The Kite Runner Chapter 13 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
[Soraya:] "Their sons go out to nightclubs looking for meat and get their girlfriends pregnant, they have kids out of wedlock and no one says a goddamn thing. Oh, they're just men having fun! I make one mistake and suddenly everyone is talking nang and namoos, and I have to have my face rubbed in it for the rest of my life." (13.86)
Soraya slams Afghan culture for its double-standard with men and women. Men can go out to the club and have sex; women can't even have sex with a long-term boyfriend. We would also like to point out that Baba has a double-standard. He criticizes Amir for not standing up to the neighborhood boys. Well, how did Hassan get into this world? Baba had an affair with Ali's wife. That doesn't really count as standing up for your friend.
Quote 2
"I didn't tell you," Soraya said, dabbing at her eyes, "but my father showed up with a gun that night. He told...him...that he had two bullets in the chamber, one for him and one for himself if I didn't come home. I was screaming, calling my father all kinds of names, saying he couldn't keep me locked up forever, that I wished he were dead." Fresh tears squeezed out between her lids. "I actually said that to him, that I wished he were dead." (13.88)
Wow. General Taheri shows up one night to his daughter's apartment because she's been living with an Afghan man. We guess it's obvious from this passage how important honor is to General Taheri. He's willing to kill both himself and Soraya's boyfriend to save not only her honor but his own.
Quote 3
I kissed her cheek and pulled away from the curb. As I drove, I wondered why I was different. Maybe it was because I had been raised by men; I hadn't grown up around women and had never been exposed firsthand to the double standard with which Afghan society sometimes treated them. Maybe it was because Baba had been such an unusual Afghan father, a liberal who had lived by his own rules, a maverick who had disregarded or embraced societal customs as he had seen fit. (13.97)
Amir has just dropped off Soraya and wonders about the double standard women are subjected to in Afghan society. It seems like it's OK for men to sleep around before marriage, but it's not OK for women to do the same. (You have to wonder who the men think they're going to sleep with.) We think this passage is important because it points out just how male Amir's household and upbringing were. And since Amir betrays Hassan and is guilty of cowardice, he must have felt all the more isolated in his household. In fact, it seems like Amir craves a feminine mentor in the Kabul house. He reads all his mother's books and writes poetry instead of playing soccer or riding around on a horse with a dead goat in tow.
Quote 4
Earlier, at the gravesite in the small Muslim section of the cemetery, I had watched them lower Baba into the hole. The mullah and another man got into an argument over which was the correct ayat of the Koran to recite at the gravesite. It might have turned ugly had General Taheri not intervened. The mullah chose an ayat and recited it, casting the other fellow nasty glances. I watched them toss the first shovelful of dirt into the grave. Then I left. Walked to the other side of the cemetery. Sat in the shade of a red maple. (13.60)
On an emotional level, this event must pain Amir quite a bit. Here he is trying to mourn his father – to say goodbye to his father – and the mullah and some dude are arguing about the prayer. We at Shmoop want to say to the mullah and this other guy: "Forget about the prayers – you two are the improper ones!" In the larger context of religion in the novel, though, Hosseini comments on the occasional divisiveness of religion. In the cemetery scene, both the mullah and the man miss their more important religious obligation, which is not the correct prayer, but compassion for Amir and respect for his deceased father.
Quote 5
As words from the Koran reverberated through the room, I thought of the old story of Baba wrestling a black bear in Baluchistan. Baba had wrestled bears his whole life. Losing his young wife. Raising a son by himself. Leaving his beloved homeland, his watan. Poverty. Indignity. In the end, a bear had come that he couldn't best. But even then, he had lost on his own terms. (13.51)
Somehow, during Amir's childhood, and while they lived in Afghanistan, death and illness never seemed like threats to someone like Baba. The wild forces of nature (a.k.a. a bear) couldn't contend with Baba – so why should a disease pose any threat? But once these things do happen to Baba, he starts to seem very human. It's possible, though, that because Baba ages and has trouble adapting to life in America, Amir is able to reconcile with his past. This man who towered over Amir reveals a more human side, which might help Amir accept his own failings.