What is ironic about Sohrab's love for Amir?

• A. Sohrab loves Amir because he thinks Amir betrayed Hassan.
• B. Sohrab loves Amir because he believes Amir is wealthy.
• C. Sohrab loves Amir because he believes Amir had a strong friendship with Hassan, his father, which Amir had never openly acknowledged.
• D. Sohrab loves Amir because he is his real father.

Answer: (C)

The idea being tested is how irony works in relationships, especially when a character’s feelings are shaped by something not openly acknowledged.

Sohrab’s love for Amir is ironic because it rests on the belief that Amir and Hassan shared a strong, loyal friendship—something Sohrab thinks he’s inheriting or benefiting from through his father. Amir had never publicly acknowledged that close bond during Hassan’s life, so Sohrab’s affectionate trust towards Amir arises from a past connection that Amir kept quiet or downplayed. The irony is that Sohrab loves and trusts the man who embodies that hidden memory of Hassan’s world, and Amir’s later protective acts against Sohrab are a way of redeeming himself for the past, revealing the tension between what was hidden and what is now being made right.