The Act of Betrayal in And the Mountains Echoed, a Novel by Khaled Hosseni

The foundation of trust is paramount in family and the quality of relationships. A person puts the most trust in family and friends. People feel betrayed at least once in their lives. Betrayal is the act of disloyalty, unfaithfulness, or the disappointment in the hopes or expectations of an individual. In Khaled Hosseni's novel, "And the Mountains Echoed" many of the protagonists' express feelings of betrayal. When Abdullah's father Saboor, sells Pari, both siblings feel betrayed.

Parwana feels she deceived her sister Masooma by being responsible for her paraplegic condition, and Adel is deluded by his father when he realizes a certain truth. All of these characters' are impacted by the act of betrayal, causing them to become different people emotionally, and mentally. These characters' all share one thing in common; they were betrayed by their loved ones whom a person would trust the most. Putting abundant amounts of trust in your family and then being deceived is the worst type of betrayal.

Pari and Abdullah were both impacted significantly by the actions taken by their father Saboor and uncle Nabi earlier in their lives. At the beginning of the novel, Saboor told a story to his two children. The story was about a monster called a Div, who chose a child every year to take away from their family. The Div chose a house, and the family living in it was to give one of their children to the Div, or else all their children would be taken. The father is given a magic potion for the pain of giving up his son which causes him to forget his child. In the story the father mentioned, "A finger had to be cut, to save the hand." (5)

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This meant that if they needed to pick one child or else all the children would be taken, just like if Pari was not adopted then worse events could occur. When Pari leaves, Abdullah repeats the same words about a finger being cut to save the hand. At this point he says, "and he would long for a swig of the magic potion the Div had given Baba Ayoub so that he too could forget." (48) This shows irony because many years later he does forget due to Alzheimer's. With time, Abdullah forgets every memory of Pari, along with knowing that he had a sister. This event displays how his memories also betrayed him due to her adoption.

Abdullah forgetting Pari helped him forget the pain, however he lost any happy memory he had of his sister. Pari was four years old when she was adopted and taken away from her family. Her Uncle was the person who made arrangements for her adoption. With this Pari feels deceit by him because he is family, whom one trusts most. Uncle Nabi is Parwana's brother and ironically; Pari's step-uncle. There is no blood relation between them so this relationship being step helps readers' understand how Nabi's personal choices were influenced by a weak bond.

Saboor allowing this, betrays his daughter by selling her as parents should never abandon their child. When Saboor and Abdullah come back home, the father says to him, "I won't have any crying,' Father had said. 'No crying, I won't have it."" (47) Saboor understands what took place was wrong, however he decides to go through with Pari's adoption. He does not even want to talk about it because of the pain he will feel knowing he sold his daughter.

Abdullah feels the same pain and deceitfulness as he lost the one person he loved most in his life. Since their biological mother had died, Abdullah cared for Pari all her life. When she left, Abdullah said, "There was nothing left for him here. He had no name here." (49) Abdullah had an attachment to her and when she was given away he felt there was no meaning to life. His father also in a way betrayed himself. He lost one of the last memories he had of his first wife. Abdullah and Pari's mother died in childbirth when Pari was born. This adoption symbolized Saboor giving away his daughter along with her being at fault for the mother's death. Abdullah losing Pari impacted him in ways where his love lessoned for his father. Saboor's relationship with Uncle Nabi weakened and his own respect for himself decreased as well.

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