Why did you leave your home? Our President says people should never turn their back on their home, and he's absolutely right. It's a terrible thing, the worst kind of crime.
-- Mona (chapter 2)

Importance: While the Utu family is still en route to Egypt, they stay for a short period of time with a distant relative named Mona. One night, Amir observes his mother and Mona conversing in the garden and Mona expresses her sentiments about the refugee diaspora and the war she feels is contrived and fake. Witnessing this conversation exposes Amir to the realities of the world that he is soon to face and foreshadows the racism and discrimination that infuses the places where he will seek safety. This moment also introduces the audience to the complexities of the refugee crisis, defined by the paradoxical nature of the human condition.

Something about the island is changing, she thinks, and the birds...
-- Narrator (chapter 3)