- Nostalgia
- Sort of romanticised. Links to memory/reflection
- Bittersweet. When looking back, he
- Memory + Reflection
- Always looks back on things that has happened in his childhood
- Lots of guilt intertwined in his narrative. Remorse is a major theme within this theme
- Bitter feeling towards Baba’s actions (e.g. with Hassan, ‘He didn’t say anything. Not then, not ever. He just kept walking.’)
- Has a strong sense of memory, not fading
- Describes Hassan’s features is in great detail. Also reflects on what his friend is like, relates him to a doll. There’s something he associates Hassan with.
- Religion + Discrimination
- Pashtun vs. Shazarahs (?). Pashtun is seen as the superior tribe
- e.g. when they were in school, made the Shazarahs as the bad people/enemy
- The sin explanation: shows that the different lifestyles/cultures of Pashtuns (sunnis) and the Shia.
- Shows how religion isn’t taken very seriously even though people pretend that it should be.
- Sexuality
- Sanaubar is objectified. ‘Tempted countless men into sin’
- It is a great deal to the society — would be seen as dirtied, and humiliated. Taboo?
- Relationships (Love/Hate)
- Amir and his father; one-sided. Fears his father but that breeds love
- Father still does little things for him and teaches his son a few things.
- Strained due to the absence of a female figure.
- Change
- Afghanistan being occupied by Russia, them having to move out etc.
- Amir and Baba having to adapt to USA, Amir having to grow out of his habits + Baba can’t
A Levels Revision 