The Kite Runner Chapters 13 - 18

The traditional Afghan ceremonies are rushed as it is evident to all that Amir’s father is not long for this world. Baba spends most of his life’s savings on the wedding, and it turns out to be a truly joyous affair for them. Amir wonders if Hassan had married someone yet, as he settles into married life. Soraya moves into their apartment and does her utmost to care for Baba. Amir cannot help but cry when he returns home to find Soraya reading Amir’s stories to Baba at his insistence. Amir is certain that his father dies peacefully as he is completely satisfied by the bliss that he receives through Amir and Soraya’s care. Amir is wracked with pain by the loss of his father, and amazed at the number of people who come for his funeral. All of them tell him that his father had been a great man as they list all the various ways in which he had helped people. Eventually, Amir braces himself against the loss with the help of his wife and in-laws. He gets his first novel published and purchases a house, while Soraya and he discuss their plans to start a family.

Amir and Soraya face a couple of troubling years as they discover that Soraya is unable to conceive. Amir thinks that he is being punished for his past sins which deem him unfit to be a father. Neither of them is interested in the prospect of adoption, so they sink themselves into their professions. As the narrative returns to 2001, Amir has just gotten off the phone with Rahim Khan, and he informs Soraya that he has to go to Pakistan. He walks into the park by himself and thinks that Rahim Khan’s words indicate that he had known about what had transpired between him and Hassan. He dreams about Hassan and gets on a plane to Pakistan the following evening.

Amir reaches Peshawar and finds Rahim Khan in an emaciated state. They make polite conversation about Amir’s life in America, and Rahim Khan details to him the sad state of Kabul since Amir had left the country. Rahim Khan talks about the terrible regime of the Taliban and ironically describes how the Taliban had first been welcomed to the city when they had ousted the Shorawi government. Rahim Khan reveals that he is teetering on the edge of life with cancer, and all doctors have promised him a swift death. He shocks Amir by informing him that he had been living in Amir’s old house with Hassan for the past few years.

At Amir’s insistence, Rahim Khan details how he had cared for their house after the departure, but his age had begun to wear him down. He knew where Ali had gone because Baba had told Rahim Khan about a cousin that Hassan’s father had in Hazarajat. Rahim Khan loaded up his car with diesel and headed into Hazarajat to find Hassan. He had little trouble finding him, but he was very disheartened to learn that Ali had died a couple of years ago due to a land mine. Hassan was very pleased to meet Rahim Khan and introduced him to his wife, Farzana, who was expecting their first child. Hassan asked Rahim Khan a lot of questions about Amir, and his life in America, and wept profusely when he heard of Baba’s death. Hassan had initially refused Rahim Khan’s offer of employment in Kabul as a caretaker, but the following morning he accepted it. He did not wish to let Baba’s house fall into ruin in Amir’s absence. He refused to live in the house and set himself up in the servant’s hut, where he had been born. He cleaned the whole house as if he was preparing for Amir’s return.

In winter, Farzana, Hassan’s wife delivered a stillborn little girl, and they buried her in the backyard. A mysterious old woman with deep scars on her face suddenly showed up at the house. The woman turned out to be Hassan’s mother, who had come to regret her decision of abandoning her son. Hassan ran away from home upon learning of her identity, but he returned a couple of days later and promised his mother a haven. He nursed her to health with his wife, and she in turn helped in the birthing of her grandson, Sohrab. Hassan was an ideal father, and the family was able to create a truly peaceful existence for themselves for a few years. Hassan’s mother got to spend four years with her grandson before she died in her sleep. Rahim Khan remembers how worried Hassan had been about the Hazaras when the Taliban’s victory had been confirmed. He was right to have been worried because just a couple of years after taking control of Kabul, the Taliban killed thousands of Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif.

Rahim Khan gives Amir a Polaroid picture of Hassan and his son, along with a letter from Hassan, in which he talks of their childhood and the current difficulties of life in Kabul. Amir is then devastated to learn that Hassan had been executed in the streets by the Taliban when he refused to evacuate Baba’s house in Rahim Khan’s absence. His wife had been killed by the Taliban as well while their son had been sent to an orphanage. Rahim Khan wished for Amir to travel to Kabul and retire the boy so that he could be given over to Christian missionaries that ran an orphanage in Pakistan. Amir is afraid of going to Kabul, but Rahim Khan says that Amir knows why he needs to do this. Furthermore, he reveals that Hassan had been Baba’s son and not Ali’s, but because Hassan had been illegitimate, Baba could never have claimed him. Amir is furious to learn that they had all hidden the truth of their parentage from him and Hassan. He leaves Rahim Khan’s apartment. He sits down in a tea house, still reeling from the news of his true relationship with Hassan. He thinks back on his father’s behavior towards Hassan, how angry he had been at Amir for suggesting new servants, the plastic surgeon he had hired for Hassan. Amir realizes that Rahim Khan’s task allows him to recuperate his lost honor as well as that of his father. He returns to Rahim Khan and tells him that he will retrieve Sohrab.

Analysis

Amir’s character is described to have reached a stagnation point in the novel before he receives a call from Rahim Khan. Although Amir has found success in the world as a writer and has contended with the loss of Baba, Amir is as yet haunted by the memory of Hassan’s rape. When Amir and Soraya fail to conceive a child, Amir’s natural inclination is to believe that he is being punished for what he had allowed to happen to Hassan. His hero’s journey finally begins when Amir accepts Rahim Khan’s invitation and goes to Pakistan. The Hero’s journey typically begins with supernatural aid provided by a parent figure, and Rahim Khan serves that role for Amir. He helps Amir’s spiritual journey by telling him about Hassan’s life in Kabul, and how he had yet again sacrificed himself in defense of Amir and Baba’s property. Furthermore, he shocks Amir by revealing to him the blood relation he shared with Hassan through their shared father, and establishes the moral grounds that push Amir to risk his own life for the sake of rescuing his dead half-brother’s son.