The Kite Runner (Response #3)

“Strange,” I said.
“What?”
“I feel like a tourist in my own country,” I said, taking in a goathered leading a half-dozen emaciated goats along the side of the road. Farid snickered. Tossed his cigarette. “You still think of this place as your country?”
“I think a part of me always will,” I said, more defensively than I had intended.
“After twenty years of living in America,” he said, swerving the truck to avoid a pothole the size of a beach ball.
I nodded. “I grew up in Afghanistan.”
Farid snickered again (232).

I think what the author is saying through Farid is true. Amir has been away from the troubles in Afghanistan for twenty years and acts like he knows what everyone in this poor country is going through. Amir still feels like his is a part of his country but his country doesn’t feel a part of him.
Farid the taxi driver later goes on to elaborate on why he was snickering to Amir. He tells him that his father was probably very wealth, drove an American car, and he went to school all day. Amir is taken back by this because this taxi driver is spot on. Amir feels like this is rude and uncalled for because Afghanistan will always be his home, it’s where he grew up.

The author is adding on guilt to Amir for him believing that this was once the country he called home. He had never had to experience the difficulties of poverty like almost every other Afghan. Amir is building up so much guilt that later on the is physically ill and has the driver pull over. All of his emotions from the past are coming out, and this doesn’t leave Amir in very good shape at all. He has come to Afghanistan though, and plans to look his past in the face to deal with it.