It would be erroneous to say Sohrab was quiet. Quiet is peace. Tranquility. Quiet is turning down the volume knob on life. Silence is pushing the off button. Shutting it down. All of it. Sohrab's silence wasn't the self imposed silence of those with convictions, of protesters who seek to speak their cause by not speaking at all. It was the silence of one who has taken cover in a dark place, curled up all the edges and tucked them under.
Interpretation
Sohrab's silence represents deep inner turmoil rather than peaceful quietude.
In this quote, Khaled Hosseini contrasts the notion of quietness as a form of peace with the profound silence that emerges from pain and suffering. Sohrab's silence reflects not a tranquility chosen freely, but rather a withdrawal into darkness, suggesting a profound emotional struggle and the instinct to retreat when faced with overwhelming pain.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about mental health to highlight the importance of understanding silent suffering.
You're gutless. It's how you were made. And that's not such a bad thing because your saving grace is that you've never lied to yourself about it. Not about that. Nothing wrong with cowardice as long as it comes with prudence. But when a coward stops remembering who he is... God help him.
There was brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that even time could not break. - Amir
I don't outline at all; I don't find it useful, and I don't like the way it boxes me in. I like the element of surprise and spontaneity, of letting the story find its own way.
And that's the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.
Perspective [is] a luxury when your head [is] constantly buzzing with a swarm of demons.
The desert weed lives on, but the flower of spring blooms and wilts.
An election is a moral horror, as bad as a battle except for the blood; a mud bath for every soul concerned in it.
We do pray for mercy, and that same prayer doth teach us all to render the deeds of mercy.
There's nothing that makes you so aware of the improvisation of human existence as a song unfinished. Or an old address book.
A dream has power to poison sleep.
Modernity is a qualitative, not a chronological, category.
Everything in life is just for a while.
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