Baba and Amir are in America but Baba has difficulty in adjusting to life there. Baba’s political views cause tension. Baba still responds with violence when angry and there is a nasty incident with the elderly Vietnamese couple in the grocery store. He works long hours at a petrol station and won’t take any help. Baba refuses food stamps as this is an insult to his pride.
Amir is relieved to be in America as it is a place “with no ghosts, no memories, and no sins.” When he graduates from high school Baba tells him that he is proud and takes him out for a celebration. Typically, Baba buys drinks for all the patrons in the bar. He buys Amir a car but then he adds “I wish Hassan had been with us today.” Baba wants Amir to study medicine but Amir decides to study English as he “didn’t want to sacrifice myself to Baba anymore. The last time I had done that, I had damned myself.”
Amir and Baba start selling things at a flea market and it is there that Amir meets Soraya. Amir remembers that there was some gossip about her. Baba tells Amir that there had been a man once in her life and that things did not go well. Although, Soraya is a decent person none of the Afghani men are interested in her. Baba observes, “It may be unfair, but what happens in a single day, can change the course of a whole lifetime.” Baba’s statement that what happens in a single day can change the course of a whole lifetime is ironic, because that so true for Amir. As we know this is also true for Baba as we will see later in the novel when his past is revealed. The introduction of a love interest for Amir is interesting, because Soraya is also “damaged goods,” just like Amir.
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