as they are leaving, Assef tells Amir that he can't take Sohrab for free. Assef then says,

"We have some unfinished business, you and I... You remember, don't you?" (Hosseini 203).

Assef is referring to the time when Hassan had threatened to shoot his eye out. Assef had then told Hassan and Amir that he would repay them both one day, and he prepares to fight Amir to the death. Amir narrowly escapes his battle with Assef and is saved by Sohrab, who shoots Assef's eye out.

In Chapter 25, Sohrab is recovering from his attempted suicide, and Amir asks him if there is anything that he can do for him. Sohrab simply says,

"I want my old life back" (Hosseini 259).

Amir is distraught because he knows that he cannot fulfill Sohrab's wish. Sohrab has experienced an immense amount of tragedy in his young life and Amir wishes that he could give Sohrab what he truly wants, but understands that he cannot.

One of the central actions takes place in these chapters. In chapter 22 we see the confrontation of Amir and Assef. During this encounter Amir had a choice. He could save himself or Sohrab. If he decided to save Sohrab, he would be beaten. He chose the path of courage. Amir faced Assef and was beaten. Here is the quote:

“My body was broken—just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later—but I felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed.”

The odd thing about this quote is obviously the fact that Amir laughed and in his brokenness he found healing. Physically speaking, Amir suffered from broken ribs, a broken jaw, and other physical pains. However, in this act, Amir found redemption. He was able to redeem himself from his guilt of allowing Assef to rape Hassan from his boyhood days. Now Amir was able to pay back Hassan by looking out of his child. 

The story is partially about redemption. Here we find one of the clearest examples of this theme.

In Chapter 20 of The Kite Runner,  Amir says,

Returning to Kabul was like running into an old, forgotten friend and seeing that life hadn't been good to him, that he'd become homeless and destitute(246)

This quote, I think, is important on a few levels.  On one level, it is important because it shows the reader how Amir feels on confronting his homeland, which has gone through many hard times.  On another level, is this quote really about Kabul, or is it about one old friend whom Amir has left behind, an old friend he has forgotten, an old friend whose life has become disrupted and destitute? 

In Chapter 21, Amir says,

I don't want to forget anymore (263). 

His driver has just told him that nothing has survived and it's better to forget.  But Amir has been trying to forget since he left his homeland, and he realizes that in order to be a whole and good person, he cannot forget any longer.  He understands that he must confront his past and deal with it. 

Can you find some good quotes in the remaining chapters, quotes that tell the reader something important about the themes of the story? 

In chapter 23, Amir is lying in his hospital bed, healing from the wounds he suffered during his life-threatening fight with Assef, when he picks up Rahim Khan's letter and begins to read it. In Rahim Khan's letter, he writes,

A man who has no conscience, no goodness, does not suffer. I hope your suffering comes to an end with this journey to Afghanistan. (329)

Rahim Khan's words directly apply to Amir and illustrate that he has a conscience. Rahim Khan is aware that Amir is a good person who has experienced extreme guilt since the day he refused to help Hassan. By acknowledging Amir's tortured soul, Rahim recognizes Amir's capacity for goodness and understands his need to atone for his past sins. Rahim Khan's plan to unite Amir with Sohrab is his attempt to provide Amir with an opportunity to end his suffering while simultaneously saving Sohrab from a life of poverty and abuse. Rahim Khan goes on to write,

Your father, like you, was a tortured soul, Amir jan. (329)

Despite their external differences, Baba also suffered from guilt and remorse. Similar to Amir, Baba betrayed his best friend by sleeping with his wife. Then, Baba refused to acknowledge Hassan as his son because he was a Hazara. Rahim also elaborates on the concept of redemption by writing,

And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good. (330)

Rahim Khan recognizes Baba's efforts to improve the community by building an orphanage as well as his sacrifice to give Amir a second chance at life as an outcome of "true redemption," which is when "guilt leads to good." Amir also experiences "true redemption" by traveling to Afghanistan, locating Sohrab, and fighting Assef in order to give him a second chance at life in America. Amir’s guilt motivates him to save Sohrab’s life, which is admirable and benevolent.

Though I don't want to repeat quotes and information from the previous educator's answer, the quote from the dream of wrestling with a bear is significant.

This dream touches on power and how Amir thinks of his father. He sees himself as similar to his father and is trying to understand the motivations that have made each of them do the things they've done in life.

He looked at my hand, then to me. "You are the Amir Father told me about?" he said.

This quote is significant because it reveals more details of Hassan's character, in such stark contrast with Amir's childhood actions. The quote touches on forgiveness and kindness of Hassan, and the possibility of forgiveness for Amir.

There are also many great quotes throughout the letter from Rahim Kahn. This letter asks Amir to forgive himself, while also asking for forgiveness. It's a beautiful contrast and confession, but also an expression of Rahim Kahn's desire for Amir to learn to forgive himself and move forward without holding on to the past, something that we see him finally able to do in Chapter 23, which continues through the rest of the book.

For Amir, Chapter 23 is a time of emotional discovery and physical recovery as his beaten body mends in the Peshawar hospital. He fades in and out of consciousness for two days, and he imagines that the faces he sees are ones from the past. During one of his dreams, he imagines Baba wrestling the bear in the Sulaiman Mountains. But it is not Baba

... sitting on the bear's chest, his fingers digging in its snout. He looks up at me and I see. He's me. I am wrestling the bear. 

The dream is symbolic of the battle he has had with Assef and how, like Baba, he has conquered the powerful beast. It is also symbolic of the mixed feelings he has about both his father and himself--a victorious act that has resulted in the partial atonement for his past sins.

Amir also discovers that he, too, will be the bearer of not only emotional but physical scars like nearly every other character in the novel. But the most telling scar is the one that holds his lip together. He now resembles Hassan more than ever:

The impact had cut your upper lip in two, he had said, clean down the middle. Clean down the middle. Like a harelip.

The farewell letter from Rahim Khan is an emotional one, but in it he discovers that his old friend has not been entirely truthful with him. When Amir asks Fahid "for one more favor," Farid answers in the same manner that Hassan had always responded.

     "For you a thousand times over," Farid said.
     And, just like that, I was crying. 

But the favor that Amir asks--for Farid to find the location of Thomas and Betty Caldwell, the people who are to take care of Sohrab--proves an impossible task. The names are fictitious--"they never existed." And as Amir dreams again on the way to Islamabad, he remembers his father's saying and Rahim's promise--

When you tell a lie, you steal a man's right to the truth. Rahim on the phone, telling me there was a way to be good again. A way to be good again...,

and he wonders if the words are really meant to be.