A a key part in the story of the Kite Runner; the events that occur are so drastic that the chapters preceding it prepare us for the scenes and the following chapters deal with its aftershock. Many of the tensions have been building till now, the way Amir abuses Hassan’s loyalty, his desperation to please his father and the question of whether he can stand up for what right; all come together in the events of this chapter.
Finally, in this chapter, the readers are faced with the much anticipated events of the “winter of 1975” that scar Amir for the rest of his life. Hosseini’s use of structure therefore, is particularly effective in teasing the readers for the first 7 chapters before the rape and help to build up the growing tension of treatment of Hazaras by Pashtuns. The author’s use of structure is further highlighted in this chapter by the way he introduces “a memory”, “a memory” and “a dream” immediately before Hassan’s rape to again slow down the pace and help to highlight the significance of what is about to occur.
Hosseini starts the chapter by using dreams to help tell the story. Hassan tells Amir that in his dream, “a monster had come to the lake” and later claims there was “no monster, just water.” The dream here could be used to subtly prepare the readers for the horrific events that are to follow and to warn Hassan to keep away from the ‘monster’; whether this monster is Amir or Assef however is open to interpretation. If however, as suggested later by Amir, that “Hassan had made up his dream”, then the use of it helps to characterize the loyal servant Hassan who is willing to go to any extremes to bring comfort to Amir. Later Amir ironically claims, “Upstairs, I could hear the water running in Baba’s bathroom”, the short sentence of which implying that to Amir, Baba is the monster from the lake and he is the only person Amir is afraid of.
Hosseini