The Kite Runner (Response 4)

The worse laceration was on your upper lip,” Armand said. “The impact had cute your upper lip in two, clean down the middle. But not to worry, the plastics guys sewed it back together and they think you will have an excellent result, though there will be a scar. That is unavoidable” ( 297).

“But as I watched a pigeon peck at a bread crumb on the windowsill, I kept thinking of something else Armand/Dr. Faruqi had said, “The impact had cut your upper lip in two,” he had said, clean down the middle. Clean down the middle. Like a harelip” (297).

When I read this page, my mouth dropped open. In the beginning of the book, Hazara had been born with a harelip and had suffered for it. Now Amir has a scar just like him. He had acquired it by saving Hazara’s son from the same fate as his father. This is a huge example of irony and symbolism. It is ironic that he has a scar exactly like Hazara and symbolic because Amir is trying to save Hazara’s son from the same horrible fate that his he had to suffer.
I really just couldn’t believe that Amir will now have to have a scar, one exactly like Hazara’s. This scar will always be with him, and when he looks in the mirror, he will constantly be reminded of Hazara and the life he lived, and the sin Amir committed.