The ending was predictable and yet it wasn't.
Once Amir realized that he had to go find Sohrab and bring him to safety, I instantly thought that Amir would end up having to to adopt him. I didn't know know if it would be because Amir would become attached to him or for some other reason, I just had a gut instinct that it would happen. However, I did not predict that Amir would have to go through one more struggle of getting Sohrab to interact with him again. I thought Sohrab's silence was a lot like Hassan's silence after his fight with Assef. They were both sparked by Amir not being a great person to them. The author main a lot of the similarities between Hassan and Sohrab noticeable which I thought was interesting. I am thankful that the author did not end the book with Amir and Sohrab safely making it to the U.S. and returning to life easily because that would have been a very predictable way to end. I am glad he added in that struggle of introducing Sohrab to the American culture. I enjoy when author's catch reader's by surprise.
I thought at the end of the novel Amir had finally fully matured. The last hurdle he needed to get over was making promises he couldn't keep. On page 310, Amir says to Sohrab that he is very sorry on going back on his promise to not send him to an orphanage and that it "will never happen again". Amir realizes that he made one of the biggest mistakes that he could have made towards Sohrab. At this point in the novel Amir feels responsible for Hassan's death and he wants to make sure that the same thing doesn't happen with Sohrab. He shows that he is being responsible and trying to care for him which shows he is maturing. A final way that Amir shows he has matured is he realizes the turmoil his father was going through back in Afghanistan so he finally understands why he felt his father under-appreciated him, but he wants to be the best father he can to Sohrab, even if Sohrab doesn't want to be there. I think that is the final symbol that Amir has fully matured.
From reading your posts, it seems like this book is a "coming of age" story. Would you characterize it as this? And if so, does it follow the classic coming of age structure?
ReplyDeleteGood discussion of the end and the importance of the complications of the ending. I hadn't considered this before, but it seems similar to Song of Solomon, in that both characters have to come to terms with mistakes of their pasts and with the behavior of parents figures. The situations are certainly different, but the parallels are interesting.
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