Pomegranate tree

[Eveline M. Bailey]

Early in Amir and Hassan’s friendship, they often visit a pomegranate tree where they spend hours reading and playing. Amir states, “One summer day, I used one of Ali’s kitchen knives to carve our names on it: ‘Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul.’  Those words made it formal: the tree was ours.”  After the incident in the alley and Amir’s cold treatment of Hassan, Hassan smears pomegranate fruit on his own face and asks Amir, “Do you feel better?” In a letter to Amir years later, Hassan mentions that “the tree hasn’t borne fruit in years.”  

Discuss the significance of this tree and the manner in which it informs Amir’s conflict.

[David Ayers]

The tree becomes a symbol of their friendship, as they are close the tree is fruitful and full of life. But when conflict enters the relationship the fruit is wasted as Amir pelts Hassan with the fruit and Hassan smashes one on himself. While they are split apart the tree "bears no fruit" and was dead when Amir finds it symbolizes that their friendship similarly has had no life and is dead.

[torie parsons]

The tree becomes a symbol of Hassan and Amir's friendship, they spend their whole childhood here away from the social persecution for Amir playing with his Hazara. When Hassan is betrayed by Amir their friendship ends and the tree bears no more fruit. The tree fully dies when Amir can no longer fix things directly with Hassan.

[thrash...@gmail.com]

I agree with David in that the tree represents Amir and Hassans friendship. The carving in the tree is one of the only times Amir shows the friendship between them. When Amir throws the pomegranates at Hassan it represents the destruction of the foundation of their relationship. 

[carnis...@gmail.com]

The significance of this tree is that it is a symbol of Hassan and Amir's friendship. At the beginning of the novel - before Hassan's rape- when Hassan and Amir were friends and played/read underneath the pomegranate tree, the pomegranate tree was healthy and bore fruit. As the years went on, and after Hassan and Amir's friendship went down hill, the pomegranate tree wasn't talked about or played under at all. Then one day, they went up the hill under the tree ( not knowing that this would be the last time under that tree together) Amir starts throwing pomegranates at Hassan begging him to fight back and hurt him. Hassan takes a pomegranate and smears it on his own face. This signifies the many things that Amir put Hassan through. Such as watching his rape, making him feel like a fool for not knowing what certain words meant, and not standing up for him and being loyal like Hassan had for Amir many times before. Amir throwing the pomegranates at Hassan shows that he was disloyal to Hassan. Whereas when Hassan smears the pomegranate juice on himself, this signifies Hassan taking the beating for Amir, he would rather allow himself to be harmed than let Amir be harmed, being loyal to Amir as always. Towards the end of the novel, Hassan's letter to Amir explains that the tree hasn't borne fruit in years. This signifies the death of their friendship, as well as the tree. The tree is the biggest symbol of Hassan and Amir's friendship because it starts healthy, then it progressively becomes sick and can no longer bear fruit anymore, and eventually it dies. Just as Amir and Hassan's friendship did.

[sophia....@gmail.com]

    Trees normally signify life, longevity, and strength. A fruit bearing tree can also come with the symbolism of growth. The pomegranate tree in The Kite Runner is a symbol of Amir and Hassan's friendship. A lot of time is spent around the tree, as stated in the question, and Amir carving their names into the tree signifies a strong friendship that will last for a long time, as trees live for hundreds of years (similar to when a couple carves their name into a tree hoping for their relationship to last). This shows how Amir feels about their friendship deep down, despite being hesitant to show it in public in order to avoid discrimination. 

    Their conversation in front of the tree after the incident with Assef and Hassan shows how their friendship has fallen apart. Amir throwing the pomegranates at Hassan shows how he has thrown all loyalty for Hassan away. Hassan smearing the pomegranate on himself shows that his loyalty will remain forever despite how Amir has treated him. He will do anything for Amir.

    Their friendship is represented my the tree and because their friendship is no longer strong and has fallen apart, the tree mimics that and that's why "the tree hasn't borne fruit in years". Their friendship has stopped growing and so has the tree. 

[cole.a...@gmail.com]

Throughout the beginning of the novel, Amir and Hassan go to this tree to read and play. During this time the tree has many pomegranates and is full of life. As their story continues and Amir sees Hassan getting raped, their friendship takes a toll where they aren't as close anymore. This also take a toll on the tree when they finally go back after a while of not going. The pomegranates in this moment are being thrown and smashed kind of like their friendship has been. Many years later when Amir reads the letter from Hassan, he reads a statement where Hassan describes how the tree has not had fruit in years. Just like how their friendship has not been anything in years, the tree becomes lifeless and has become forgotten. The significance of this tree in the novel is how it symbolizes the different time periods and directions that Amir and Hassan's friendship take. As their friendship begins to decay so does the tree.

[ginny...@gmail.com]

Before the ally, before Amir started treating Hassan even more like a Hazara, the tree was of the ownership of two friends. Amir was willing to have his name next to a Hazara's because he was still the boy who wanted to learn more about Hazaras, or Shi'as, just to learn that his teacher, the man who was supposed to teach, simply discounted any history of Hazara's with a generalization of how they always paint themselves as martyrs. In the ally, Amir runs away because he was afraid and through his fear and shame, Amir convinced himself that Hassan "was only a Hazara." Amir had always treated Hassan badly but this was the moment Amir's view of Hassan would always change. While Amir had never called Hassan a friend, he was at least willing to show friendship to him through the carving of the tree. After the ally, the tree never bloomed again. After the ally, Amir's view of Hassan forever changed. 

[tony1...@gmail.com]

The tree shows Amirs and Hassans friendship. During the beginning when they ere good friends and hanging out by the tree the tree was full of life. Later when Amir lets Hassan get raped he gets guilt for not trying to stop it. The tree starts to die just like Amir and Hassans friendship after the conflict they had. 

[henry.ro...@gmail.com]

The tree is a sign of Hassan and Amir's connection, they made it theirs with the carving, the tree represented the fun play times that they would have together, and with Amir throwing the fruit at Hassan he is also throwing away everything that they had done, Hassan also breaks a fruit on his own head and asks him if he is happy. The tree doesnt bear any fruit when the two are adults, but it still has a chance for fruit to grow, similarly Amir has a chance to go back and speak with Hassan, but when he finally does he finds the tree dead, Hassan also has the same fate, meaning that  Amir had lost his chance for fruit to grow, so i believe that the tree doesn't necessarily represent their friendship, but their bond as people, and that the fruit is what represented their friendship, because if you make a connection to someone that is your tree, it's your decision whether or not to make a fruitful relationship.

[ashley.s...@gmail.com]

The tree represents friendship and life, the tree continues to blossom as their friendship does. When the friendship begins to wilt so does then tree. Amir and Hassan lose their fruitful friendship as the tree loses it pomegranates. 

[Abbi Rollins]

The pomegranate tree symbolized Amir and Hassan's friendship throughout the novel. It "bears fruit" while they were close and played together, until Amir throws pomegranates at Hassan to provoke him. Instead of retaliating Hassan smears a pomegranate on his face and asks, "Do you feel better?" Later in a letter to Amir, Hassan claims the tree "hasn't borne fruit in years" because like their friendship it was dead. The tree hasn't dropped fruit since the raping and end of their friendship. 

[limasd...@gmail.com]

The pomegranate tree Amir and Hassan often visit as children symbolizes the friendship the two boys share. Before the incident in the alley, the tree was alive and flourishing as the boys would play around it. Years later in a letter written to Amir, Hassan mentions how "the tree hasn't borne fruit in years." This statement kind of signifies how the tree itself was a true  symbol of the boys friendship. The tree is gone entirely when Amir no longer has the opportunity to fix things with Hassan.

[Emma Batte]

The pomegranate tree is overall a symbol of Hassan and Amir's friendship. the tree thrives when they are close as friends. And whenever they start to fall apart, the tree does not have as much fruit to share with everyone. the tree dies after Amir can not longer fix things with hassan. 

[Kirstyn Gomez]

The tree is a significant symbol of Amir and Hassan's friendship. The carving onto the tree shows the boys loyalty of friendship, but the true loyalty is revealed when Amir begins throwing pomegranates at Hassan and Hassan reacts by rubbing the fruit on his face for the happiness of Amir. Before the incident in the alley, the tree and the boy's friendship were alive and happy, however since the rape of Hassan, 'the tree hasn't borne fruit in years" representing the end of both the growth of the tree and the growth of their friendship.

[Sean Baquet]

The tree is very significant to the both of Amir and Hassan because the pomegranate tree represents their friendship, but when Amir and Hassan started having some conflicts in their relationship, the tree stopped growing pomegranates, very much a coincidence. It almost that the tree represents everything that happens between the two in their relationship, whenever there's conflict, the tree doesn't grow pomegranates, but when nothings wrong, the tree is striving with pomegranates.     

[Ashley Diaz]

The pomegranate tree is a symbol of friendship. After Amir carves his name and Hassan's in the tree, the tree is fruitful. There are a lot of pomegranates blossoming. Before Hassan smears the pomegranate in his face Amir is shown throwing large pomegranates at him. But after Hassan smears it the tree doesn.t grow them anymore. Symbolizing a broken friendship. Fruitless and empty.

[Kent Mahaffey]

Basically the pomegranate tree is a physical/visual representation of Hassan and Amir's friendship. As they are young the tree bears fruit and is bountiful and plentiful.c Just like when they are young Hassan and Amir have a good friendship. They view each other as a friend and do a lot of things together. However as they grow up and the event happens their friendship dies. And when he reads the letter from Hassan he is told that the tree hasn't born fruit in years. This is true of their friendship because he didn't stop what happened to Hassan so then they move farther apart and then their friendship finally dies when Ali and Hassan leave.

[Mayra Hernandez]

The pomegranate tree symbolizes the nurturing and beautiful friendship these two young boys had at the time. They made it official claiming that the tree was theirs by Amir carving their names on it. Later on, their friendship demolishes and the pomegranate tree loses its true significance. After the rape incident, things aren't the same. Amir even tortures Hassan, pelting him with pomegranates. Amir is frustrated that Hassan won't fight back and in a larger sense, that Hassan won't hold Amir accountable for the rape. Amir throws the fruit at Hassan to get him to fight back, but instead Hassan chooses to smash the fruit on his own face. What was once the site of brotherly love at the tree, was now filled with bitterness, guilt, and anger. 

[Brittany McWhorter]

The pomegranate tree represents Amir and Hassan's friendship and later when Hassan says that the tree no longer grows fruit it represents how their friendship and childhood innocence is lost. The pomegranate tree was always Amir and Hassan's hangout place where Amir would fully act like his friend ignoring the fact that Hassan was a Hazara, but this changes after the incident in the alley and Amir gradually begins to hold it against Hassan, and changes wanting to spend time with him. Hassan is loyal to Amir to a fault and when he smears the pomegranate juice on his own face, after Amir had thrown multiple pomegranates at him, it shows that he is still willing to be his friend even through all of the crappy things Amir has done to him. But towards the end when the tree no longer grows fruit it can also represent how Hassan is no longer loyal to Amir.      

[Abby Cody]

The significance of the tree is of Amir and Hassan's life of friendship. After the incident they fell apart and their friendship was he stripped just like the tree had been stripped of fruit. The lack of fruit informs Amir's conflict because his friendship with his childhood friend was wilted away after he didn't help Hassan and deserted him.

[Enjanae Taylor]

In their childhood, the pomegranate tree represented their friendship and the special bond they had made over the years. Soon after Hassan was raped, he made multiple efforts to get back to his normal life with Amir and was still very loyal to him even though Amir didn't help save him. It was hard for Amir to see Hassan, especially because he continued being so loyal and sweet, and the emotions of guilt and shame would always consume him. Hassan even goes as far as trying to make Amir feel better because of his guilt, even though he was the one who was raped. Hassan, the tree, kites, and everything else that was good in his life constantly reminded him of that bad memory. When Amir goes back to Afghanistan, he sees the tree again and feels all of those emotions rush back. This encourages Amir to continue to fight for Sohrab, and protect him in honor of Hassan.

[Tony Munoz @mexiporean follow me on twitter]

The pomegranate tree can be representative of Amir and Hassan's friendship. Early in the novel, the tree bears much fruit, as does their friendship, and it slowly deteriorates from there. When Hassan smears the pomegranate on his face, much as Amir does with their friendship when he was passive during Hassan's rape. After spending much time apart and essentially ending their friendship, the pomegranate tree hasn't "borne fruit", much as their relationship hasn't borne any fruit, or even existed, really, after they lost correspondence. IT affects Amir's conflict because its deterioration represents the deterioration of the two friend's relationship.  

[allison alvarez]

The significance of the pomegranate tree was its paralleling of the state in which Amir and Hassans relationship was in. Before the 

kite turnament day, Hassan and Amir were best of friends and had no conflict, during this time, the tree is healthy, happy, and plentiful in fruit, just as the relationshi[p between Amir and Hassan is, they are happy, playful, and growing closer together through their games and reading of books such of the story of Sorhab. After the kite turnament, and 

Hassans rape, the relationship between the two starts to deteriorate, paralleled by the destruction of the pomegrantes that Amir throws at Hassan, and Hassan at himself. As Amir isolates himself from Hassan, the relationship is no loger happy, in fact, its no longer intact, even though it could be, just as the pomegranates are no longer intact the tree its self but the tree is still able to bear fruit, Amir is still able to reconnect with Hassan, but he doesn't. Years later, the tree doesn't bear fruit because there is almost no way for their relationship to reconnect. Both Hassan and Amir are alive but there in no communication and they are thousands of miles apart, the relationship is almost dead. Once Amir returns to Kabul, the tree is dead, as Hassan is dead, and there is no way to truly repair the relationship because Amir can no longer see Hassan and the relationship, soley between the two, is dead. 

[lance koch]

The tree is a true symbol of life and their friendship all in a bunch. But through conflict in their friendship, everything fell apart in their life's, and they both see themselves as different from each other after the incident. And as the tree starts to become weaker and weaker, this shows how the conflict with Amir and his redemption is falling lower and lower. And finally as the tree dies, this shows how Amir and Hassan's friendship has completely split apart, and how their friendship fell apart and also how they aren't there for one another like they used to anymore.

[William Menefee]

The tree not only represents the mere friendship between Amir and Hassan, but also represents their place in Kabul. The words written in the tree, "...the sultans of Kabul" show that their friendship is bonded by their lives in Kabul. once they leave Kabul, their friendship dies and so does the tree. It can be argues that the tree represents their friendship, but the day Amir was throwing the fruits at Hassan, the tree was obviously bearing fruits, and their friendship was obviously dying if not already dead.

[Zane Gibson]

The pomegranate tree is a symbol of the boy's friendship and the state of Afghanistan .When the boys Amir, and Hassan were young and they spent their time under the tree, having fun and experiencing life. while their friendship is compassionate the tree is flourishing with life, however after the the two boys have a split in their relationship. Amir flees to America with Baba, the tree dies, and never produces fruit again, this also shows how, Afghanistan once flourished, but just like the tree, is now falls to ruin.

[Sarah Kloesel]

 The pomegranate tree is a symbol of Amir and Hassan's friendship. They would commonly visit the tree to hangout and play together, it was a healthy. tall, beautiful tree. The strength of the tree demonstrated the strength of their friendship. After Hassan was raped, and Amir started giving him the cold shoulder and started blaming himself, he began to beat Hassan with the pomegranates that was suppose to symbolize the friendship. This has the power to demonstrate that their friendship that was once there and strong and healthy is now all over the place, undone by Amir. Then they never had the chance to visit the tree again, until a few years later when Amir came back and the tree was completely destroyed, and has never produced another piece of fruit again, meaning that the tree (their friendship) was damaged and could not be fully repaired. The tree as well as their friendship was changed and was never the same again after that point.  

[Jessica Trujillo]

 The pomegranate tree symbolizes Amir's and Hassan's friendship throughout the novel. When the pomegranate tree no longer bares fruit it shows the death of their friendship.

[princessp...@gmail.com]

The pomegranate tree is symbolic in that it represents Amir and Hassan's friendship, especially when it was at its best for Amir carved their names in the tree claiming it was theirs equally, which is different from how Amir would typically want to claim the tree as his own, especially in later years. It also is an outward representation of their friendship because anyone could pass the tree and notice that Amir put his name next to that of a Hazara child, but Amir seems not to even think of their caste differences when marking the tree. I believe the pomegranate fruit itself represents their friendship at its peak, and when Hassan mentions that the tree no longer has pomegranates, it demonstrates in a visual representation the friendship that has been lost between the two

[Miraya Mathews]

The tree represents the friendship that Amir and Hassan shared. When Amir first wrote the inscription onto the tree, their friendship was in its prime; Amir viewed Hassan as his friend, not just as a Hazara, and so the tree was abundant with fruit. When Amir and Hassan’s friendship was severed so abruptly and they never reconciled, the tree was bare of fruit. 

[lilli...@gmail.com]

This tree becomes a symbol of a life full and sweet friendship that Amir and Hassan share, and this may be a stretch but when you speak of fruit and nature it connects to fertility, so maybe it connects Amir and Hassan in the brotherly way they didn't know about, in the way where they came from the same seed. But the tree is where the two played and told stories, where they didn't think of each other as different class except when Amir would make fun of Hassan for not knowing some vocabulary. But after the destruction of kabul, later when Amir met up with Rahim Khan, Amir received the letter Hassan wrote for him and in the letter it spoke of the tree no longer growing and its loss of life, which Amir eventually sees for himself when he visits back home. During the scene where Hassan smeared Pomegranate on his face was when Amir wanted him to fight back. Amir felt guilty that he just left Hassan in the alley. Amir needed his cleansing but Hassan didn't know what Amir wanted and only wanted to make Amir happy.

[Alize Holt]

The pomegranate tree, of course symbolizes the friendship of Hassan and Amir however it also symbolizes life in Afghanistan as well. When they were children the tree was still growing, it was healthy and fruitful, much like the relationship between the two in the beginning when they spent all their time together and continued to grow closer to one another. It was like Afghanistan because everybody was creating buildings, orphanages they helped one another and held healthy relationships with everyone in the community. However after the rape and the fall of Afghanistan the tree ceased to bear fruit, lose leaves and  was no longer a healthy growing tree, representing the friendship that no longer created new memories and the state of Afghanistan that no longer flourished and had fallen to merely a reminder of the "good times" from before.

[Isaac McKnight]

The tree is a symbol of both Hassan and Amir's friendship before the tragedy happens between the two. Whenever they were friends the tree was alive and bore fruit all around it, but whenever  Amir throws fruit at Hassan, and he smashes one on himself, this shows that the two aren't friends anymore, the tree becomes dried up, and dead with no fruit on it, saying that their friendship has gone away. 

[Kirbie Linthicum]

The pomegranate tree is significant to the development of the characters Amir and Hassan and also represents the environment in which they live in. The fruit of any tree is a motif that represents fertility, which is mostly viewed as something good or rich in life. In the Kite Runner, the author uses descriptions of the pomegranate tree's state and location of its fruit as a direct parallel to the friendship between Amir and Hassan, and less directly represent the state of the country as peaceful.

Working the same way as time-lapse photography, the author creates brief detailed descriptions of the pomegranate tree each time it is visited to show the decay of the tree as the friendship between the two main characters and the state of Afghanistan begins to fall apart. In the beginning of the novel when the tree is described to be bountiful, the friendship between Amir and Hassan was very strong and they were very close to each other. In addition, Kabul at the time was very peaceful as the Amir and Hassan would walk to the movies unattended or play outside underneath the pomegranate tree all day. While Amir's self conflict to tell anyone what he failed to do in the alley and his strong desire to make his father proud, the pomegranate tree's fruits are thrown by Amir to encourage Hassan to beat him and give him what he deserves. While Amir seeks out a punishment from Hassan to eventually lead to acceptance and possibly forgiveness, Amir's purpose for throwing the fruit backfires as Hassan hits himself with a pomegranate to then say "Do you feel better?". This fight includes description of the dozens of fruit collected from the tree wasted by Amir in a last ditch effort to make himself feel better about the situation. While their friendship did take a major hit as a result to this fight, the end of their friendship was the separation of the family when Hassan and Ali move and Amir and Baba leave for America. Around that same time coincidentally, Afghanistan starts to take a turn for the worst as the borders are locking people in and Amir and Baba have to be smuggled out to Pakistan. Then the Taliban later take over when what is assumed to be the beginning of Afghanistan's major drought, ultimately causing the death of the pomegranate tree.

In the letter by Hassan describing the tree to stop bearing fruit and the "Alas Afghanistan of our youth is long dead," showing the end of their friendship as Amir has lost all contact with Hassan and did not make any efforts to find out if he was well. Amir's self conflict to accepting what he had failed to do to protect his own brother is especially evident here as he does not learn about the state of the tree until he is on his journey for redemption when revisiting Rahim Khan.

[Devyn Orozco]

In literature, trees are usually symbolic of growth and fertility. Amir and Hassan's childhood relationship is signified by the pomegranate tree; With the carving of their names inscribed into the tree representing the permanence of their friendship. Upon Amir's return to Afghanistan, he notices that the tree is wilted, and no longer bearing fruit. This is important because it shows how he has neglected his friendship with Hassan.

[emileean...@gmail.com]

The pomegranate tree is significant to the friendship of Amir and Hassan. When they were young, the tree was healthy and growing such as their friendship was healthy and strong. The tree symbolizes that when the two friends were living life in the best manner, the tree looked its best with fruit grown and an abundant amount of leaves. When Amir and Hassan's relationship started to fall, they tree began to die with leaves fallen and the fruit left to die. The fallout in their friendship was parallel to the fallout in the tree's desire to keep growing and look alive. It showed that the memories throughout their friendship that they made in Afghanistan had came to an end as did the life of the pomegranate tree.

[Nolan Cook]

The Tree serves as symbolism of the creation, in public sense of Amir and Hassan's relationship. With The carving of Their names into it, the tree now takes symbolic form of their relationship. Thus while still in Afghanistan, the tree borne fruit of plentiful (before the fall). But, after the kite running tournament and the coming of the rape of Hassan. Amir and Hassan's Friendship begins a fall. This begins with Hassan Rubbing the Pomegranate against his face, questioning Amir, if this makes him feel better? Then Amir belts Hassan with the pomegranates, begging for repentance. This is the abusive, fall of the tree. As their relationship no longer grows, the tree produces growth no longer.

  With the Death of Hassan, Amir discovers The symbolic Tree dead. Thus their friendship has ceased to flourish.  

[Brett Bihm]

At first the Tree represents Amir and Hassan's friendship and bond. the tree was where they would play, sit under its shade and also Amir would read to Hassan. they claimed the tree as theirs. However, as time went on they grew further apart and so did the tree. After Hassan doesn't fight back to Amir and rubs the pomegranate on himself the tree no longer bares fruit. Then lastly, Amir sees their names still carved in the bark but the tree is dead just like their friendship. 

[ashley.s...@gmail.com]

The pomegranate symbolizes life and friendship, Amir and Hassan's friendship. As the friendship begins to wilt after the rape the tree loses it's lively hood. Things between Amir and Hassan change and they never re blossom their friendship as the tree never re blossoms pomegranates.   

[Katherine Z]

While the tree is symbolic of their friendship, it does go further to say that Amir at one point did publicly display the friendship as this where they played in public. It also goes further than just the tree showing the destruction of their friendship, but it is also a part of the setting that would soon fall apart and symbolized the destruction of Kabul under the Taliban. All three closeley relate in the theme of destruction and have a symbolic relationship. 

[lane...@gmail.com]

The tree is a symbol of their friendship, where they spent their whole childhood together. the carving is the one "public" representation of their friendship. once amir throws the pomegranate at Hassan, hassaan wipes it across his face to make it true that their friendship has been destroyed. during their adulthood the tree has the opportunity to bear fruit again, but as long as amir and hassan do not speak. the fruit will not grow. when amir decides its time to speak to hassan, he sees the tree is dead, and that shows the final relationship between them and their friendship because amir waited too long to fix things because hassan has the same fate as the tree

[Katherine Z]

I SWEAR I CLICKED POST REPLY TO TORIE PARSONS. The tree serves as a symbol to Hassan and Amir's friendshp as it is in most of their memories growing up where they play. On a deeper level, this is a public space in which Amir chooses to show that he actually plays with his Hazara servant and reads with him as friends would do. However, once he beings acting on his "he's just a Hazara" mindset, Amir betrays him and ends the friendship. Once things solidly fall apart as he conforms to society's tendency to classify Hassan as inferior, the friendship loses its childlike life, and the pathetic fallacy of their favorite tree losing life occurs. In the same way he can never go back to Hassan and ask forgiveness and mend things (because he waited for redemption until after Hassan being murdered), he can never return to the full-of-lfe pomegranite tree that he grew up with just like Hassan.

[torie parsons]

The tree definitely represents friendship, but it also represents the loyalty of the "Hazara" to his "master". Hassan would do anthing for Amir, we see this when Hassan smashes the fruit on his forehead stating "do you feel better now?"

[Joseph Jarrell]

In this particular novel the pomegranate tree is a representation of not only Amir and Hassan's friendship, but also the culture of Afghanistan. As Amir and Hassan grow apart, the tree begins to die. In the letter written to Amir, Hassan states that the tree hasn't bore fruit in years. This shows that when Amir went to America he and Hassan's friendship died. It also shows the death of the cultural values of Afghanistan upon the Russian invasion and Taliban takeover. The banning of kite flying is a prime example of suppressing Afghan culture.

[torie parsons]

The tree comes to represent more than just their friendship, it symbolizes the loyalty of the Hazara to his "master",  it is a symbol of what used to be and what can never be.

[thrash...@gmail.com]

The death of the tree could also represent how Kabul as a place they grew up in has died with the invasion of the Russians.

[henry.ro...@gmail.com]

I disagree that the carving was one of the only signs, because by saying only that would indicate that there are very few, Amir spent quite a large amount of time with Hassan, they went to the movies, played under that very tree, and did all kinds of mischief together as kids. So I feel that a more correct way would be to say that the carving was a way to show that he cares about their friendship and values it, not just that they have a friendship together.

[David Ayers]

I agree with your analysis of the pomegranate tree, but I feel there is a little bit more significance when the tree dies as the Taliban takes over. Hassan also dies when the Taliban takes over and when Amir finds the tree dead he knows that Hassan is dead at this point, I believe the Tree signifies that the hope of Amir making amends with Hassan have died. Because Amir had until the Taliban took over to make those amends with Hassan and he didn't, then the hopes of coming to Afghanistan to make it right with Hassan had also died. I think that the literal death of the tree is the literal death of the Hope of mending that relationship.   

[Gabby Williams]

The Tree symbolizes Hassan and Amirs friendship. it was meaningful because thats where they used to play so to them it was more than a tree. The tree is a representation of their once innocence within a non innocent world. This tree conflicts Amir because their friendship isn’t the same anymore and this memory of the tree is embedded in his mind as to what they once were

[Emma Batte]

i agree on the significance of the tree. good points here

[Gabby Williams]

Wow I really like how you compared their friendship to the dying tree, “wilting”. Their friendship does wilt as the tree does and their friendship isn’t as strong as before when the tree was blossom in and healthy. I agree with your post completely

[Ashley Perez]

I agree but the tree doesnt die it just doesnt bare fruit which i think leaves it open to be able to be mended through Sohrab.

[Sean Baquet]

The tree is prefectly connected between the two's relationship. It is almost like as the tree determines what is going to happen between Amir ad Hassan's relationship.

[Enjanae Taylor]

 I agree, overtime the pomegranate tree resembled and embodied Amir and Hassan's friendship and how it evolved.

[Miraya Mathews]

I completely agree. I like how you touched on the main parts of Amir and Hassan's friendship and related it back the tree itself and what it represents.

[mayraherna...@gmail.com]

I complete agree with Abby Cody's statement. The pomegranate tree did indeed represent the true friendship of Amir and Hassan. After the rape incident, their friendship demolishes and the tree no longer represents the true significance it was once. The nurturing and beautiful friendship was now filled with anger and hatred.

[Alize Holt]

I really like what you said about the tree representing fertility and the brotherhood they didn't even knew they had, and how in the end it represents the loss of the brotherhood in a way.

[Kirstyn Gomez]

Your response was short and sweet, valid point about the lack of fruit informing Amir's conflict that had an effect on his and Hassan's friendship. That was destroyed and came to an end, just like the growing and beauty of the tree came to an end.

[Brett Bihm]

I was one to argue that it represented their friendship but after reading this I just might have to change my position because the point made about it still bearing fruit the day Amir is throwing fruit at Hassan makes since. So, i really agree with what is being argued here that the tree represents more than just their friendship but more so and as well as their lives and place in Kabul.

[Kirbie Linthicum]

I agree, the tree's fruits were symbolic to their friendship and the overall health of the tree shows the memories of the loving friendship they once shared shown by the carving in the tree as well. As Emilee explains, it is also important to recognize that the fruits fell and were left to rot when their friendship began to fall apart and they stopped visiting the tree to eat any of its fruits. The fertility and life of their relationship fell as the tree began to die.

[Morgan Carnish]

YES. I could not agree more. I really thought I was overthinking it when I said this about the pomegranate juice fight thing but you interpreted it the same so that makes me feel better.

[William Menefee]

I like the comparison between time-lapse photography and the tree, it really expresses the idea of a much larger picture and deeper meaning behind the tree. As for the incident between Amir and Hassan with the pomegranates, it is clear that Amir's end goal was to restore their friendship by getting hassan to fight back against Amir, when this failed, it is as if the pomegranates that were pulled off for the fight never grew back, further supporting your claim that the fruits of the tree directly parallel the friendship between the two. The moment the fruits were plucked off for their intention, it was already too late, the actions of the scuffle were already in motion, and their friendship further damaged.

[emileean...@gmail.com]

Great post Alize. When they were younger the tree was healthy, as they seemed to be. As they got older and Afghanistan started falling apart, like you said- the tree was dying, losing leaves, and stopped growing fruit. It represented in the end just as it did in the beginning, healthy when they were young but falling apart as they grew apart and Afghanistan became a place that they no longer called their home.

[lillian Morales]

I agree with the connection of the fruit to not only Hassan and Amir's friendship but to Afghanistan too. It has growth and life in their friendship as well as in the country it's self. The tree grows with the people around it and with Amir and Hassan, but as they fell and Kabul fell, the tree symbolically died with them both.