The Kite Runner Chapter 13 Quotes
The Kite Runner Chapter 13 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
[Soraya:] "Their sons go out to nightclubs looking for meat and get their girlfriends pregnant, they have kids out of wedlock and no one says a goddamn thing. Oh, they're just men having fun! I make one mistake and suddenly everyone is talking nang and namoos, and I have to have my face rubbed in it for the rest of my life." (13.86)
Soraya slams Afghan culture for its double-standard with men and women. Men can go out to the club and have sex; women can't even have sex with a long-term boyfriend. We would also like to point out that Baba has a double-standard. He criticizes Amir for not standing up to the neighborhood boys. Well, how did Hassan get into this world? Baba had an affair with Ali's wife. That doesn't really count as standing up for your friend.
Quote 2
"I didn't tell you," Soraya said, dabbing at her eyes, "but my father showed up with a gun that night. He told...him...that he had two bullets in the chamber, one for him and one for himself if I didn't come home. I was screaming, calling my father all kinds of names, saying he couldn't keep me locked up forever, that I wished he were dead." Fresh tears squeezed out between her lids. "I actually said that to him, that I wished he were dead." (13.88)
Wow. General Taheri shows up one night to his daughter's apartment because she's been living with an Afghan man. We guess it's obvious from this passage how important honor is to General Taheri. He's willing to kill both himself and Soraya's boyfriend to save not only her honor but his own.
Quote 3
I kissed her cheek and pulled away from the curb. As I drove, I wondered why I was different. Maybe it was because I had been raised by men; I hadn't grown up around women and had never been exposed firsthand to the double standard with which Afghan society sometimes treated them. Maybe it was because Baba had been such an unusual Afghan father, a liberal who had lived by his own rules, a maverick who had disregarded or embraced societal customs as he had seen fit. (13.97)
Amir has just dropped off Soraya and wonders about the double standard women are subjected to in Afghan society. It seems like it's OK for men to sleep around before marriage, but it's not OK for women to do the same. (You have to wonder who the men think they're going to sleep with.) We think this passage is important because it points out just how male Amir's household and upbringing were. And since Amir betrays Hassan and is guilty of cowardice, he must have felt all the more isolated in his household. In fact, it seems like Amir craves a feminine mentor in the Kabul house. He reads all his mother's books and writes poetry instead of playing soccer or riding around on a horse with a dead goat in tow.