How It All Goes Down
- We pick up right where Chapter 17 ended: Amir has just left Rahim Khan's and is storming the streets, angry about Baba's lies and betrayal.
- Amir orders some tea in a teahouse. He starts to go over all the signs he didn't understand as a boy, but which are abundantly clear now.
- Amir remembers Dr. Kumar fixing Hassan's harelip and how Baba never missed Hassan's birthday.
- Amir also remembers how violently Baba reacted when Amir suggested they get new servants. And how Baba wept when Hassan and Ali left.
- Amir considers Baba's principles: "There is only one sin. And that sin is theft [...]" (18.5). Baba stole Ali's honor and stole Hassan's identity and Amir's brother. But Amir also sees how similar he and Baba are: both betrayed "the people who would have given their lives for us" (18.7).
- Amir wonders if Ali and Hassan would have survived if he hadn't driven them out of the house. Amir begins to understand how, by saving Sohrab, he might atone for both Baba's sins and his own. Rahim Khan's phrase "There is a way to be good again" starts to make sense to Amir.
- Amir gives up. He'll travel to Kabul and find Sohrab.