Highlighting these details, Hosseini's constructs a strong image for his readers on the lives of Amir and Baba in Afghanistan. It is made clear that spending is frivolous, opportunities are bountiful, and money is never a problem. Life in Afghanistan for the two is comfortable and prosperous. Basic needs are satisfied and they are able to experience abundant, meaningful lives. This establishes contrast later in the novel when Amir and Baba's lives' are torn apart and forced to be reconstructed as they attempt to find their place in America.
Soon after relocating to the United States, Amir and Baba are no longer qualified to fit any such description as they did in Afghanistan. Taking over their country, war forces father and son to abruptly flee their home and desert all belongings. Amir describes them departing "the house where [he'd] lived [his] entire life." No one could know where they were going, and so they leave the house "as if going out for a bite," taking with them nothing but a few articles of clothing (112). Finally reaching their new residence in Fremont, California, life is absolutely reverse from what they are used to. Amir and Baba trade their mansion for a neighborhood filled with "shabby, flat one-story houses with barred windows" (135). Their shiny black Ford Mustang is given up for an "old, ochre yellow Buick Century" (133). Baba's business suits are forgotten for old rags suited for work in a machine shop. Life shifts from sunny and pleasurable to grim and difficult. Everything Baba worked to provide for himself and his son is easily taken away by moving to the United States. In hopes of a steady, more secure life in America, Amir and Baba abandon everything they have. They are never able to recover from this heavy gamble and spend the rest of the novel attempting to regain small pieces of what they once owned.
In addition to their possessions and lifestyle, Amir and Baba suffer a heavy loss of identity and respect previously held in Afghanistan.