The Kite Runner Chapter 22 Quotes
The Kite Runner Chapter 22 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
"Bia, bia, my boy," the Talib said, calling Sohrab to him. Sohrab went to him, head down, stood between his thighs. The Talib wrapped his arms around the boy. "How talented he is, nay, my Hazara boy!" he said. His hands slid down the child's back, then up, felt under his armpits. One of the guards elbowed the other and snickered. The Talib told them to leave us alone.
"Yes, Agha sahib," they said as they exited.
The Talib spun the boy around so he faced me. He locked his arms around Sohrab's belly, rested his chin on the boy's shoulder. Sohrab looked down at his feet, but kept stealing shy, furtive glances at me. The man's hand slid up and down the boy's belly. Up and down, slowly, gently. (22.57-59)
Assef is so evil. We wonder, though, how much Assef (and the guards) have affected Sohrab. Sohrab stares at his feet and shyly glances at Amir. Don't these gestures still have something innocent in them? Later, in their hotel room, Sohrab will tell Amir how "dirty" he feels, but these glances suggest that Sohrab, like Hassan, retains an essential goodness and innocence despite the evil of the world around him.
Quote 2
He [Assef] leaned toward me, like a man about to share a great secret. "You don't know the meaning of the word 'liberating' until you've done that, stood in a roomful of targets, let the bullets fly, free of guilt and remorse, knowing you are virtuous, good, and decent. Knowing you're doing God's work. It's breathtaking." He kissed the prayer beads, tilted his head. [...].
I had read about the Hazara massacre in Mazar-i-Sharif in the papers. It had happened just after the Taliban took over Mazar, one of the last cities to fall. I remembered Soraya handing me the article over breakfast, her face bloodless.
[Assef:] "[...]. We left the bodies in the streets, and if their families tried to sneak out to drag them back into their homes, we'd shoot them too. We left them in the streets for days. We left them for the dogs. Dog meat for dogs." (22.24-26)
Since ethnicity and religion intertwine inextricably in the Afghanistan of The Kite Runner, Assef justifies ethnic cleansing through religion. This is problematic. Assef has ultimate justification – God's will – for what amounts to murder. (We can imagine the daily and more common persecutions this justification must bring about as well.) Although Hosseini paints Assef as an extreme character, in the end Hosseini sheds some light on the bizarre and false justifications of ethnic prejudices in Afghanistan.
Assef's brow twitched. "Like pride in your people, your customs, your language. Afghanistan is like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage, and someone has to take out the garbage."
[Amir:] "That's what you were doing in Mazar, going door-to-door? Taking out the garbage?"
[Assef:] "Precisely."
"In the west, they have an expression for that," I said. "They call it ethnic cleansing." (22.86-89)
This is what we in the literature business like to call a "BOOYA!" moment. Assef carelessly uses a metaphor – taking out the garbage – which suggests "cleaning" or "cleansing." Amir takes advantage of the implicit metaphor and tells it like it is: Assef committed the crime of genocide. Notice, too, how Amir participates in the clichés of action films. We can imagine Schwarzenegger letting fly a zinger like this one. Coincidence? Maybe not. The number of references to Hollywood films actually outnumbers the references to Afghani politicians.