Flashback

"Then I blinked and, for just a moment, the hands holding the spool were the chipped-nailed, calloused hands of a harelipped boy. I heard a crow cawing somewhere and I looked up. The park shimmered with snow so fresh, so dazzling white, it burned my eyes. It sprinkled soundlessly from the branches of white-clad trees. I smelled turnip qurma now. Dried mulberries. Sour oranges. Sawdust and walnuts. The muffled quiet, snow-quiet, was deafening. Then far away, across the stillness, a voice calling us home, the voice of a man who dragged his right leg." In this quote from chapter 25, Amir looks back at the good times he had with Hassan. Here, the author is using a flashback. One minute, Amir is flying a kite with a happy Sohrab, who is rarely ever happy, and the next he is with Hassan flying a similar kite. This is intended to call attention to the symbolism of his relationship with Sohrab. Amir tries greatly to make up for his failings with Hassan by treating Sohrab as he wished he had treated Hassan. Looking back, it was clear to Amir that he had taken his relationship with Hassan for granted, and it became his goal not to take Sohrab for granted. The comparison between flying the kites is stark because it shows the similarities in the father and son. Neither was ever quite as happy as they were flying kites. It was a way for them to forget everything else and drown the bad out. This ties a genuine connection to Hassan and Sohrab.