Final Response

I honestly got goosebumps throughout this whole book. It was incredibly unpredictable and I'm amazed at how Hosseini was able to surprise me at every turn of the page. The usage of detail and giving everything a background story made the book come to life and I even wrote multiple times in my annotations that I was in love with the descriptions used, for example "We sat in silence, me leaning against the tree, Sohrab next to me, knees to his chest. We listened to the call to prayer, watched the building's hundreds of lights come on as daylight faded. The mosque sparkled like a diamond in the dark. It lit up the sky, Sohrab's face." (Page 317) These descriptions made it remarkably easy for me to paint a picture in my head. 

Another thing I enjoyed about the book was how I could really relate to it. This probably only pertains to me but I was born in Lebanon and raised to be Muslim so I could identify with a lot of things going on in the book such as Rahmadan and Eid. Even the food Amir and Hassan would eat and some of the Arab words sprinkled in the book sparked my own memory of when I was a kid. I know a lot about the Muslim culture and I can say with completely certainty that Hassan was the most pure, Muslim man in this story which leads to another thing that disgusted me, the Taliban. First of all, I'd like to state that the twist of Assef being the Talib who kidnapped Sohrab was completely unexpected. I read that part during one of my classes and I couldn't help but jump from my seat and take a deep breath in from utter shock. That being said, Hosseini did an unforgettable job at showing the immense cruelty the Taliban inflicted upon Afghanistan. Reading about the poverty the country has been suffering and about how children are in rags on the street, there is barely any water or food to feed a family, and people are dying left and right made me despise the Taliban with every fiber of my body. The one scene in the baseball field where the Taliban stoned a man to death made me cringe and if you really think about it, was a complete contradiction. The Taliban state that it is said in the Koran that those who sin must be punished, but how the Taliban interpreted it was that it is THEIR job to punish those sinners, which isn't true. Islam is actually a peaceful religion and those who have sinned should be punished by the hands of god, not by a power hungry man. If you kill someone, regardless of what they have done in the past, wouldn't that make you a sinner too? So, technically, the Taliban are hypocrites in saying that sinners must die and committing the sin of murder. Another thing that didn't make sense about the Talibans actions v.s. their beliefs was how they lived a luxurious life while others suffered on the street. In Islam, there is a whole month dedicated to fasting so we can identify with those who have less than us, yet the Taliban just take and take rather than give. It's amazing how people can twist the words of something such as religion to give them more power. I thought it was fascinating to see how a character like Assef, someone who was always power hungry and controlling, easily falls into this category of people who just want others to kiss their feet and just goes to show how people never change. Although there was a lot of injustice in this book, the lighthearted ending still made it a powerful, happy closure. 

The parallel between the past and the future were also a key element which I found to be particularly intriguing. Here, you have a man who pretty much lost his chance of making things right with his old friend but is given a second chance when introduced to his child. It was depressing to read that Hassan died before Amir could say anything to him to ease his conscious and I thought Amir was a going to have to live with this overbearing guilt for the rest of his life. Although there will always be a trace of guilt within him, saving Sohrab , Hassan's son, and adopting him, I'm sure alleviated some of it. I like how the author made Sohrab and Hassan basically the same person so that Amir could "start over" and do things right this time around. Both Sohrab and Hassan went through the same things too; They both got raped by Assef and they both saved Amir from Assef with their slingshot. Even some actions that Sohrab does, such as the way he sits, reminds Amir of Hassan. Overall, this was an incredibly emotional and beautiful book and I'm glad to have read it.