How do you believe Amir feels about his father in these chapters? 9. Who is Baba? What are his values? 10. What does Baba give Hassan for his birthday?
Early on, Amir strives to redeem himself in Baba’s eyes, primarily because his mother died giving birth to him, and he feels responsible. To redeem himself to Baba, Amir thinks he must win the kite-tournament and bring Baba the losing kite, both of which are inciting incidents that set the rest of the novel in motion. The more substantial part of Amir’s search for redemption, however, stems from his guilt regarding Hassan. That guilt drives the climactic events of the story, including Amir’s journey to Kabul to find Sohrab and his confrontation with Assef. The moral standard Amir must meet to earn his redemption is set early in the book, when Baba says that a boy who doesn’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.
The friendship was golden, until one day after a kite fight. Assef, a boy who was also a Pashtun like Amir but was different in so many other aspects, finds and chases Hassan in an attempt to steal Amir’s extravagant blue kite. Hassan would not give up the kite, and Assef refers to him in terms of a pet: “A loyal Hazara. Loyal as a dog”. Assef lunges himself onto Hassan
After Amir has cut down the final kite, the only obstacle left is for Hassan to run and catch it. After Hassan catches the kite, he is confronted by Assef, who gives him an ultimatum: if he gives up the kite, he will be left alone; if not, he will have to face the consequences. Hassan remains loyal to Amir, and faces the wrath of Assef. Amir comes across the scene of Hassan being raped, and says he is given one final opportunity: “to decide who I was going to be. I could step into that alley, and stand up for Hassan – the way he’d stood up for me all those times in the past – and accept whatever would happen to me.
When Hassan said the tree hadn’t borne fruit in years, he is using the tree as a direct meaning of their friendship ending. “ I actually aspired to cowardice, because the alternative, the real reason I was running, was that Assef was right: Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. Was it a fair price? The answer floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart: He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” Kites in the novel have multiple layers of symbolism.
The Kite Runner: Chapter Summaries and Key Quotes |Chapter |Summaries |Key Quotes | |1 |December 2001 |“I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.” | | |Amir, the narrator, receives a call from his best friend Rahim |“ I’ve learned, about how you can bury it. Because the past claws its way out.” | | |Khan, asking him to return to Pakistan. |“For you, a thousand times over.” | | |Kabul, the setting for the drama to unfold. |“There is a way to be good again.” | |2 |Amir’s childhood in Kabul. |“Hassan never denied my anything.” (p.4) | | |Amir’s close relationship with Hassan, despite the obvious and |“There was a brotherhood between people who had fed from the same breast, a kinship that not even time could | | |fundamental inequities in the relationship.
I am going to conduct a short memory test to see what, exactly, he does remember. Anthony, when is your birthdate?” “I was born on October 3rd, 1992.” he answers. “Where did you grow up? What high school did you go to?” “I grew up in Mount Vernon, Washington, and went to the high school there.” “Who were your parents?” “My real parents or my adopted parents?” “Both.” “I was born to Norman, and Irene Evens. When I was seven years old, I was adopted by John, and Alice Price.” “Why were you adopted?” “Um…” Before Anthony could finish explaining an ear shattering explosion occurred outside.
At this time, Assef the local bully approached Hassan to get the kite. As a Hazara, Hassan would have been expected to hand the kite over to the Pashtun Asssef. However in his loyalty to Amir he disobeys Assef’s command, the result is that Assef proceeds to violate him to punish him. The incident in the alleyway was watched by Amir without
Summary: Chapter 1 This chapter starts with Amir who explained that the past can never be forgotten. Amir tells his story by recalling an event that occurred in 1975, when he was twelve years old and growing up in Kabul, Afghanistan. This event made him who he is and affected him for the last 26 years. Amir received a call last summer from a friend in Pakistan named Rahim Khan. Rahim Khan asks Amir come to Pakistan to see him.
The kite runner follows the story of Amir -the protagonist- in three main stages of his life; Amir as a young child in Afghanistan, Amir as a young man in American California and Amir as a adult back in Afghanistan. Throughout the novel, we follow the thoughts and feelings of Amir as he struggles to come to terms with who he is, what he has done and his search for redemption for his mistakes. As a young child, Amir grew up with a sense of entitlement with his intelligent and successful businessman father Baba in “The most beautiful house in all of Kabul” Afghanistan. Growing up with such a priviledged lifestyle he was accustomed