Point 2: Tone

The tone of the novel personified by the main character, Amir, is tremendously sour in taste, as it harps on the stomach-turning struggles of the third-world, war-stricken country, Afghanistan, and its tortured inhabitants. Often the voice of the narrator, Amir, is tainted with a slight screech of horror and defeat as he recollects his clandestine guilt that has been the albatross hung around his neck since his childhood. As Amir relives his painful childhood with his loyal friend, Hassan, he drills deep into the root cause of his daunting guilt and relentless suffering and revives the death of his own innocence, and, simultaneously, the death of Hassan’s virginity. With the crepuscular scene set, Assef and his human-puppets in criminal behavior in position in the dim alley, and Amir fearfully watching in the distance, Hassan sees the true face of sin as he is raped. Amir, possessed by trepidation’s immobilizing intimidation, is captivated in the stygian horrors of Hassan’s anguish. As Hassan loses his purity in flesh, he is defeated in spirit: “Hassan didn’t struggle. Didn’t even whimper. He moved his head slightly and I caught a glimpse of his face. Saw the resignation in it. It was a look I had seen before. It was the look of the lamb” (Hosseini, 81). This passage supports the defeated and deflated voice of Amir, although he speaks of Hassan specifically. This passage also demonstrates the depressing, sorrowful tone of the author that is present throughout the novel and in the author’s guilty conscience until the end were his tone changes to hopeful as he frees Sohrab.  Another instance that highlights Amir’s depressed and defeated attitude comes as he finally revisits Afghanistan, now desolated by numerous years of insurmountable civil strife and the obliteration of the fire-arms of war. He notes the grotesque changes that his conquered homeland has endured during his extensive absence with sincere melancholy in sound:

We has crossed the border and the signs of poverty were everywhere. On either side of the road, I saw chains of little villages sprouting here and there, like discarded toys among the rocks, broken mud houses and huts consisting of little more than four wooden poles and a tattered cloth as a roof. (Hosseini, 243)

The quotation manages to access the bitter sorrowful sound that stems from the guilty Amir as it forces Amir to a tone of disgust and pity. A third example of the tone taken by Amir comes with his retrospective outlook on the atrocious events that stirred his own deep, self-perpetuating defeated attitude. As he looks back at the events that shaped his emotional despair and guilt for countless decades, his voice, softly and elegantly, takes a tone of torment and slight embellishment: “”Well,” I began. But I never got to finish that sentence. Because suddenly Afghanistan changed forever” (Hosseini, 37).  Overall, the tone found within the voice of Amir allows the reader to understand the impact that moment has on the development of the novel and, in the grand scheme of things, the entire mood of the novel as well.