![]() ![]() But clearly Amir's childhood was better than his young adulthood, and the implication is that it was better than most of his adult life, too. Amir doesn't remember the exact month or even year because a child's sense of time isn't the same as an adult's. The memory that sustains Amir during the ride in the tank of a fuel truck symbolizes Amir's childhood and innocence. It is quite significant that when Baba instructs Amir to think of something happy, the thoughts are of a time before the winter of 1975, suggesting that the past five years have not been happy ones. ![]() ![]() There obviously were major changes in Afghanistan, the details of which are only alluded to here but are made more apparent later in the novel. The jump of five years indicates that nothing of major significance has occurred in Amir's personal life between the time he betrayed Hassan and the escape he and his father made. Chapter 10 ends with Kamal's father committing suicide after the death of his son due to the gas fumes in the tanker. In order to help him through this ordeal, Amir thinks of a pleasant memory of him and Hassan flying kites.Īfter they climb out of the fuel truck, Amir sums up the total of Baba's existence in Pakistan: "One disappointing son and two suitcases." Yet the suitcases are not the final image of the chapter. Although the truck that was supposed to transport them is beyond repair, an offer is made to smuggle the refugees in a fuel truck. Catching snippets of conversation, Amir overhears that Kamal had an encounter with four men who presumably treated him the way Assef treated Hassan. Among those others is Kamal, one of the boys who hung around Assef. When the truck isn't ready to take them on to Peshawar, Amir realizes he is in a dark basement room with about thirty others. Once again, Amir's cowardice is a source of embarrassment for Baba. At one of the checkpoints, a Russian soldier demands thirty minutes with one of the female passengers, yet Baba stands up to him. Amir hints at the changes Afghanistan has endured during the past five years and the terror state it has become. An eighteen-year-old Amir and his father are leaving Kabul in the middle of the night to the relative safety of Pakistan. The preface to Chapter 10 is "March 1981," moving the narrative forward five years. ![]()
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