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Kite Runner: Chapter 10
Element

Notes

Plot summary

In this tragic chapter the narrative has jumped forward 5 years
and Amir is now 18
...
Amir reflects on what he’s left
behind
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After a more
senior soldier apologises, they make their way to a basement in
Jalalabad where they stay for a week before travelling to
Peshawar (Pakistan) on a fuel tanker
...


Characters

Any of the truck passengers (especially the couple with the
baby), Baba, Karim the truck driver and the Russian soldier
...
This
weakness contrasts Baba’s admiration of male strength and
pride, which was highlighted through his love of Assef, but Amir
can never live up to his stereotypical views of masculinity
...
Amir and Baba’s hasty exit from Kabul is demonstrated
through their 2am start, the plates left in the sink and the fact that
they’re squashed into the back of an old Russian truck
...
This creates a ghostly image which mirrors the life of
power and dignity which Baba is leaving behind
...

This disloyalty is mirrored through the fact that Baba has had 7
servants in 5 years
...
Children in
Kabul used to be free to run around, but now the Soviets have
restricted every part of their lives with curfews and soldiers
aggressively patrolling the pavements
...
It is clear that the city is no longer safe and that
Baba and Amir want to leave (despite this meaning that Baba
had to bribe a people smuggler to take them across the border,
suggesting his loss of morals)
...
This sense of
intimidation and death is heightened through his obvious strength
as he ​“crushed gravel”
...
The use of shorter
sentences create tension whilst the soldier’s singing of an old
Afghan marriage song appears both disrespectful and ironic: he
is about to attempt to rape a woman with no regard her honour
...
This also adds to a sense of pack
mentality and highlights the power that the soldiers have over the
migrants
...

Baba refuses to conform in all aspects of his life, even if it means
risking his life to prevent the rape of a stranger
...
Cynically, this may suggest that
Baba is trying to be the hero from a Western movie and that he
still cares about other people’s opinions of him
...
This mindset also
makes him appear irrational and even irresponsible, as Amir is
still presented as a child
...
Baba’s heroism is a stark contrast
from Amir’s ignorance of Hassan’s rape which is further
reinforced by Amir refusing to look when he believes the soldier
shot his father
...

The second Russian officer is presented as a mature
father-figure (​“gray-haired and heavyset”​) for the first officer and
appears to be his superior
...

Corruption and exploitation are shown through the migrants’ stay
in the basement in Jalalabad
...
Like Baba
said, Karim (the truck driver) was already paid for his duty so the
lie about his brother’s truck breaking down wouldn’t have
bothered him
...

Baba appears to be very fatalistic as he has no qualms about
killing Karim (until the almost-raped woman intervenes)
...
He appears to have the spirit of a
young, naive man but instead he perhaps feels worthless now
that he’s left behind his thriving businesses and community
projects
...

Through Kamal’s father, we find out that Kamal was raped by 4
men which is darkly ironic as he assisted in Hassan’s rape earlier
in the novel
...
hunched
...
H
​ assan also developed these
characteristics following the incident with Assef, and Kamal’s
father’s remarks about a spot of blood on his pants is also eerily
similar to Hassan’s rape too
...
This
moment is particularly poignant as it shows his patriotism and
resignation to the belief that he may never return to Afghanistan
again
...
Amir also uses lots of
sensory language as the fuel truck is pitch black
...
Something
happy”
...
His happy memory is extremely sad as
it depicts his past life and the loss of innocence and childhood
...
This leads him to take
Karim’s gun and shoot himself
...

Context

The Soviet army entered Afghanistan in 1979 to oppose the
Afghan Mujahideen rebels – starting a war that would last until
1989
...

Khyber Pass is identified as the natural border between
Russian-held lands and the Indian subcontinent
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Juxtaposition: father /son, strength/weakness
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Afghan
vocabulary

Shorawi​ = Soviets
...

Rafiqs​ = companions
...

Roussi​ = Russians

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