Amir's Apartment (Symbol)
Amir's spacious apartment, located in Manhattan's affluent Upper East Side neighborhood, symbolizes Amir's success. As a man of South Asian descent, Amir is a minority in his profession, and he faces obstacles in being given opportunities to advance in the Jewish-run law firm's hierarchy. But Amir is ambitious and cutthroat as a lawyer, and this career success is represented in the material conditions of his daily life.
Emily's Portrait of Amir (Symbol)
Emily's portrait of Amir, which is influenced by Diego Velázquez's portrait of his enslaved assistant, symbolizes the conflict between Amir's career ambitions and his Muslim minority background. Emily is inspired to create the painting after seeing how Amir is mistreated by a racist waiter. Just as Velázquez showed his slave Juan de Pareja in a dignified pose, Emily seeks to represent how she sees Amir—as a successful lawyer in his Manhattan apartment. This representation counters the mainstream white American prejudice that stereotypes South Asian men as poor immigrants or Islamic terrorists. However, Emily's depiction of Amir is complicated by Amir's discomfort with being likened to a slave. Isaac further complicates Amir's discomfort when he suggests that Emily's painting, like the original, presents the question of the subject's "place," despite the dignity the portrait ascribes. In this way, the portrait of Amir is a symbol of how Amir's desire to be treated and seen as a powerful lawyer continues to be threatened by prejudice against his Muslim identity, despite his success.
Spitting in Faces (Motif)
While explaining to Isaac and Emily what he sees as an inherent hatred embedded in Islam, Amir tells the story of how his mother spat in his face when he was a teenager because she found out that he had a crush on a Jewish girl. The story concludes with Amir going to school the following day and confirming that the girl is Jewish. Despite having had no particular opinions about Jews previous to his mother's intervention, Amir spits in the girl's face, just as his mother spat in his. Through the story, Amir illustrates why he has renounced his Muslim faith, which he sees as wholly negative. The motif of spitting in faces returns toward the end of the play when Isaac and Amir are coming close to engaging in a physical fight: as the two men are about to face off, Amir suddenly spits in Isaac's face. Through repeated use of this motif, Akhtar shows how the antisemitic contempt Amir learned from his mother still lives within him.
Drinking and Resentment (Motif)
In Scene 3, Akhtar uses consumption of alcohol as a motif to show how Amir self-soothes while simultaneously escalating his resentment. At the beginning of the scene, Amir drinks alone on the terrace until he suddenly smashes a whiskey glass in rage. As the dinner party progresses, Amir drinks more and more, simultaneously losing control of his mental filters and letting more of his resentment rise to the surface. The motif of drinking and resentment comes to a climax when Amir beats Emily after learning of her affair.
Amir Beating Emily (Symbol)
Amir's violent beating of his wife Emily is a symbol for Amir's hypocrisy, because the act embodies the exact violence against women Amir earlier abhors. While discussing what he sees as the inherent cruelty of Islamic law, Amir cites how the Quran is interpreted widely as allowing men to beat their wives when they disobey. Emily points out that the translation could also mean "leave" their wives, but Amir persists in arguing that Islam is fundamentally misogynistic. When Amir beats Emily for disobeying him, the act symbolizes his hypocritical embodiment of the male Muslim stereotype from which he has tried to distance himself.
