There is also use of short sentence structure as Amir describes the difference between him and Hassan that there was a huge difference between them, Hosseni used short sentecnes to break down into small sentences and sum up his speech as Amir says “and nothing was ever going to change that. Nothing”. The author Khaled Hosseni in this novel uses quite a lot of five sense to describe the atmosphere, as Amir says through first person narrative “ we took strolls in the mussty-smelling bazaars…and walked amid the bustling crowd of bazzaris. We snaked our way among the merchants”. The use of descriptive words in this novel builds up an accurate picture of Afghan back in the 1980’s.
We see in this chapter that Baba treats Hassan and Amir both the same even though Hassan was their servant, nowadays rarely anyone treats their servants as their own, this one of the reasons which drifts both friends apart. Amir is jealous of Hassan's athletic skill, and of the love Baba exhibits towards Hassan, juxtaposed by his contempt of Amir's "un-manly" behaviour and skills. Hosseini uses direct and indirect characterization to develop the characteristics Hassan and show his loyal and respectful personality by telling the readers directly and through Hassan’s actions. As like other writers Hosseini uses actions and words to develop a character; through the character themselves or through given knowledge by related characters.
We are also shown through showing method that Amir is a passive character whereas Hassan is active. Amir is very proud of his background and his father wealth as we are shown that he wanted to do whatever he could to please his father, he is also very materialistic as he says “the car that drew envious looks everywhere because it was the same car Steve McQueen had”. After school Amir would read books to Hassan since Hassan couldn’t afford to go to school, one summer Amir craved his and Hassan’s name on one of the tree. This was one of the key locations in this novel as it is where their friendship began and ended.
Hosseini also describes Amir as very competitive, as Amir did use to stop teaching Hassan things when he got better at them such as when he says “I saw he was far better at solving things then I was. So I read him unchallenging things.” This shows that Amir did not want Hassan to have this quality too, he already is better at sports and manly thing such as sticking up for himself as well as Amir, this was one of the reasons Baba kind of favored Hassan more. Amir was also a character who liked to mock, he mocked Hassan because he was illiterate, it shows that he gained pleasure when Hassan didn’t know some words while he read story to him as he says “felt the sting of my tease” show the readers he deliberately teased him because he himself wanted to show off his power of knowledge he had which Hassan didn’t posses.
Even though he was a cruel character, he did feel guilty later because of his words and actions he would make it up to Hassan by giving “one of his old shirts or broken toys”. He thought that this was enough for a “harmless prank”, the use of language that Amir uses shows the lack of religion and moral values he had, also showing how he was brought up. Hosseini has also used foreshadowing method in this chapter when Amir mentions that Hassan’s sympathy for the dying son called Sohrab in one of the stories Amir use to read to him as “sometimes tears pooled in Hassan’s eyes”, we as readers are told that later on Hassan also names his son Sohrab. Hosseini uses foreshadowing device a lot in his novel to create suspense and excitement in his writing.
There is also use of archaic language when Amir presents the words of Rostam’s dying son as he says ‘thou’ and ‘didst’ to inform the readers that the story that Hassan liked the most was written long time ago. One of the things that inspired Amir to write his own story when he pretends to read to Hassan a made up story just to see if he realizes as he says Hassan was oblivious. Although Amir’s idea was to mock Hassan’s naïve character, he realizes that he has discovered something that he never had before with the use of simile he describes himself as a “man who discovered buried treasure in his own backyard”. Hosseini used simile to express Amir’s emotion to the readers making the sentence more vivid and entertaining. The story the Amir writes represents him and Hassan mixed together, Hassan as “poor and rarely shed a tear” and him as a greedy man as he was greedy for his fathers love and affection.
As Amir presents his story to his father, all he gets is a sarcastic praise saying “well that’s very good, isn’t it?” this shows the readers that he father didn’t want him to have interest in literature, because he thought that’s what women do. Earlier on in the chapters we see that even Hassan’s mother was into Literature, this shows the readers he took after his mum not his father whereas Hassan did as he was manly. The response that Baba gives to Amir is very unappreciating, he says that sometimes he wished he could “open his veins and drained his cursed blood from his body” showing the reader what Amir felt about his own father. However the person who always rescued Amir was Rahim khan, Hosseini presents him more as a father-figure to Amir then Baba in this novel. We also see that the same choice of language used by Hassan and Rahim Khan when Amir reads his own written story to them as they both say “Bravo” this could suggest to the readers that they both were kind-hearted and gentle to Amir.
Hosseini also presents us with Amir’s inner feelings as Hassan comments about his story, Amir tells himself not to listen to the illiterate Hazara who was only born to cook. This can suggest to the readers that Amir was a selfish man who only liked being listened to not the other way round, he was also the opposite of what Hassan was, sweet and kind-hearted. Hosseini using the technique of foreshadowing presented to the readers the main themes of betrayal, guilt, loyalty and redemption in this chapter.