life. Some of Freud’s ideas are perhaps outmoded but what is important to note in his work on Melancholy and Melancholia is that “mourning is regularly the reaction of loss of a loved person, or to the loss of some abstraction which has taken place of one, such as one’s country”. (Freud, 1916, p.243). In Amir’s case he suffers both of these intrinsic losses. Not only does he lose the relationship with Hassan but both boys lose their innocence as they are both mentally scarred by either what they witness or what is inflicted upon them by others. Amir also as double entendre has to deal with the loss of his country as he and his father abandon Afghanistan in the early stages of war and flee to America for salvation and redemption.

The theme of trauma is prevalent throughout the