Chapter 3

Chapter 3:

1.       Baba is Amir’s father.  He is a wealthy businessman and holds himself to a high moral code. He shows the quality of high moral standards through his wanting Amir to stand up for himself and have the courage to do what is right.

2.       Baba is the philanthropist who builds a local orphanage for the community. This shows, as mentioned above, of his high moral code and his want to help others. This is just one way he shows it.

3.       Amir tells the lie that Hassan is ill because he wants to spend time with Baba alone, and doesn’t want Hassan there as well.

4.       This quotation tells us about Baba. Amir relates that he is a man who takes control and wants things to be to his liking. Amir loves his father, but also fears him a little as well because “you can’t love a person who lives that way without fearing him too. Maybe even hating him a little.” Amir may hate Baba a little because he never fit the standards Baba set for him.

5.       Amir is confused by the conflicting teachings of school and home. Baba drinks liquor and the priest taught him at school that drinking is a sin. He is confused because Baba is a good man and not a sinner.

6.       When Amir tells Baba about the conflicting teachings, Baba tells him the following: “ Now, no matter what the Mullah teaches, there is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Do you understand that?...When you kill a man you steal a life…you steal his wife’s right to a husband, his children to a father… when you tell a lie you steal someone’s right to the truth…When you cheat, you steal the right to fairness. Do you see?”

7.       A pivotal experience in Baba’s lifetime is when he is told he cannot do something. He is told he will never marry well or succeed in building his own house. He disproved them and became one of the most prominent men in the city.

8.       Amir excels in writing poetry and fiction stories. He won some school competitions and enjoys reading his mother’s books. She also was a poet.

9.       Baba is really concerned for Amir because he has no courage and no potential to play sports. Baba takes this for lack of courage and perhaps weakness. This is related to Rahim Khan and he responds telling Baba that “children are not a coloring book, you can’t fill in the lines with your favorite colors.”

10.   This quotation is about weakness. Baba feels that without courage, you grow to be a weak man, and not a leader. This is said in relation to Amir.

11.   Amir may have felt downhearted and unloved overhearing this conversation about him being not fully up to Baba’s explanations.