is faced with reality of the life he once left.  As Amir knocks on the door, he finds that Rahim Khan is very sick and dying.  "Then, a thing made of skin and bones pretending to be Rahim Khan opened the door." (197)  Rahim Khan has aged and is in very poor health.  Amir spends time with him catching up on what has been happening in his country since he left.  He then finds out the reason Rahim Khan has asked him to come.  Rahim Khan tells Amir that Hassan had married and had a child.  He also finds out that Hassan moved back into the house to help Rahim Khan keep the house up for Baba.  At the house is where Hassan meets his mother who came looking for him after all those years.  It is then that we find out that Hassan and his wife had been murdered by the Tailban who know live in the house that was once theirs.  Rahim Khan has asked Amir to come back to his country so that he could go and retrieve Hassan's son from an orphanage and to face his past.  "Why me?  Why can't you pay someone here to go?  I'll pay for it if its' a matter of money." (221) Rahim Khan says "And why you? I think we both know why it has to be you don't we?" (221)

This is the beginning of Amir’s trek through the country to be faced numerous times of past places and memories he has with Hassan.  This is the most significant reason for the return and where Amir's life begins to make sense to him.  On Amir's way to Kabul he sees many differences in the countryside compared to when he had left. When they reach the city limits it was even worse, "Rubble and Beggars. Everywhere I looked, that was what I saw" (245). He visits places where he and Hassan used to play, or places where Baba had taken him years before. Most everything he saw was in ruins, shut down, or nothing left of it. The Taliban had taken over the city, and had not cared about the brutalities left over for the civilians. Amir also returned to his Baba's house. There he witnessed in person what has been going on "Gingerly, I walked up the driveway where tufts of weed now grew between the sun-faded bricks. I stood outside the gates of my father's house, feeling like a stranger" (261).

 Another place in Afghanistan of significance for Amir was the scene at Ghazi Stadium. Here "Thousands of people milled about the tightly packed concrete terraces" (267). It was pretty much a sign of dictatorship at the stadium "Young, whip-toting Talibs roamed the aisles, striking anyone who cheered too loudly" (268) Here they waited for the presence of the Talib wearing dark colored sunglasses. Here Amir also witnessed murder as a man and woman were stoned to death for supposed adultery. This place was important to Amir as this is where he found Sohrab's owner, and also he witnessed firsthand the carnage going on.  When Amir goes to get Sohrab, they parked by a big house in Wazir Akbar Khan. "Fraid eased the Land Crusier up the driveway of a big house in Wazir Akbar Khan. He parked in the shadows if willow trees that spilled over the walls of the compound located in Street 15, Sarak-e-Mehmana, Street of the Guests (273)." Amir got out of the car, and went to the house, then the guards took him inside the house. "We stepped through the front gates. ... escorted me across a well manicured lawn....climbed a few steps and entered a large, sparsely decorated house. ...crossed the foyer...was taken upstairs to a room with twin mint green sofas and a big-screen TV in the far corner.(274)" That is the room where he meets Assef.

 

Pakistan—Peshawar Hospital

Chapter 23 starts out with Amir in the hospital of Peshawar. Since the big fight with Assef left Amir seriously hurt he spends quite some time in the hospital trying to recover. He undergoes some surgery and has his mouth wired shut.  Since Amir and Farid assume that Assef’s people are looking for them, they decide that it is best to leave Peshawar. Even though nowhere is completely safe, they decided to drive four hours to Islamabad where it is safer for now.

 

Sulaiman Mountains of Baluchistan

When Amir is in the Hospital he has a dream or vision that he is in the Sulaiman Mountains of Baluchistan.  He sees “Baba wrestling the black bear” (page 295). Amir has this dream because he is fading in and out of consciousness and doesn’t know where he is or what is happening to him. He goes now to dream about this place until he is woken up by the doctor.

 

The American Embassy in Islamabad

          Amir and Sohrab went to the American Embassy to meet with Raymond Andrews about adopting Sohrab.  Amir is greatly discouraged because Mr. Andrews suggested that Amir basically give up the quest to adopt Sohrab.  As they left, however, Mr. Andrews gave Amir a card with the name of a good immigration lawyer who worked in Islamabad named Omar Faisal.  Amir meets with Mr. Faisal and tells Amir his only hope is to put Sohrab back in an orphanage for a while and try to adopt him by submitting an orphan petition.

 

Islamabad, Pakistan—Hospital

          Most of the action in these pages relates to the hospital where Sohrab is taken after he tries to commit suicide.  The early part describes the corridor where Amir prays to Allah for saving Sohrab.  Then the lounge where Amir waits for word from D. Nawaz.  Eventually there is the Intensive Care Unit where he sits with Sohrab and the lounge where Amir sleeps.  Finally, there is Sohrab's room outside the ICU, which Sohrab shares with a Punjabi boy.  The hospital is described for its lack of personalization, which is like most hospitals. It seems that the care is good and the doctors and nurses do a good job for both Amir and Sohrab. 

 

 

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