Chapter 20

In chapter 20, there were two significant instances where evil was evident in
the novel. The first example of evil was on page 256. Here Farid disclosed to Amir
that his friend and his family were murdered and their village had been burned
down. This ties in with Blumenthal’s definition of moral evil. What was done to
Farid’s friend and his family was inhumane and immoral and should have been
stopped. On page 268, Amir finds out that the orphanage he went to looking for
Sohrab was selling orphans. The owner tried to justify this by saying that he had
no other way of feeding and sheltering the other orphans. Money was tight and he
found a way out of it; it just so happens that that way was the sell orphans to the
Taliban. This is evil since the owner is allowing the Taliban to come and choose an
orphan to take with them. Event though, this is feeding the other children, it is not
right. There must have been other ways to survive rather than sell the very children
he once tried to save by taking them into his orphanage.