Chapter 19

Question 1

Why did Amir wear a chest-length fake beard?

Answer 1

in order to appear Taliban friendly

Question 2

What does Farid say to Amir, showing that he is dismissive him of him?

Answer 2

“You’ve always been a tourist here, you just didn’t know it.”

Question 3

‘“You’ve _____ ____ _ _______ _____, you just didn’t know it.”

Answer 3

always been a tourist here,

Question 4

Where do Amir and Farid stop?

Answer 4

Jalalabad

Question 5

What does Amir admit to Wahid when he asks what his business is?

Answer 5

that Hassan, a Hazara, was his half brother and he was going to rescue his nephew

Question 6

What does Amir think that the Wahid’s boys are looking at, and what are they really looking at?

Answer 6

his watch

food

Question 7

What does Amir do before he leaves Wahid’s house?

Answer 7

he puts money under a mattress

Question 8

How does Farid and others who stayed in Afghanistan view Amir?

Answer 8

as an American

Question 9

What is interesting about the fact that Amir sees himself as an Afghani, yet Farid sees him as an American?

Answer 9

It raises the question of what it means to be an American, or what it means to be an Afghani. Is it country, birth, origin? Is it socioeconomic status?

Question 10

Amir put money underneath a mattress at Wahid’s home, what does this show?

Answer 10

that he was on the path of atonement as this symbolic gesture mirrors chapter 9 when he hid money under Hassan’s mattress to banish him, and banish his guilt.

Question 11

What is Amir dressed in when he is driven by Farid?

Answer 11

an Afghan hat called a pakol and wears a fake beard

Question 12

What does Farid point to, telling Amir that that is the real Afghanistan?

Answer 12

an old man in ragged clothing

Question 13

What does Amir dream while in Wahid’s home?

Answer 13

that a man was shooting Hassan, and he realises that he is the man in the dream

Question 14

There is a twist of irony in that Amir realises he can share Baba’s greatest virtue, what is this?

Answer 14

the courage to do what is right

Question 15

Why did Amir make himself responsible for the deaths of Ali and Hassan?

Answer 15

as had it not been for his actions, Ali and Hassan would not have left for Hazarajat and both may still be alive

Question 16

In saving Sohrab, he will be figuratively saving _____?

Answer 16

Hassan

Question 17

Although Amir left behind his wealthy life when he and Baba left Afghanistan, he still never had to endure what?

Answer 17

the normal life of an Afghani during the 1980’s and 1990’s

Question 18

Why does Farid treat amir contemptuously?

Answer 18

due to class, as Amir was allowed to escape because of his wealth while most Afghans could barely afford food

Question 19

what is symbolic of the fact that Amir hides money under Wahid’s mattress?

Answer 19

this rectifies his actions in framing Hassan back in his youth

Question 20

What does seeing the country in this state compare to for Amir?

Answer 20

this compares to seeing his internal landscape ravaged by all the years of guilt, both for Hassan and for his abandonment of his homeland; such can be made clear when he comments “My mother had died on this soil. And on this soil, I had fought for my father’s love”

Question 21

How are the children on the streets dressed in this chapter?

Answer 21

children are “dressed in rags”

Question 22

What is significant of the fact that Farid exclaims “You’ve always been a tourist here, you just didn’t know it.”

Answer 22

as this reflects how Amir is not one with the indigenous people and his childhood was indeed not typical nor representative of Afghanistan at the time. This suggestion is that Amir has never truly understood the Afghan culture because he had been insulated from the reality by his father