Motifs

The motifs I have provided pictures for are: Baba and the black bear, blood and redemption.

The story of Baba wrestling a black bear appears multiple times in the story. The quote is from when the story is first mentioned by Amir in his childhood, in which Amir cannot tell the difference between Baba and the bear. This was meant to show Amir's idea of Baba; that Baba was incredibly strong, as if he were a black bear. Later in the story, when Amir is hallucinating after his fight with Assef, he sees Baba wrestling the bear again, but this time when he sees his father's face, he sees his own instead, which represents the strength he showed when rescuing Sohrab.

When Soraya and Amir bring up the idea of adoption to General Taheri, he says that "blood is a powerful thing", which is a recurring idea throughout the novel. In society, blood is the decider of one's place in society. The gap between Pashtuns and Hazara is caused by cultural, and religious differences, but primarily the issue of blood, which makes them appear different. Among families, bloodline is important in marriage because the main concern for couples is marrying into good families. And with Hassan being part Hazara, his blood is worth less than a Pashtun's, which is why Baba didn't tell anyone that Hassan was his son, because it would bring shame onto the family.

Ever since Hassan was raped, Amir carried guilt with him for not doing anything to stop it from happening. From that point on, he wanted to atone so that he could relieve himself of the guilt. But he didn't know how to do it, though he tried to redeem himself by getting Hassan to pelt him with pomegranates, which failed. So  he ended up keeping it with him even when he went to America. When Rahim gave him a chance to redeem himself by allowing him to get Sohrab out of Afghanistan, he achieves the redemption he sought, after years of harbouring the guilt from his childhood.