What we can clearly see happening is that, now that Baba
and Amir are in America, it is Baba who becomes more dependent on Amir and is confused
by the rules of society in America. Before, it was the other way round, with Baba
clearly showing himself to be strong and confident in his home environment. However,
now, he is made weaker and diminished as a character in this new world. Note what Amir
tells us about him:
I glanced at him across the table, his nails
chipped and black with engine oil, his knuckles scraped, the smells of the gas
station--dust, sweat, and gasoline--on his clothes. Baba was like the widower who
remarries but can't let go of his dead wife. He missed the sugarcane fields of Jalalabad
and the gardens of Paghman. He missed people milling in and out of his house, missed
walking down the bustling aisles of Shor Bazaar and greeting people who knew him and his
father, knw his grandfather, people who shared ancestors with him, whose pasts
intertwined with his.
Of
course, for Amir, what he loves about America, and perhaps why he is so successful in
his new home, is precisely the way that he is able to "bury memories" here and start
again. It is this that makes him become more and more responsible for his father as Baba
struggles to adjust to the new reality of life in America, and increasingly looks to his
son for guidance and support to negoitate their way through their new
environment.
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