Vocabulary
suffocate v.使呼吸困難;使憋悶屋讶；
受束縛;受扼制续捂；
Most of our neighbors in Fremont were bus drivers, policemen, gas station attendants, and unwed mothers collecting welfare, exactly the sort of blue-collar people who would soon suffocate under the pillow Reganomics pressed to their faces. Baba was the lone Republican in our building.
Excerpt
I glanced at him across the table, his nails chipped and black with engine oil, his knuckles scraped, the smells of the gas station--dust, sweat, and gasoline--on his clothes. Baba was like the widower who remarries but can't let go of his dead wife.
For me, America was a place to bury my memories.
For Baba, a place to mourn his.
He smiled and leaned back against the headrest, his forehead almost touching the ceiling. We didn’t say anything. Just sat in the dark, listened to the tink-tink of the engine cooling, the wail of a siren in the distance. Then Baba rolled his head toward me. “I wish Hassan had been with us today,” he said.
A pair of steel hands closed around my windpipe at the sound of Hassan’s name. I rolled down the window. Waited for the steel hands to loosen their grip.
SOMETIMES, I GOT BEHIND the wheel of my Ford, rolled down the windows, and drove for hours, from the East Bay to the South Bay, up the Peninsula and back. I drove through the grids of cottonwood-lined streets in our Fremont neighborhood, where people who'd never shaken hands with kings lived in shabby, flat one-story houses with barred windows, where old cars like mine dripped oil on blacktop driveways. Pencil gray chain-link fences closed off the backyards in our neighborhood. Toys, bald tires, and beer bottles with peeling labels littered unkempt front lawns.
阿米爾和父親對(duì)美國(guó)的感受是不同的，曾風(fēng)光一時(shí)的爸爸現(xiàn)在每日為自己和兒子的生存而奔波茫陆。
Thought
Is there love between Amir and Baba? Of course there is. After moving to the United States, Amir finally got what he used to be long for—Baba’s exclusive love. Baba's love are everywhere, to name some as follows:
Although Baba didn't fully support what Amir want to learn so he said:
“Oh,” he said. “Wah wah! So, if I understand, you'll study several years to earn a degree, then you'll get a chatti job like mine, one you could just as easily land today, on the small chance that your degree might someday help you get... discovered.” He took a deep breath and sipped his tea. Grunted something about medical school, law school, and “real work.”
Amir's action again shows his selfishness:
My cheeks burned and guilt coursed through me, the guilt of indulging myself at the expense of his ulcer, his black fingernails and aching wrists. But I would stand my ground, I decided. I didn't want to sacrifice for Baba anymore. The last time I had done that, I had damned myself.
Baba sighed and, this time, tossed a whole handful of car damom seeds in his mouth.
Nevertheless, Baba was proud of his son in his way. At the flea market, Baba’s words illustrated that clearly:
“Amir is going to be a great writer,”Baba said. I did a double take at this. “He has finished his first year of college and earned A's in all of his courses.”
No doubt that he is not only a great man, but a great father as well.
Notes
Amir和Baba移居美國(guó)，Baba成為了加油站員工，我則在美國(guó)高中學(xué)習(xí)惕耕。Amir如愿以償，終于得到了Baba獨(dú)有的愛诫肠，因?yàn)锽aba只有他了司澎。Baba還是Baba，堅(jiān)毅栋豫，勤勞挤安，努力拼搏在美國(guó)自食其力。而Amir也還是Amir丧鸯，自私自利蛤铜，像寄生蟲一樣吸Baba的血，所作的一切都是為了自己丛肢。好在Amir珍惜在美國(guó)的日子围肥，在這片新土地，他放下了過去蜂怎，開始了新生活穆刻。他努力學(xué)習(xí)，在Baba供養(yǎng)自己的時(shí)候派敷，也努力保護(hù)Baba蛹批，幫助Baba適應(yīng)美國(guó)的生活。哪個(gè)家長(zhǎng)不是真正愛自己的孩子篮愉？就算Amir懦弱自私腐芍，和自己罕有相似之處，Baba還是愛他试躏，擔(dān)心他猪勇，為Amir的小成績(jī)而驕傲。Baba在辛勞和苦痛中慢慢老去颠蕴，Amir成年泣刹，升入大學(xué)，開始邁向社會(huì)犀被。
What's More
當(dāng)Amir和Baba到達(dá)美國(guó)時(shí)椅您，兩人一無所有，雖然有簽證寡键，但是教育方面不享受福利（這一點(diǎn)留學(xué)的同學(xué)應(yīng)該也都深有感觸）掀泳。加油站的收入微薄，但爸爸還是堅(jiān)持讓孩子接受教育，上ESL課程员舵，完成美國(guó)初高中學(xué)習(xí)脑沿，并拒絕讓孩子過早工作而是升大學(xué)。人窮志不窮马僻，Baba寧可自己日夜辛勞疾病纏身也必須保證孩子的教育庄拇。曾經(jīng)的上等階層深知，若要回到原階層韭邓，或保證階層的穩(wěn)固地位措近，孩子的教育是第一位，只有知識(shí)才能引導(dǎo)下一代向上一階層攀登仍秤。雖然當(dāng)問到孩子大學(xué)要學(xué)什么時(shí)熄诡，Amir的回答讓父親有些失望，但父親并沒有強(qiáng)迫孩子改變自己的興趣诗力，而是嘗試改變自己，以此為榮我抠。
