How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
But as we spoke, I caught his eyes drifting again and again to Sohrab sleeping on the couch. As if we were skirting around the edge of what he really wanted to know.
The skirting finally came to an end over dinner when the general put down his fork and said, "So, Amir jan, you're going to tell us why you have brought back this boy with you?"
"Iqbal jan! What sort of question is that?" Khala Jamila said.
"While you're busy knitting sweaters, my dear, I have to deal with the community's perception of our family. People will ask. They will want to know why there is a Hazara boy living with our daughter. What do I tell them?"
Soraya dropped her spoon. Turned on her father. "You can tell them – " [...]
"It's all right." I turned to the general. "You see, General Sahib, my father slept with his servant's wife. She bore him a son named Hassan. Hassan is dead now. That boy sleeping on the couch is Hassan's son. He's my nephew. That's what you tell people when they ask."
They were all staring at me.
"And one more thing, General Sahib," I said. "You will never again refer to him as 'Hazara boy' in my presence. He has a name and it's Sohrab." (25.89-98)
On the one hand, The Kite Runner shows us extreme ethnic hatred through the character of Assef. But what about more common prejudice – the kind that doesn't necessarily result in violence but that still poisons a society? Even though General Sahib is a likable character, we see a nastier side of him here. (In Chapter 13, we already saw how violently the General defended his family's honor when Soraya left home to live with another man.) With the General, Hosseini depicts ethnic intolerance in the very fabric of a society. An otherwise good person, General Sahib asks, "What will respectable people say about my daughter's adopted son?" By having an unexceptional character question Soraya's living arrangements, Hosseini casts doubt on Afghan society. Here's a more or less normal guy, Hosseini says, and he is prejudiced. It seems that in many ways the problem is not personal but societal.