within him causing him to be melancholy and disturbed by past events that in reality he had no control over. Amir reflects upon the fact that ‘it was my past of unatoned sins’ Hosseini, 2003, p.2). Freud further supports this analogy of the past having a hold on you in Melancholy and Melancholia by reinforcing the idea that “melancholia is the reaction to the loss of a loved one”. (Freud, 1916, p.245). Hassan and Amir were born and raised in the same household, shared the same wet nurse and were close enough to be brothers when ironically, they in fact were half−brothers unbeknown to either of them. Consequently, this leaves Amir restless, consumed and traumatised as the death of his father in the present triggers these early childhood memories leaving him further haunted and unable to move forward with his life until he confronts past events.