The Kite Runner: Chapter 24 Summary & Analysis

Amir, Farid, and Sohrab arrive in Islamabad, and Amir is impressed with its size and cleanliness – to him it looks like the city “Kabul could have become someday.” They pass the Shah Faisal mosque, one of the largest mosques in the world, and Sohrab appears interested in it. They arrive at a nice hotel and Sohrab starts watching TV in silence. Farid says goodbye, and Amir gives him more than two thousand dollars and thanks him for all his help.

Amir takes a pain pill and falls asleep, and when he wakes up Sohrab is gone. The hotel manager is unhelpful, and implies that Amir is a bad father. Amir starts to get desperate, but then he remembers Sohrab’s fascination with the huge mosque. He finds Sohrab in the parking lot, looking at the mosque. Sohrab talks a little bit about his parents, and then Amir talks about Baba. Amir gives Sohrab the snapshot of Hassan.

Sohrab starts crying softly and asks if he will go to hell for what he did to Assef. Amir says that Assef deserved it and more, and explains that Assef had hurt Hassan very badly when he was a boy. Sohrab says sometimes he is glad is parents aren’t around anymore, because he doesn’t want them to see him so dirty and sinful. Amir says he is not dirty or sinful, and Sohrab lets him hug him for a while. Then Amir asks if Sohrab wants to go back to America with him, but Sohrab doesn’t answer.

For a week afterward, neither Amir nor Sohrab mentions America, but one day they are playing cards and Sohrab asks about San Francisco. Then Amir tells him the truth about Hassan – that they were half-brothers, but neither of them knew. Sohrab guesses it is because Hassan was a Hazara, and he wonders if Baba was ashamed of him, but Amir says Baba was only ashamed of himself.

Later that day Sohrab asks about San Francisco again, and Amir describes the fog. Sohrab worries that Amir or his wife will get tired of him if he goes to America, but Amir promises that they won’t. Sohrab then makes Amir promise not to send him back to an orphanage, and then Sohrab agrees to go to America. Amir calls Soraya, who has been sick with worry, and explains everything to her, including the story of his betrayal of Hassan. At the end of the story, Soraya says Amir must bring Sohrab back with him, and she is excited to meet him.

The next day Amir goes with Sohrab to the American embassy. They meet with a man named Raymond Andrews, who listens to Amir’s story and then bluntly tells him that it will be almost impossible to adopt Sohrab. Without death certificates for his parents, they cannot prove that Sohrab is an orphan, and usually the cooperation of the country in origin is necessary, and there is no American embassy in Kabul. When Amir insists, Andrews suggests that he could talk to an immigration lawyer named Omar Faisal, but otherwise he should give up the endeavor.

Amir asks if Andrews has any children, and Andrews says no. Amir then leaves angrily with Sohrab, and on the way out he comments about Andrews’ rudeness to his secretary. She explains that Andrews’ daughter recently committed suicide.

They return to the hotel and Sohrab takes a long bath. Amir wonders when he will begin to feel cleaned of the sexual abuse. Amir calls Soraya, and she says she has a family member who can contact his colleagues at the immigration office. The next day Amir and Sohrab meet with Faisal, the lawyer. He says the adoption will be difficult, but not impossible. He says the best option is to put Sohrab in an orphanage, fill out the forms, and then wait for up to two years for the government’s approval.

That night, Amir tells Sohrab that he thinks he will be able to come to America, but first he might have to go back to an orphanage for a while. When he hears that, Sohrab screams and cries that they will hurt him there, and eventually he cries himself to sleep in Amir’s arms. Then Amir himself takes a nap.

When Amir wakes up, Sohrab is in the bath, and Soraya calls. She says that her family contact can get Sohrab a visa, and that it will be easier to adopt him once he is in America. Amir is overjoyed and goes into the bathroom to tell Sohrab, but he finds him passed out and bleeding in the bathtub, and Amir falls to his knees, screaming.