Assef's brow twitched. "Like pride in your people, your customs, your language. Afghanistan is like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage, and someone has to take out the garbage."
[Amir:] "That's what you were doing in Mazar, going door-to-door? Taking out the garbage?"
[Assef:] "Precisely."
"In the west, they have an expression for that," I said. "They call it ethnic cleansing." (22.86-89)
This is what we in the literature business like to call a "BOOYA!" moment. Assef carelessly uses a metaphor – taking out the garbage – which suggests "cleaning" or "cleansing." Amir takes advantage of the implicit metaphor and tells it like it is: Assef committed the crime of genocide. Notice, too, how Amir participates in the clichés of action films. We can imagine Schwarzenegger letting fly a zinger like this one. Coincidence? Maybe not. The number of references to Hollywood films actually outnumbers the references to Afghani politicians.