Baba and Amir go on a trip to Jalalabad for the weekend. Amir gets car sick in the journey resulting in him causing his father embarrassment. After Amir returns, Hassan tries to patch up their relationship, but Amir rejects him. Amir's treatment of Hassan becomes more cruel and his 'mean streak' becomes more evident.
Assef attends Amir's birthday party and gives him a biography of Adolf Hitler as a present. At the pary, Rahim Khan tells Amir a story about a girl he wanted to marry as an example of how Amir should not let Hassan being a Hazara be a barrier to their friendship. He gives Amir a notebook in which he can write his stories.
After the rape, Amir tries to pretend that nothing ever happened. He denies know anything to people like Ali, and avoids seeing Hassan. He convinces Baba to take him away from the house without Hassan, literally distancing himself from his problems. Amir also asks his father to get rid of the servant, this being another example of Amir trying to gain actual distance from his problems. The car sickness and insomnia are other ways in which Amir feels he is seen as weak to Baba. Because Amir refuses to express himself, he is being tortured by his own thoughts.
When Amir tells his father that Hassan is unwell, Baba look worried. Amir says he 'couldn't help hating the way his brow furrowed with worry.' This demonstrates once again Amir's jealousy over Baba's feelings for Hassan. However later on, it's revealed that Baba is Hassan's father, therefore this expression of worry makes sense to us.
Amir's use of the word hate can be seen to be associated with his father as well as Hassan as he despises his desire to please Baba.
When Amir realises he was the monster in Hassan's dream, there is a self-pitying and melodramatic tone to it as he tells us 'he'd been wrong about that. There was a monster in the lake... I was that monster.'
We begin to see how Amir sees his illness and guilt as punishment for not having helped Hassan, just as he sees his relationship with his father as his punishment for 'killing' his mother.
Assef and his family being at Amir's birthday party causes the occasion to be overshadowed. The character of Hitler is once again raised when Assef gives Amir the book. By giving the book about Hitler to Amir, a symbolic link is made between Assef's bullying and Amir's refusal to help. The final scenario at the party is of Assef bullying Hassan and Amir being unable to bring himself to help, reinforcing this idea.
At his birthday party, Amir nearly tells Rahim Khan about witnessing the attack on Hassan, but he stops himself. He wonders what Rahim Khan would think of him, concluding 'he'd hate me, and rightfully.' This shows Amir has a fear of other people's reactions and this is what prevents him from telling them what he saw. It also tells us that Amir thinks Rahim Khan's opinion of him is as important as Baba's opinion. However, as readers we can presume that Rahim Khan would not have the reaction Amir fears. This tells us that the hate Amir fears so much comes from within himself rather than from others.
Amir's and Hassan's return to the pomegranate tree is significant as now Amir has brought his feelings of guilt and regret with him so it's no longer a place they can both go to get away from the world. As a parallel act of the eating dirt scene, Amir begins to throw pomegranates at Hassan, trying to provoke a response from him. Pomegranates used to be a symbol of their bond because they used to share the fruit under the tree, so this attack with the fruit symbolises the breaking of the bond between them. Hassan reacts by picking up a pomegranate and crushing it on his head, showing his acceptance and refusal to let Amir release his guilt by fighting back. It also reinforces the fact that Hassan is a gentle person throughout but is also still a servant and of a lower status than Amir.
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