Kite Runner v4.kmz

Kite Runner v4
by Khaled Hosseini
Follow the travels of Amir from his childhood in Kabul, Afghanistan to Fremont, California and back as he attempts to "make things good again."
Read more about the author, Khaled Hosseini.
Pagination in this Google Lit Trip are based upon the following edition of The Kite Runner:
The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini
published by The Berkley Publishing Group
a division of Penguin Goup (USA) Inc.,
New York, New York
May 2004
A Google Lit Trip developed by Jerome Burg
Granada High School, Livermore, CA
Visit us at
GoogleLitTrips.com
The resources made available via the Google Lit Trips project website are provided free to the end user and are subject to some restrictions including but not limited to a restriction against distributing and/or redistributing Google Lit Trips files in any way other than via direct downloads from the Google Lit Trips site without written permission.

READ ME FIRST
LEAVE THIS FOLDER CHECKED
Tips for navigating the Kite Runner Lit Trip.
With nearly 100 placemarks, the Kite Runner Lit Trip has extensive rich content. To simply the navigation it is best to:
Always leave the READ ME FIRST folder checked so all roads and labels appear throughout the lit trip.
It is better to check the chapters as you go rather than to have all chapters checked.
When clicking through a series of placemarks:
Click the placemarks icon FIRST to "see" the flight from one placemark to the next.
Click the BLUE PLACEMARK TITLE in the LEFT COLUMN OR the placemark's ICON in the Google Earth Viewer to see the popup window.
CLOSE the popup window before flying to the next placemark.
Special Note About the Placemarks:
The placemarks for each chapter are color-coded so you can easily determine which placemarks are from the same chapter.
They are also named with numbers such as" I.2 The Windmill." In this case, the "I" represents Chapter ONE and the "2" identifies this as the second placemark in Chapter ONE.

Margalla Hills

Wazir Akbar Khan District

Kunduz region

Shar-e-Nau section

The Road to Jalalabad

Road to Peshawar Airport

The Road to Peshawar

HWY 880 > Santa Cruz

Garage Sale Route

San Jose Flea Market

Amtrak

Peshawar > Jalalabad

Karteh-Seh District

Darulaman Boulevard

KARTEH-SEH DISTRICT

Chapt 21 Path

Jalalabad > Islamabad

ONE

1.1 Spreckels Lake
Model Yachts on Spreckels Lake
Image Source
Reference
Page 1
"...After I hung up, I went for a walk along Spreckels Lake on the northern edge of Golden Gate Park."
Thinking About the Story
What does the narrator mean when he says, "I knew it wasn't just Rahim Khan on the line. It was my past of unatoned sins"?
What "tone" does the narrator set in Chapter One? What examples can you find to support your opinion about the tone?
The narrator goes for a long walk after the phone call. What do you do when you need to take some time to think about something?
Supplemental Information
Spreckels Lake, known for its model yacht racing, is just one of the many famous features in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Read more about Spreckels Lake.

1.2 The Windmills
Windmills of Golden Gate Park
Image Source
Reference
Page 2
"...They (the kites) danced high above the trees on the west end of the park, over the windmills, floating side by side like a pair of eyes looking down on San Francisco, the city I now call home..."
Supplemental Information
The windmills of Golden Gate Park have a long history. You can watch a short video history of the windmills here.

TWO

2.1 Wazir Akbar Khan District
Mansion being built in the Wazir Akbar Khan/Sherpur District
Image Source
Reference
Page 4
"Everyone agreed that my father, my Baba, had built the most beautiful house in the Wazir Akbar Khan district, a new and affluent neigborhood in the northern part of Kabul."
Thinking About the Story
What 2 or 3 adjectives would you use to describe the relationship between "Hassan" and the narrator? Why?
What 2 or 3 adjectives would you use to describe "Baba"? Why?
Supplemental Information
See a map of Kabul. The Wazir Akbar Khan District is light blue near the center at the top of the map.

2.2 King Nadir Shah
King Nadir Shah
"Inside sat framed family pictures: an old, grainy photo of my grandfather and King Nadir Shah taken in 1931, two years before the king's assassination;..."
Thinking About the Story
As the narrator describes his home, what opinions do you begin to form about him and his family? Give examples of the evidence that supports your opinions.
Do you "admire" Baba and Amir? What characteristics are you basing your opinion upon?
Read more about King Nadir Shah.

2.3 Cinema Zainab
(This location is speculation only)
Page 6-7
"One day, we were walking from my father's house to Cinema Zainab for a new Iranian movie, taking the shortcut through the military barracks near Istiqlal Middle School—...We hopped the fence that surrounded the barracks, skipped over the little creek, and broke into the open dirt field where old, abandoned tanks collected dust."
Page 8-9
"...I found one of my mother's old history books... In it, I read that my people, the Pashtuns, had persecuted and oppressed the Hazaras...The book said part of the reason Pashtuns had oppressed the Hazaras was that Pashtuns were Sunni Muslims, while Hazaras were Shi'i."
As the boys pass through the military base, one of the soldiers is very rude, making crude comments about Hassan's mother. How does Amir react? What does this tell you about Amir's feelings about Hassan?
Amir has heard "stories" about Hassan's mother that are not flattering. If these stories are true, what might be going through Hassan's mind when the soldiers make crude comments about his mother?
On the next page, Amir tells the reader about the cultural differences between Hassan and himself. What has been the historical relationship between the Pashtuns (Sunni Muslims) and the Hazaras (Shi'a Muslims)?
What does Amir's teacher's reaction to his questions about Hazara and Pashtun relationships tell us?
Read more about Shi'a Muslims, the Hazara People and about the Sunni Muslims and the Pashtun People.

2.4 Buddhas of Bamiyan
Watch a brief video of the destruction of theBuddhas of Bamiyan by the Taliban and plans for rebuilding them.
"...Baba hired the same nursing woman who had fed me to nurse Hassan. Ali told us she was a blue-eyed Hazara woman from Bamiyan, the city of the giant Buddha statues."
The author gives several reasons why the two boys can be thought of as "sort of like" twin brothers. What are some of these reasons?
However, the author also makes it very clear that the two boys are certainly not "equals." What are some of the indications that they are not equals?
Given the questions raised in the first chapter and the complicated relationship between Hassan and Amir, can you speculate on where this story might go?
The 2000 year old statues were demolished by the Taliban in March of 2001 in spite of world-wide protests. Read more about The Destruction of the Statues.

THREE

3.1 Baluchistán
"Lore has it my father once wrestled a black bear in Baluchistán with his bare hands."
This quote seems quite exaggerated, and Amir even admits that there is an "Afghan tendency to exaggerate—sadly almost a national affliction;..." try to develop a picture of Baba as he is described in this chapter.
What actions of Baba in this chapter tend to paint a positive picture of him? What actions of Baba in this chapter tend to paint a negative picture of him?
By the end of the chapter do you like Baba or dislike him? Why?

3.2 Baba's Orphanage
(Approximate location of orphanage built by Baba on the Jadeh Maywand Strip)
President Karzai wearing traditional caracul hat
"In the late 1960s, when I was five or six, Baba decided to build an orphanage....Baba had drawn the blueprints himself despite the fact that he'd had no architectural experience at all...Baba paid for the construction of the two-story orphanage, just off the main strip of Jadeh Maywand south of the Kabul River, with his own money."
Baba seems "larger than life." What do you suppose Baba's motivation is for building the orphanage?
Baba gives Amir a talk about sin. Do you believe that Baba's argument is a "good" one? Why?
Page 14: "Baba was wearing a green suit and a caracul hat."
Read more about the traditional karakul (caracul) hat.
Page 17: "But Mullah Fatiullah Khan seems nice," I managed between bursts of tittering.
So did Genghis Khan," Baba said."
Read more about Genghis Khan.

3.3 Quarga Lake
Quarga Lake may be the lake that Hosseini refers to as Ghargha Lake.

Kabul River

Kunduz Region
"The townspeople caught the killer just before noon the next day: he turned out to be a wanderer from the Kunduz region."

3.4 Tehran, Iran
Buzkashi Tournament
References
All from Page 20
"In 1970, Baba took a break from the construction of the orphanage and flew to Tehran for a month to watch the World Cup games on television, since at the time Afghanistan didn't have TVs yet."
. . . .
I cheered with him when Kabul's team scored against Kandahar and yelped insults at the referee when he called a penalty against our team."
"I remember one time Baba took me to the yearly Buzkashi tournament that took place on the first day of spring, New Year's Day. Buzkashi was, and still is, Afghanistan's national passion..."
Use the ruler tool to find out how far Baba traveled to watch soccer on TV for a month. What do you suppose the author wants the reader to think about given this example of Baba's lifestyle?
Amir didn't really care about Kabul's soccer team. Why did he make such an effort to appear as though he cared about sports? Have you ever done something that you really did not enjoy for reasons similar to those that got Amir to pretend to care about soccer? How did it turn out for you? Any regrets?
How would you compare Buzkashi to "games" we enjoy?
Read more about the Middle Eastern authors that Amir studied in school. Khayyam, Háfez, and Rumi.
Amir also read Saadi, Victor Hugo, Jules Verne, Mark Twain, and Ian Fleming.
Later in the chapter, Amir mentions Henry Kissinger, though he admits that he didn't know who he was.
Read about the relationship between blatant benevolence and conspicuous consumption.
Read about the impact of violence in video games and more about violence in youth sports.

FOUR

4.1 Paghman
Washing a Mast
"High on hashish and mast on French wine, they struck and killed a Hazara husband and wife on the road to Paghman."
What are the implications of saying that the people who were responsible for the deaths of Hassan's grandparents were high on hashish and mast on French wine?
How does Baba's adoption of Ali affect your opinion of Baba?
Baba and Ali seem to have a relationship that is quite similar to the relationship that Amir and Hassan have. What elements of a "friendship" does each relationship have? Why then do neither Baba nor Amir ever refer to the relationships as friendships? If you've read Romeo and Juliet, is there a similar predicament? Are there parallels to this predicament in our culture?
Read more about the city of Paghman.
Read more about hashish and mast.

4.2 SHAR-E-NAU
Video Source: YouTube User: mkrtjp
Page 26-27
"We took strolls in the musty-smelling bazaars of the Shar-e-Nau section of Kabul...We snaked our way among the merchants and the beggars, wandered through narrow alleys cramped with rows of tiny, tightly packed stalls."
Although Amir and Hassan spend their childhood like most boyhood buddies, it is very clear that there is a definite limit to how close they are as friends. Find examples of how these limits are expressed by the author.
What effect does the author create by immediately following a description of Hassan's morning chores with, "Then, Baba and I drove off in his black Ford Mustang—a car that drew envious looks everywhere because it was the same car Steve McQueen had driven in Bullitt, a film that played in one theater for six months"?
.

4.3 "The Bowl-Shaped Hill"
Mullah Nasruddin
"After school, Hassan and I met up, grabbed a book, and trotted up a bowl-shaped hill just north of my father's property in Wazir Akbar Khan...I read him stories he couldn't read for himself. That Hassan would grow up illiterate like Ali and most Hazaras had been decided the minute he had been born, perhaps even the moment he had been conceived in Sanaubar's unwelcoming womb—after all, what use did a servant have for the written word?"
LIst historical examples of people who have been forbidden from getting an education. What are the typical reasons used to justify forbidding people from learning to read? Who benefits from these laws?
Sometimes when friends tease each other, they justify the cruelty by saying "I was just joking!" or "Can't you take a joke?" Should Hassan just laugh off Amir's joke, when Hassan asks Amir what "imbecile" means? Why?
Do you think that Amir's "joke" is a result of his being "foolish" (not knowing better) or of his being "vicious" (knowing better, but not caring)? Why? Are you impressed with the way Amir handles his guilt feelings after playing this "joke" on Hassan? Why?
What connections do you see between the "joke" Amir plays on Hassan and Hassan's favorite story of Rostam and Sohrab?
Ironically, Amir gives Hassan credit for starting him on his writing career. And, later Hussan stuns Amir with very good writing advice in spite of his being an "illiterate Hazara." Have you ever been shocked by the intelligence of someone you had assumed was "beneath you" intellectually? Describe those feelings.
Read some Mullah Nasruddin stories. The stories are extremely short and are sometimes thought of as "jokes," but many see deeper meaning in these stories.
Read the story of Rostam and Sohrab.

FIVE

5.1 Hazarajat
"Huddled together in the dining room and waiting for the sun to rise, none of us had any notion that a way of life had ended. Our way of life. If not quite yet, then at least it was the beginning of the end. The end, the official end, would come first in April 1978 with the communist coup d'état, and then in December 1979, when Russian tanks would roll into the very same streets where Hassan and I played, bringing the death of the Afghanistan I knew and marking the start of a still ongoing era of bloodletting."
"...If idiots like you and your father didn't take these people in, we'd be rid of them by now. They'd all just go rot in Hazarajat where they belong..."
What is implied by having Assef (the ear eater) and "friend of Daoud Khan" make reference to Hitler as a great leader? How is the Pashtun prejudice against the Hazara similar to the Nazi prejudice against the Jews? Do you think this prejudice will influence Amir's relationship with Hassan?
Read more about the July 17, 1973 Saur Military Coup in Afghanistan and the December 25, 1979 Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan.
Read more about Daoud Khan.
Hazarajat generally refers to the dark green area in the center of Afghanistan on the map, where the primary population is the Hazara People. Read more about the area known as the Hazarajat. Read more about the Hazara People.

5.2 Arg Palace
Arg Palace
Read more about the Arg Palace.
"...And for the most part, even though a new leader lived in Arg—the royal palace in Kabul—life went on as before."
What lesson is there in this passage for all of us knowing that Afghanistan was actually on the verge of decades of turmoil fighting the Russians and more recently the Taliban?
Why would the author include this bit of "optimism" just before telling the story of Baba's gift to Hassan?
Why do you suppose that the author spent nearly four pages describing the "gift" that Baba gives Hassan for his birthday?
How does Amir perceive Baba's affections for himself and for Hassan?

SIX

6.1 Jadeh Maywand
Boys preparing for kite fight
Read more about the art of Gudiparan bazi, Afghan kite fighting.
References
"Saifo was a nearly blind old man who was a moochi by profession—a shoe repairman. But he was also the city's most famous kite maker, working out of a tiny hovel on Jadeh Maywand, the crowded street south of the muddy banks of the Kabul River."
Page 54 "But I wonder," he added. "Would you ever ask me to do such a thing (eat dirt), Amir agha?" And, just like that, he had thrown at me his own little test. If I was going to toy with him and challenge his loyalty; then he'd toy with me, test my integrity."
Amir gives many reasons for liking winter in Kabul. One of the most important is that winter is the time of the kite fighting tournament. Why is kite fighting particularly important to Amir?
How is Amir's interest in kite fighting connected to one of the major themes of the story?
Amir begins to think that winning the kite fight will give him a way to win Baba's affection. Do you think Baba really does favor Hassan over Amir? Do you think Amir's perception that Baba favors Hassan is really Amir's insecurity and self-centered desire to be the favorite? Does this have anything to do with Amir's "mean streak" towards Hussan?

SEVEN

7.1 SHUR BAZAR
References
"The immensely popular Ahmad Zahir had revolutionized Afghan music and outraged the purists by adding electric guitars, drums, and horns to the traditional tabla and harmonium;..."
"By the time I reached the marketplace,... A few blocks away, from the Haji Yaghoub Mosque, the mullah bellowed azan, calling for the faithful to unroll their rugs and bow their heads west in prayer..."
Bazaar with Mosque in background
Chapter Seven begins with a mysterious story about Hassan's dream. Although the dream is about Amir and Hussan being brave, the dream agitates Amir who make a comment that he "almost apologized" for. And, even more mysteriously, this portion of Chapter Seven ends with a cryptic remark about Amir's hearing the "water running in Baba's bathroom." Reread this section and make some guesses as to "what the dream means."
The music of Ahmad Zahir "outraged the purists." How many musicians (or other artists) can you name who "outraged" their societies by breaking away from long standing traditions? What traditions in Afghanistan do you think "needed" to be broken away from? Are there traditions in your culture that "need" to be broken away from?
Compare Amir's feelings of joy after winning the kite fight with his feelings of guilt in the rest of the chapter.
Read more about and listen to an Azan, call to prayer.

Haji Yaghoub Mosque ?

7.2 The Ravine
"I opened my mouth, almost said something. Almost. The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had. But I didn't. I just watched. Paralyzed."
"I could step into that alley, stand up for Hassan—the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past—anc accept whatever would happen to me. Or I could run...In the end, I ran...I ran because I was a coward."
"Then I walked back to the rutted track that ran along the snow-filled ravine. I squinted in the dimming light and spotted Hassan walking slowly toward me. I met him by a leafless birch tree on the edge of the ravine."
This chapter ends with Assef perpetrating a horrific cruelty upon Hassan which leads Amir to terrible levels of guilt and shame. What do you think of Amir's behavior in light of his feelings of guilt and shame? Why?
There are people who believe that the scenes of horrific cruelty in this chapter are "too graphic" for students to read. How old would you say a person should be to be "old enough" to read scenes such as the one described in this chapter?
If there was a controversy at your school about whether this book should be taught or not, what side would you take and what arguments would you give to support your position?

EIGHT

8.1 To Jalalabad
On the road to Jalalabad
"That night I asked Baba if we could go to Jalalabad on Friday..."
"The road to Jalalabad is a two-hour trek through mountain roads winding along a steep drop and my stomach lurched with each hairpin turn."
Why does Amir want to go to Jalalabad? Look for evidence in the first part of this chapter to support your answer.
What has become of the relationship between Hassan and Amir? Why? If you were to give one of the characters some advice, what advice would you offer and to whom would you offer it? Do you think your advice would make a difference? Why?
Amir is suffering from a "guilty conscience." Have you ever tried to deal with a guilty conscience by trying to "avoid the issue"? How did that work out for you?
Amir says that he is sick to his stomach because of the hairpin turns in the road. Look at the picture above. How are hairpin turns and car sickness good metaphors for Amir's guilty conscience?
Read this article about coping with a guilty conscience.

8.2 Jalalabad
Gate to Jalalabad
"It shouldn't have felt this way. Baba and I were finally friends...I finally had what I'd wanted all those years. Except now that I had it, I felt as empty as this unkempt pool I was dangling my legs into."
" 'I watched Hassan get raped,' I said to no one. A part of me was hoping someone would wake up and hear, so I wouldn't have to live with this lie anymore. But no one woke up and in the silence that followed, I understood the nature of my new curse: I was going to get away with it. ...That was the night I became an insomniac."
What is the effect of the juxtaposition (placing next to each other) of Baba's finally being proud of Amir because Amir won the kite fight and Amir's guilty conscience for abandoning Hassan?
Have you ever "worried yourself sick?" Have guilt feelings ever kept you awake at night? How did you handle these situations? How long did it take for you to do what you "had to do"?
Read a brief article on Remorse and apologies.

8.3 "Back Home"
Note
We can not know exactly where Baba's house is in the Wazir Akbar Khan District. We do know that:
• it is just south of a bowl shaped hill
• at the time Baba's house was one of the largest homes built in the Wazir Abkar Khan District.
• the Google Earth image shows the area after much destruction of what was there at the time of the story as well as after much new construction that may have changed the layout of the area significantly.
" 'I don't know what I've done, Amir agha. I wish you'd tell me. I don't know why we don't play anymore.' "
" 'You haven't done anything, Hassan. Just go.' "
" 'You can tell me, I'll stop doing it.' "
" '...I'll tell you what I want you to stop doing,... I want you to stop harassing me. I want you to go away,' I snapped. I wished he would give it right back to me, break the door open and tell me off—it would have made things easier, better..."
Do you think Hassan and Amir will resolve their problem? Why? (Try to use evidence from the story to support your opinion.)
Why is Amir angry at Hassan? Shouldn't it be the other way around?
Have you ever "misdirected" your anger? Have you ever been the target of someone's misdirected anger?
Why doesn't Hassan stand up for himself?

8.4 "Hit me back!"
Pomegranate
"School gave me an excuse to stay in my room for long hours. And, for a while, it took my mind off what had happened that winter, what I had let happen."
"I hit him with another pomegranate, '...Hit me back!' I spat. 'Hit me back, goddamn you!' I wished he would. I wished he'd give me the punishment I craved, so maybe I'd finally sleep at night. Maybe then things could return to how they used to be between us. But Hassan did nothing as I pelted him again and again. 'Your'e a coward!' I said. 'Nothing but a goddamn coward!'"
Why is Amir so angry with and so cruel to Hassan?
Is it possible to continue to like Amir after reading about how terribly he treats Hassan?
What would you have done with the feelings that caused Amir to behave this way?

8.5 Birthday Party
Reference: Page 97
"I tore the wrapping paper from Assef's present and tilted the book cover in the moonlight. It was a biography of Hitler..."
Reference: Page 99
"It was Homaira and me against the world. And I'll tell you this, Amir jan: In the end, the world always wins. That's just the way of things.... That same day, my father put Homaira and her family on a lorry and sent them off to Hazarajat. I never saw her again."
Assef, the bully who raped Hassan, is invited to Amir's birthday party and proudly tells Amir that he has picked out the present himself. The present is a biography of Hitler. The author has earlier made it clear that Babba has great respect for Assef based upon his athletic abilities. Why doesn't Amir "say something" to Babba about what Assef has done?
Have you ever had an experience (directly or indirectly with a bully? What do you suppose motivates them?
At the end of the chapter, Rahim Khan tells Amir of a romance he once had with a girl from a different social class. What does Rahim Khan's advice about the "world always winning" mean? What might this scene have to do with how Amir treated Hassan earlier?
Have you seen any parallels to this unfair behavior in your life? Have you ever been told, "Life's not fair." How did you feel when you were told to accept unfairness?

NINE

9.1 "Blood Money"
Schwinn Stingray Bike
"I didn't want any of it—it was all blood money; Baba would have never thrown me a party like that if I hadn't won the tournament"
"Only a handful of kids in all of Kabul owned a new Stingray and now I was one of them. It had high-rise handlebars ... and its famous banana seat...the steel-frame body red, like a candy apple. Or blood..."
"The only gift I didn't toss on that mound was Rahim Khan's leather-bound notebook. That was the only one that didn't feel like blood money"
1. Amir is struggling with his feelings of guilt over having done nothing to help Hassan when he was attacked by Assef. Do you have any empathy for Amir as he continues to feel shame yet still continues to do nothing? Why?
2. It is probably not a coincidence that that author points out that the bicycle is red, "blood red." This birthday gift becomes a birthday curse because Amir now is reminded of the blood (guilt) everytime he sees the bicycle. We all have childhood memories of our feelings of guilt and shame that seem to "pop out" every once in awhile. These memories may recede for long stretches of time and yet they never completely fade away. If you can identify any of these memories from your own "childhood indescretions," can you identify the kinds of things (like the red bicycle might for Amir) that "trigger" those memories to resurface?
Another metaphor using blood as a symbol for guilt comes from "Macbeth" by Shakespeare. When Macbeth has committed a murder that leaves blood on his hands, he says, "Will all green Neptune's oceans wash this blood from my hand?"
The idea is that there are some crimes that are so bad that the guilt could never be washed away, not even with an ocean of water.
See an interesting graphic version of this famous Shakespearean scene here.

9.2 "Hassan knew."
Rostam Mourns Sohrab's Death
Reference: Page 103
"I opened the box and found a brand new Shahnamah, ...And, of course, Rostam inflicting a mortal wound onto his son, the warrior Sohrab..."
"I I wondered how and when I'd become capable of causing this kind of pain...Hassan knew.... I was a liar, a cheat, and a thief."
"Then I saw Baba do something I had never seen him do before: He cried. It scared me a little,... 'Please,' Baba was saying, but Ali had already turned to the door,... I'll never forget the way Baba said that, the pain in his plea, the fear."
You might recall that the book that Ali and Hassan give Amir for his birthday is the same book that was Hassan's favorite story to have Amir read to him back in Chapter Four. How does that story take on more importance now?
Why do you suppose that Baba forgives Hassan for "stealing the watch"? Remember Baba once told Amir that stealing is the worst crime.
Why do you suppose that Baba is so distraught at Ali's firm decision to leave? Remember Ali is only a servant.
Is Amir the story's protagonist or the story's antagonist? What arguments could be made at this point in the story to support either side of this question?
You can read or reread the story of Rostam and Sohrab here.

TEN

10.1 Near Mahipar
A Typical Taurpalin Covered Russian Truck
"The rafiqs, the comrades, were everywhere and they'd split Kabul into two groups; those who eavesdropped and those who didn't...A casual remark to the tailor while getting fitted for a suit might land you in the dungeons of Poleh-charkhi. Complain about the curfew to the butcher and next thing you knew, you were behind bars staring at the muzzle of a Kalashnikov."
I thought of the singer Ahmad Zahir, who had played the accordion at my thirteenth birthday. He had gone for a drive with some friends, and someone had later found his body on the side of the road, a bullet in the back of his head.
Five years have passed since the previous chapter. Find more examples of the sorts of impact the Soviet Invasion has brought to Afghanistan.
Though the "actual facts" of Ahmad Zahir's death are shrouded in mystery, it is suggested here that he was assassinated by the Soviets. Why might a government wish to eliminate an entertainer?
Read more about the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Hosseini mentions the death of Ahmad Zahir on page 112. Read more about the mysterious circumstances of Ahmad Zahir's death.
Similar to the death of Ahmad Zahir is the world-wide attention to those who are "disappeared." This use of the word "disappeared" refers to people who have mysteriously vanished without explanation who are perceived to have been threats to the government of their countries. Read more about this brand of political purging of government enemies here

10.2 Mahipar
" 'Tell him I'll take a thousand of his bullets before I let this indecency take place,' Baba said. My mind flashed to that winter day six years ago. Me, peering around the corner in the alley. Kamal and Wali holding Hassan down. Assef's buttock muscles clenching and unclenching. his hips thrusting back and forth. Some hero I had been, fretting about the kite. Sometimes, I too wondered if I was really Baba's son."
Compare Baba's courage in protecting the woman on the truck with Amir's cowardice in not protecting Hassan in a very similar circumstance. Do you believe you might be as courageous as Babba or as cowardly as Amir if you found yourself in a similar circumstance.
Have you ever actually had your courage tested? If so, were you proud of yourself afterwards?
There are people who believe that scenes such as this one are inappropriate for books being taught to young people. If your school principal decided that this scene and the scene where Hassan is raped justify the banning of this book from schools, would you defend the principal's argument for banning the book or would you defend your right to read books with controversial content in school? Would your position change if you were a younger or older student?

10.3 Jalalabad

10.4 Peshawar
Pakistan
"My eyes returned to our suitcases. They made me sad for Baba. After everything he'd built, planned, fought for, fretted over, dreamed of, this was the summation of his life: one disappointing son and two suitcases."
"Kamal's father was sitting cross-legged in the center of the circle, rocking back and forth, kissing his son's ashen face...
But before any of us could say or do a thing, Kamal's father shoved the barrel in his own mouth. I'll never forget the echo of that blast. Or the flash of light and the spray of red."
Amir notes that Baba, who had had and done so much, has been reduced to a man with almost nothing. If you were Baba and had to make choices like those Baba made, would you have made different choices? Explain.
Knowing what you know about how immigrants are treated in the United States, does knowing Baba's "back story" impact your thoughts about immigrants and their impact on the countries they move to? Explain.
Rather than end this phase of the story with Baba's loss of nearly everything, Hosseini ends this phase with the story of Kamal's father's grief and suicide. Remembering that Kamal was one of the boys involved in the brutal rape of Hassan, what emotions do you think the author wanted to stir in his readers?

ELEVEN

11.1 Lake Elizabeth
Fremont, California
"...I remember the two of us walking through Lake Elizabeth Park in Fremont, a few streets down from our apartment..."
Worth Noting...
Though Amir says that Lake Elizabeth is only "a few streets down from our apartment" it is likely that the author is taking some liberties with the facts. This view shows that the Centerville district where most Afghan immigrants live is quite a bit further from Lake Elizabeth than "a few streets." Of course, it is possible that Hosseini did live closer to Lake Elizabeth than to what is now the "center" of the Afghan immigrant neighborhood. Hosseini has made it clear that The Kite Runner is essentially fiction and that the events have been "Influenced by his own experiences."

11.2 FREMONT
Modern day Fremont includes what had earlier been several small "townships." One of the oldest townships, now called the Centerville District is sometimes referred to casually as "Little Kabul," because it is the home of one of the largest concentrations of Afghan immigrants in the United States.
Marquee at the theatre referred to in this chapter where
Indian movies were shown.
"He (Baba) loathed Jimmy Carter, whom he called a 'big-toothed cretin.'... 'Brezhnev is massacring Afghans and all that peanut eater can say is I won't come swim in your pool'...What America and the world needed was a hard man. A man to be reckoned with, someone who took action instead of wringing his hands. That man was Ronald Reagan...Baba was the lone Republican in our building."
In the 1980s, Baba was quite vocal about his political opinions, siding with the Republicans who took a "hard-nosed" position with Russia, in spite of the fact that Baba's opinions were not generally shared by the rest of the Afghan population in Fremont. Once again, Baba shows a sort of fearlessness. Whether you agree with Baba's opinions or not, is this a characteristic that you admire in Baba? Why?
The photograph to the left was taken in 2004, more than 20 years after the time of this story. It appears as if the opinions of the many in the Afghan community may have shifted towards Republican ideas given American involvement in the current turmoil in Afghanistan. Remembering that in the 80s Afghans were dealing with the Soviet invasion, but the current issue is focused on the former Taliban government in Afghanistan that "protected" Osama bin Laden, how might you explain the shift towards support for Republican ideas?
Knowing what you know about the successes and failures of the war on terror in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2004 (the date of the photograph to the left), what are your thoughts on the politics of being "hard-nosed" with those we feel to be enemies of democracy?
To read current news about Afghanistan, click here.

11.3 Naz Cinema
(after Baba gets furious with a store owner for not accepting his check without identification)
" 'Please, Mrs. Nguyen, don't call the police. I'll take him home. Just don't call the police, okay? Please?...My father is still adjusting to life in America,' I said..."
"For me, America was a place to bury my memories
For Baba, a place to mourn his."
How many examples can you find in the opening pages of this chapter that exemplify Amir's statement that America is a place for Baba to mourn his memories? How do these examples explain Baba's unhappiness and his behavior changes?
While Baba is having great difficulty adjusting to life in America, Amir seems much relieved to have left his memories of life in Afghanistan behind. How does this phenomenon help explain why immigrants frequently create cultural neighborhoods in their new home countries?
What kinds of family difficulties might arise between the older generations and the younger generations in immigrant families?
Worth Noting:
Page 127: "One Sunday in the spring of 1983, I walked into a small bookstore that sold used paperbacks, next to the Indian movie Theater just west of where Amtrak crossed Fremont Boulevard..."
There may be two more pieces of evidence indicating that the author has "fictionalized" his story in the creation of Amir's story.
The Naz Cinema, was actually just southeast of "where Amtrak crossed Fremont Boulevard."
The theatre in the Centerville district showed first run movies during most of the 80s and apparently did not become the Naz Cinema showing Indian language films until the early 1990s.
from the Hollywood Cinema Treasures website
"In 1986, it [the Center Theatre] became the ABC Center and showed first run films until 1988. In the early 1990's, it became the Naz Cinema, the first Indian language theater in the San Francisco Bay Area and was quite successful."

11.4 High Schools
That summer of 1983, I graduated from high school at the age of twenty, by far the oldest senior tossing his mortarboard in the football field that day. I remember losing Baba in the swarm of families, flashing cameras, and blue gowns....He motioned for me to wear my mortarboard, and took a picture of me with the school's clock tower in the background..."
Worth Noting:
It is not clear what high school "Amir" attended.
There are five high schools in Fremont. Of the five, Washington High School and American High School are generally considered the high schools serving the "Little Kabul" community.
The other three high schools, Mission San Jose High School, Kennedy High School and Irvington High School are relatively near Lake Elizabeth nearer to where Amir claims to live.
So, although it is quite possible that the author is fictionalizing elements of his own experiences living in Fremont, one could speculate that if "Amir" did live closer to Lake Elizabeth than to "Little Kabul" (Centerville), then "Amir" might have attended Irvington High School since, of the three high schools nearest to Lake Elizabeth, Irvington High School is the only one with blue as one of its school colors. Though Irvington High School is the furthest of the 3 schools near Lake Elizabeth.
On the other hand, if "Amir" lived in Centerville (Little Kabul), he might well have attended American High School since of the two schools nearest to Centerville, American is the only one with blue among its school colors.

American High School
It is not clear what high school "Amir" attended. The three closest high schools are American High School, Washington High School, and Irvington High School.
The reference to graduation gowns being blue suggests that perhaps the school might have been Irvington High School. Of the three nearby high schools, Irvington High School's colors are Blue and White and American High School's colors are Red, White, and Blue.

Washington High School
It is not clear what high school "Amir" attended. The three closest high schools are American High School, Washington High School, and Irvington High School.
Washington High School's colors are Orange and Black.

Mission San Jose High School
It is not clear what high school "Amir" attended. The three closest high schools are American High School, Washington High School, and Irvington High School.
If "Amir" lived on the east side of Lake Elizabeth as is suggested in Chapter Ten rather than in the Centerville District (Little Kabul), then Mission San Jose High School might have been the closest high school to his home. However, Mission San Jose High School's colors are green and white.

Kennedy High School

Irvington High School
If "Amir" lived on the west side of Lake Elizabeth as is suggested in Chapter Ten rather than in the Centerville District (Little Kabul), then Irvington High School might have been the closest high school to his home. If this portion of the story is "more biographical" than not, it might be that Irvington High School is the best bet as the school "Amir" attended in that it is fairly close to Lake Elizabeth and its school colors are blue and white.

11.5 Kabul Afghan Restaurant
"He (Baba) took me to an Afghan kabob house in Hayward that night and ordered far too much food..."
When Baba takes Amir to the Kabob restaurant and then to the bar to celebrate Amir's graduation, Baba's joy and pride are in stark contrast to his "mood" in the preceding pages. Amir repeatedly mentions that he feels as though he is a disappointment to Baba. Do you think that Amir is correct and therefore that this scene is an unusual moment of pride. Or, do you believe that Baba is, truly proud of Amir and that perhaps Amir is over reacting in his belief that Baba is disappointed in him?
At the bar, Baba uses the "F" word. What does the author "accomplish" (if anything) by having Baba use this kind of language? Because the author uses this word and also includes scenes of rape, what age do you think student should be before he or she is allowed or assigned to read this book?
How do you react to the fact that the day after Baba is so proud of Amir and so happy to celebrate Amir's graduation, he "discourages" Amir by ridiculing Amir's decision to study creative writing?
An aside from the developer of this Google Lit Trip
Coincidentally, I was living in Hayward during the time frame of this story. I recall that, although Hayward, Union City (where I had gone to school), and Fremont were quite culturally diverse, the "new" immigrants at the time were primarily those from Afghanistan. There were very few Afghan restaurants. I remember having to go into Berkeley for Afghan food. The place marker used in this Lit Trip is speculation only, though there is an Afghan Restaurant in this location today, it is not possible to know if this is the actual location of the restaurant mentioned in the story.

11.6 Los Altos
1968 Ford Torino
CC My Old Postcards
"Sometimes, I got behind the wheel of my Ford, rolled down the windows, and drove for hours, from the East Bay to the South Bay, up the Peninsula and back...I drove the Torino up the hills of Los Altos..."
Amir describes his drives from Fremont where, "old cars like mine dripped oil on blacktop driveways" to Los Altos where he saw, "estates with picture windows and silver lions guarding the wrought-iron gates, homes with cherub fountains lining the manicured walkways and no Ford Torinos in the driveways." Compare his current "social status" with the social status that he and Hassan had in Afghanistan.
Amir mentions that in Los Altos there were, "homes that made Baba's house in Wazir Akbar Khan look like a servant's hut." Click here to see examples of what homes in Los Altos sell for today.

11.7 Santa Cruz Lighthouse
Santa Cruz Lighthouse.
(See 360º view of Santa Cruz Lighthouse.)
"I'd get up early some Saturday mornings and drive south on Highway 17, push the Ford up the winding road through the mountains to Santa Cruz. I would park by the old lighthouse."
What is it about all the driving that Amir does that is important to him? Is this a common phenomenon among most teenagers?
Many people casually refer to getting a driver's licence as a Rite of Passage. In what ways does getting a driver's licence resemble a "true" rite of passage?

11.8 Garage Sales Route
Typical Garage Sale
"On Saturdays, Baba woke me up at dawn. As he dressed, I scanned the classifieds in the local papers and circled the garage sale ads. We mapped our route—Fremont, Union City, Newark, and Hayward first, then San Jose, Milpitas, Sunnyvale, and Campbell if time permitted."

UNION CITY

NEWARK

HAYWARD

SAN JOSE

MILPITAS

SUNNYVALE

CAMPBELL

11.9 San Jose Flea Market
San Jose Flea Market main entrance
San Jose Flea Market Still Going Strong Video Source
"Then early Sunday mornings, we drove to the San Jose flea market off Berryessa, rented a spot, and sold the junk for a small profit: A Chicago record that we'd bought for a quarter the day before might go for $1..."
"She had thick black eyebrows that touched in the middle like the arched wings of a flying bird, and the gracefully hooked nose of a princess from old Persia—maybe that of Tahmineh, Rostam's wife and Sohrab's mother from the Shahnamah."
1. Though Baba has been reduced to working in a garage during the week and selling "junk" at a flea market on the weekends, he and other Afghans who had been "former ambassadors, out-of-work surgeons, and university professors," he and the others develop an "unspoken code of behavior." How does this code help them maintain some sense of dignity?
2. Notice that Amir, who finds himself attracted to General Taheri's daughter, compares her beauty to Sohrab's mother, a character from the Shahnamah that he used to read to Hassan. When an author references another work of literature, this is called an "allusion." However, The author has Amir "allude" to the Shahnamah story repeatedly. What do you suppose Hosseini has in mind by continually bringing the reader's attention back to the same story that he used to read to Hassan?
3. You might want to note that in this allusion to the story, Amir not only suggests that the general's daughter reminds him of Sohrab's mother but that he is also attracted to her. Can you speculate on what this might signal if you "add 1 and 1 together"?

TWELVE

12.1 Ohlone Junior College
"She (Soraya) was telling me about school, how she too was working on her general education classes, at Ohlone Junior College in Fremont."
The first several pages of the chapter describe Amir's and Soraya's early days of "romantic interest" in each other. Compare their behaviors during this awkward time with your understanding of teenagers' behaviors during the early days of "interest" in each other today.
What parental behaviors are being expressed that are "similar" to parental behaviors today when their sons and daughters are first becoming "romantically interested"? What parental behaviors seem to be "culturally" specific to being from Afghanistan?
Do you think that the behavior of teens and of their parents during the time of early "romantic interest" among the teens is "better" or "worse" today than in the time of the story? Explain.
Although this chapter is set primarily at the San Jose Flea Market, it contains the first reference to "Ohlone Junior College," where both Soraya and Amir are taking classes.
Several years ago, the term "Junior College" was replaced by the term "Community College." Today the school's official name is Ohlone College.

12.2 Santa Clara Valley Medical Center
"Even though Baba was a manager at the gas station, the owner hadn't offered him health insurance, and Baba, in his recklessness, hadn't insisted. So I took him to the county hospital in San Jose."
The second half of the chapter switches dramatically from Amir's romantic interest in Soraya to Baba's illness. What is the effect of juxtaposing these two emotionally opposite elements of the story?
Baba refuses most of the medical treatments suggested by the doctors. He also does not want his illness known to his friends saying that he didn't want anybody's sympathy. Why does Baba make these decisions? Would you say that these decisions are "admirable"? Why?
In the United States, "county hospitals" are the primary source of health services for those without health insurance. In recent years, the high cost of health insurance and the high cost of medical services has raised the issue of whether or not health care should be provided by the government in a Universal Health Care program. Read more about the Universal Health Care debate in the United States.
See this map for information about the availability of Universal Health Care around the world.

12.3 The Proposal
"The Taheris lived in a flat, one-story hourse in one of the residential areas in Fremont known for housing a large number of Afghans."
Though it is unclear where in Fremont "Amir" lived, this passage seems to indicate that the Taheris may have lived in the Centerville area ("Little Kabul"). By extension, we might speculate that this might indicate that "Amir's" family did not live in that area. This might lead to further speculation that Amir's family did live nearer to Lake Elizabeth and therefore perhaps that he might have attended Irvington High School since that is the only high school in that area of town where graduates were likely to wear blue gowns at their high school graduation.
The actual proposal of marriage was not made by Amir, but by Baba. The acceptance was not given by Soraya, but by her father. Though it may be difficult for modern young people to understand, can you think of any "benefits" of this type of tradition?
Soraya confesses to Amir that she "has a past" that she worries will not be welcomed information by Amir. She decides to tell him about her past. Was that a wise decision? Why? What might be the detriments of being completely "open" with our previous "indecretions"? What might be the the benefits?

THIRTEEN

13.1 Giving Word
Traditional Afghan Dress
"I could hear chatter from the other side of the door, laughter, and Afghan music playing softly—it sounded like a classical ghazal by Ustad Sarahang."
What reactions do you have to the elaborate traditions associated with the marriage proposal?
What are some of the cultural traditions that you are aware of for various cultures? (Quincineras? Bar Mitzvahs? First Communion? etc.)
Listen to a classical ghazal by Ustad Sarahang here. (This may not be available if your school network blocks YouTube)

13.2 The Wedding
The Century House and Gardens Banquet Hall in Fremont
"Baba spent $35,000 nearly the balance of his life savings, on the "awroussi," the wedding ceremony. He rented a large Afghan banquet hall in Fremont—the man who owned it knew him from Kabul and gave him a substantial discount."
"The wedding song, ahesta boro blared from the speakers, the same song the Russian soldier at the Mahipar checkpoint had sung the night Baba and I left Kabul:...
Thinking About the Story...
What role does cultural tradition serve when celebrating life's major milestones?
Why do you suppose that the author included Amir's recollections of Rahim Khan and Hassan in the middle of his description of Amir's wedding?
One of the oldest buildings in the Centerville District of Fremont, the wedding may have taken place at the The Century House and Gardens
.
Listen to the wedding song, ahesta boro.
The early pages of this chapter make references to many Afghan words that apparently are customs, foods, dances, etc. These words are in italics. Locate these terms and divide them up among students to do some quick internet research. Have students report back on their findings to enhance the classes' appreciation for the traditions of the Afghan wedding ceremony and celebration.
Brainstorm wedding traditions and celebrations for other cultures students may know about.

13.3 Bakr Al-Siddiq Mosque
"They filled the parking spots at the mosque in Hayward. On the balding grass field behind the buildings, cars and SUVs parked in the crowded makeshift rows."
"They filled the parking spots at the mosque in Hayward. On the balding grass field behind the buildings, cars and SUVs parked in the crowded makeshift rows.Listening to them, I realized how much of who I was, what I was, had been defined by Baba and the marks he had left on people's lives. My whole life, I had been "Baba's son." Now he was gone. Baba couldn't show me the way anymore; I'd have to find it on my own."
"...I had relieved her (Soraya's mother) of the greatest fear of every Afghan mother: that no nonorable khastegar would ask for her daughter's hand. That her daughter would age alone, husbandless, childless. Every woman needed a husband. Even if he did silence the song in her."
The description of Soraya and Amir's wedding is immediately followed by the description of Baba's funeral. What is the emotional impact on readers as we shift almost suddenly from one of life's happiest moments to one of life's saddest moments?
Compare the elaborate descriptions of Amir's feelings and thoughts during the wedding with the descriptions of Amir's feelings and thoughts during Baba's funeral. What do you make of your observations?
Amir comes to learn that his in-laws may not have a happy marriage. What is some of the evidence to support this? If it is true, why do you suppose that Soraya's mother feels that "Every woman needed a husband. Even if he did silence the song in her"?
Amir and Soraya find themselves caught between the traditions of their parents' generation and their "modern" beliefs that do not align well with their parents' traditions. It might be because their generation lives both within ancient cultural traditions brought from Afghanistan and also within the multi-cultural traditions of the United States. Brainstorm any examples you might know of younger generations having to deal with the differences between the world they live in and the world their parents live(d) in. What kinds of impact does this often have on the way younger generations "see the world"?

13.4 San Jose State College
Tower Hall and Morris Dailey Auditorium on the campus of San Jose State University. (renamed San Jose State University in 1974)
"I got my acceptance at San Jose State that summer and declared an English major. I took on a security job, swing shift at a furniture warehouse in Sunnyvale... It was in the Pine-Sol-scented office of that furniture warehouse that I began my first novel."
" 'Successful,' Soraya hissed. 'At least I'm not like him, sitting around while other people fight the Shorawi, waiting for when the dust settles so he can move in and reclaim his posh little government position. Teaching may not pay much, but it's what I want to do! It's what I love, and it's a whole lot better than collecting welfaire, by the way."
(Soyraya's father) " 'Blood is a powerful thing, bachem, and when you adopt, you don't know whose blood you're bringing into your house...People here marry for love, family name and ancestry never even come into the equation. They adopt that way too, as long as the baby is healthy, everyone is happy. But we are Afghans,..."
(Amir) "I think I agree with General Sahib."
"We all had our reasons for not adopting...Maybe this was my punishment, and perhaps justly so."
What does Soraya's father "want for his daughter" when he discusses her desire to become a teacher? What does he want for himself? What does Soraya want from a career? Do you think it is more important to be important or rich or is it more important to do what you want when choosing a career? What are the benefits and detriments of each side of this argument?
What differences should there be in the relationship between "children" and their parents when they become "adult children"? What should not change about the relationship between children and their parents regardless of their age?
When Amir and Soyraya are told that adoption is their only hope for having children, they are once again caught between the "pull" of their cultural traditions and their desire for children. What would you advise if you were one of their best friends? Have you considered both sides "from their point of view and culture"?
1989: Read more about the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the protests in Tiananmen Square.
Though there are many parallels between "Amir's" story and the actual biographical facts of author Khaled Hosseini's life, it is noteworthy to keep in mind that The Kite Runner remains a fictionalized biography at most. A small reminder appears in this chapter when it is mentioned that Amir gets his first novel published about half way through the novel. In fact, The Kite Runner was Khaled Hosseini's first novel. It is unlikely that "Amir's first novel" had been published prior to the events that occur in the second half of The Kite Runner.
By the way, it might be of interest to know that "Amir's" wife's name is "Soraya" while Khaled Hosseini's wife's name is "Roya."

13.5 Bernal Heights
San Francisco
Typical Bernal Heights Victorian
"A few months later, we used the advance for my second novel and placed a down payment on a pretty, two-bedroom Victorian house in San Francisco's Bernal Heights."
"...And I could almost feel the emptiness in Soraya's womb, like it was a living, breathing thing. It had seeped into our marriage, that emptiness, into our laughs, and our lovemaking. And late at night, in the darkness of our room, I'd feel it rising from Soraya and settling between us. Sleeping between us. Like a newborn child."
Review the major events of this chapter. Try to imagine the "emotional" ups and downs that Amir and Soyraya have gone through. The chapter ends with a poignant moment as Amir describes the effect of their inability to have children is having on the their marriage. Knowing what you know about their cultural beliefs regarding adoption, what do you think might lie ahead for their relationship?

FOURTEEN

14.1 Spreckels Lake
"I drove to Golden Gate Park and walked along Spreckels Lake on the northern edge of the park."
This very short chapter is full of references to earlier events in the story. Here are some questions that might help you appreciate this short chapter. Be sure to notice that this chapter takes place over a decade after the previous chapter.
Why does the author begin the chapter writing about Amir and Soraya's dog? What might be the implications or symbolism here?
The author suddenly returns to the events of the first chapter halfway through the story. Now that we know some of Amir's experiences that we did not know in the first chapter, what do you understand that you did not understand when you first read Chapter One. You might want to quickly reread Chapter One before answering this question.
What has become of Soyraya's relationship with her father?
What has been the affect on Amir's and Soyraya's romantic intimacy after accepting the fact that they can not have children and that adoption is not acceptable in their cultural traditions?
Near the end of the chapter, though there have been indirect allusions to Hassan, Amir dreams not of what he has felt guilty about for so many years, but of the image of Hassan "running in the snow,...yelling over his shoulder: "For you, a thousand times over!" Why is this image important at this moment in the story?
All of this leads Amir to return to Pakistan. What is the significance of the very last sentence of the chapter?

FIFTEEN

Peshawar University

15.1 Jamrud Road
Peshawar, Pakistan
Flag of the Taliban
"Three hours after my flight landed in Peshawar...We were heading west now on Jamrud Road, past the Cantonment and its lavish, high-walled homes."
"A little past the redbrick buildings of Peshawar University, we entered an area my garrulous driver referred to as 'Afghan Town.' "
"The conversation inevitably turned to the Taliban.
" 'Is it as bad as I hear?' I said."
" 'Nay, it's worse. Much worse,' he said. 'They don't let you be human.' "
Notice that even though Rahim Khan is certainly a beloved elder of Amir's, as soon as he hears that Amir is married, he wants to know as is the cultural tradition, the family history of Amir's wife and whether they have children yet. Both questions, of course, are questions that Amir might be sensitive too.
How does hearing Rahim Khan's story of how the Al Qaeda has taken over Afghanistan affect your understanding of the current situation in Afghanistan and the war on terror?
The chapter ends with Rahim Khan, near death, revealing that he and Hassan had lived together and that Khan wants to tell Amir "everything" about Hassan. What thoughts and emotions do you suppose Amir is experiencing?
You may have heard of the Taliban that governed Afghanistan after the Soviets left. At first they were seen as heroes having fought the Soviets. However, after awhile they instituted very strict rules that were brutal. Read more about Life Under the Taliban Regime.
The "War on Terrorism" in Afghanistan began, in part, as a retaliation against the Taliban who were believed to be protecting Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda.

SIXTEEN

16.1 Outside Bamiyan
"I was driving up a rutted dirt road, nothing on either side but sunbaked bushes, gnarled, spiny tree trunks, and dried grass like pale straw...right in the middle of that barren land, I saw a cluster of mud houses, beyond them nothing but broad sky and mountains like jagged teeth."
In a sense there are two stories being told in the opening pages of Chapter Sixteen. The author Khaled Hosseini uses these pages as a way of bringing the "reader" up to date with what has been going on in Hassan's life. We hear that story through a reader's ears. In that sense, what are the 5-6 main "plot" events marking Hassan's life's journey?
The second story being told in the opening pages of Chapter Sixteen can be easily overlooked. That is the story of Amir's being brought up to date with what has been going on in Hassan's life. If readers see only the plot events of Hassan's experiences they may miss some of the richness of this chapter. For example, we know that Amir hold deep feelings of guilt over not having done the right thing so many years earlier when Hassan was attacked and that his repeated failure to do the right thing led to Hassan's leaving on a separate life's journey. What might Amir be thinking as HE sees the near squalor within which Hassan lives? Remember that Amir has gained some degree of wealth and is living in one of the more exclusive neighborhoods of San Francisco.
Remembering that Amir and Soyraya have failed in their attempts to have children, what might Amir be thinking when he discovers that Hassan's wife is pregnant. Be careful...try to answer this from Amir's point of view, not from your point of view.
How might Amir have felt when he learns that Hassan has expressed interest in how Amir's life has gone since they last saw each other? How much has Amir expressed interest in Hassan's happiness in those same years?
Amir hears the tragic story of Hassan's father's death and has recently gone through the death of his own father. What thoughts might Amir be having that a reader who may not have had the experience of surviving a parent's death might not have. Try to imagine these parallel experiences from Amir's point of view.
How could it be possible that Hassan in his extreme poverty might not want to return to the relative luxury of living in Baba's mansion in Kabul. Could it be possible that Hassan is happier in his life of poverty than Amir is in his life of wealth? Explain.

16.2 Return to Kabul
"In the morning, Hassan told me he and Farzana had decided to move to Kabul with me."
"In the morning, Hassan told me he and Farzana had decided to move to Kabul with me. When we go to Kabul, I discovered that Hassan had no intention of moving into the house...."
...He said it was a matter of ihtiram, '...What will Amir agha think?' "
Page 209 (after Hassan and Farzana's baby is born dead)
"Farzana stayed in the hut all day and wailed—it is a heartbreaking sound, Amir jan, the wailing of a mother. I pray to Allah you never hear it."
Page 211 (after Hassan's mother returns seeking forgiveness)
"...Hassan and his mother kneeling together,...talking. They were catching up on all the lost years, I suppose. As far as I know, he never asked where she had been or why she had left and she never told. I guess some stories do not need telling."
Page 211 (upon the birth of Hassan's son)
"...They named him Sohrab, after Hassan's favorite hero from the Shahnamah, as you know, Amir jan"
Again, trying to respond, not from your point of view, but rather from Amir's point of view, how might Amir have felt after hearing that Hassan refuses to move into Baba's house out of respect? Considering that Hassan knows that he had been betrayed by Amir when Amir accused Hassan of stealing his watch so many years before, do you think Hassan still owes Amir that respect? How do you suppose Hassan's acts of respect affects Amir's feelings of guilt over having betrayed Hassan?
Explain the tragic irony of Rahim Khan's prayer that Amir will never hear the wailing of a mother.
From Amir's point of view, what might he have been thinking when he hears the story about Hassan's mother seeking forgiveness from Hassan for having abandoned him?
Hassan and his wife name their son Sohrab after the hero in the story he so much enjoyed having Amir read to him when they were children. If you haven't yet taken the opportunity to read this story, perhaps now would be a good time.
Reread the last five paragraphs of Chapter Sixteen "from Amir's point of view." How many times might Amir have been reminded of his guilt? Explain.
The chapter ends with several references to the troubles plaguing Afghanistan at the time. Read more about the years of war surrounding the time frame of the novel here.
And finally, read about the Taliban's banning of kite flying here.

SEVENTEEN

17.1 Hassan's Letters
Russian Samovar
"She had a large purple bruise on her leg for days but what could I do except stand and watch my wife get beaten? If I fought, that dog would have surely put a bullet in me, and gladly! Then what would happen to my Sohrab? The streets are full enough already of hungry orphans and every day I thank Allah that I am alive, not because I fear death, but because my wife has a husband and my son is not an orphan...
I wish you could see Sohrab. He is a good boy..."
"The two of us often walk up to the cemetery on the hill. Do you remember how we used to sit under the pomegranate tree there and read from the Shahnamah? ...the tree hasn't borne fruit in years...It is not necessary to tell you that his favorite part is the one with his namesake, Rostam and Sohrab."
"I dream that lawla flowers will bloom in the streets of Kabul again and rubab music will play in the samovar houses and kites will fly in the skies. And I dream that someday you will return to Kabul to revisit the land of our childhood. If you do, you will find an old faithful friend waiting for you."
In a sense, Hassan found himself in a situation very similar to that which has troubled Amir for so many years. He watches his wife be beaten and does nothing. Compare Hassan's reasoning for allowing the brutality towards his wife with Amir's reasoning for allowing the brutality towards Hassan so many years earlier.
Why do you suppose Hassan does not harbor any anger at Amir for having done nothing about the events for which Amir has come to "make right"?
Hassan wishes that Afghanistan will someday return to the way it was when he and Amir were children together. Is it possible to hope that this is possible? Aside from relying upon the "magic of fairy-tales" what kinds of events might happen to make Hassan's hopes real?
Read more about the harsh rule of the Taliban.
Watch a short video of a performance of some rubab music.
(This video is posted on YouTube, so it may be filtered by internet filter systems used in some school districts.)

17.2 A Dying Wish
(It is important to remember that although much of the last two chapters told the story of Hassan's life in the village outside Bamiyan and back in Kabul, Amir and Rahim Khan are actually still in Peshawar)
"They accused him of lying when Hassan told them he was living with me... The Talibs said he was a liar and a thief like all Hazaras and ordered him to get his family out of the house by sundown....Hassan protested...So they took him to the street—...and shot him in the back of the head...Farazana came screaming and attacked them—...shot her too. Self-defense they claimed later."
"What I'm asking from you is to grant an old man his dying wish,...
But there's something else. Something that you don't know."
Given that Hassan and Farzana are allegedly killed for being Hazara living in a big house in the wealthy Wazar Akbar Khan district, if you were Rahim Khan, would you feel a sense of guilt or responsibility for Hassan's and Farzana's deaths and for the orphaning of Sohrab?
(Note: This question does not ask whether you would be guilty or responsible, but rather whether you would feel guilty or responsible.)
Remembering that Amir has returned to Pakistan to visit Rahim Khan after the phone call where Rahim Khan told Amir that "There is a way to be good again," how do you react to Amir's response when Rahim asks him to go to Kabul to "save" Sohrab?
Chapter Seventeen ends with Rahim "telling" Amir a part of the story that Amir had never known. Rahim is not very direct about exactly what happened, but Amir is enraged. Can you piece together the puzzle of what Rahim is telling Amir? Why does this enrage Amir? Given what you have seen about Amir, what do you think he will do?

EIGHTEEN

18.1 Amir's Decision
"I can't go to Kabul,...I have a wife in America, a home, a career, and a family. But how could I pack up and go back home when my actions may have cost Hassan a chance at those very same things?"
"Then I told him I was going to Kabul. Told him to call the Caldwells in the morning."
Was it "right" of Rahim Khan to ask Amir to risk so much to retrieve Hassan's son?
Amir finally has to decide whether he is going to "face his guilt" and or continue to avoid it. It is very easy to see why he "should" go "make things right." But, it is very hard to choose to face the dangers. What would YOU do if you were Amir? How "truthful" are you being?
Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you knew what you "had to do to make things right" but found yourself really struggling to build up the courage? How long did you postpone "doing the right thing"? Are there still unaddressed guilty feelings you're living with? If so, do you think you will ever deal with them the way you know you should?

NINETEEN

19.1 Passing Jamrud Fort
Jamrud Fort
"By the time we drove past the bullet-riddled sign that read THE KYBER PASS WELCOMES YOU, my mouth had begun to water. Something inside my stomach churned and twisted."
"Farid gave me another dismissive look, this one with a hint of barely suppressed animosity, and went back to smoking his cigarette. He hadn't said more than a dozen words since we'd departed from Jamrud Fort."
As Amir begins his journey to retrieve Hassan's son, the author describes him as being car sick. He also casually describes the car itself as being in disrepair, having to use a screw driver to lower the window and the driver is not terribly friendly. If this is foreshadowing, what might you expect will become of Amir's decision to go get Hassan's son?
Amir's driver, Farid has fought a jihad against the Russians. The author describes great suffering that Farid has experienced while fighting a jihad. Farid is also described as an acquaintance of Rahim Khan, who is perhaps the purist protagonist in the story. Yet, today, the term "jihad" is looked upon with scorn and connected to the terrorists being fought in the "War on Terror." Can you articulate any indicators that would help determine at what point the actions taken by persons of faith cross over from being noble to being evil? Do you believe that people who have deep beliefs, not shared by all people, should "share/impose" those beliefs on others? What are the positives and negatives of doing so?
Read current news related to the term, "jihad.."
Read more about , Ahmad Shah Massoud, "the Lion of Pansher".

19.2 Landi Kotal
Landi Kotal, near the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan
"The main pass had descended from Landi Kotal through Shinwari territory to Landi Khana. We'd entered Afghanistan at Torkham."
Why must Amir wear a disguise so that he appears to be from Afghanistan?
At one point, Amir tells Farid, "I feel like a tourist in my own country." What makes him feel this way? Have you ever "returned" to a place where you used to live after a lengthy amount of time had passed? Did you "feel" anything similar to Amir's feelings?
A few paragraphs later, Farid guesses fairly accurately about Amir's life when he lived in Afghanistan and says to Amir, "That's the real Afghanistan, Agha sahib. That's the Afghanistan I know. You? You've always been a tourist here, you just didn't know it." What was Farid suggesting to Amir? What signals might the author be sending to the reader about Amir's pending experiences?

19.3 Torkham
The border at Torkham between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Hindu Kush

19.4 Jalalabad
A scene from the video game, The Road to Jalalabad depicting the destruction of Jalalabad by the Russians.
"The sun hadn't quite set when we drove into Jalalabad, capital of the state of Nangarhar, a city once renowned for its fruit and warm climate. Farid drove past the buildings and stone houses of the city's central district. There weren't as many palm trees there as I remembered, and some of the homes had been reduced to roofless walls and piles of twisted clay."
"You should have told me."
"You didn't ask."
He rolled to face me. Curled his arm under his head. "Maybe I will help you find this boy."
"Thank you, Farid," I said.
"It was wrong of me to assume."
I sighed. "Don't worry. You were more right than you know."
Farid accuses Amir of only coming back to Afghanistan to sell property so he could "go back to America, (and) spend the money on a family vacation to Mexico." (page 236) Farid's brother, Wahid reprimands Farid for being disrespectful. Though Farid is incorrect about Amir's plans, what "truth" can be determined by Farid's assumption? Is Amir "guilty" of any part of this "truth"?<.LI>
Wahid provides a meal to Amir and lies about his family having eaten before Amir's arrival. How can we tell that he is lying? What "truth" can be determined from Wahid's lie? <.LI>
Note that Amir gets permission from Wahid to give Wahid's sons his watch. Keep in mind that Amir has returned to Afghanistan to "make things good again." Do you think it's coincidence that the problem Amir is trying to make ammends for all began when he framed Hassan for having stolen the watch that he had been given for his birthday?<.LI>
Note that Farid, who has been fairly unlikeable since he entered the story, is quick to apologize to Amir when he discovers that he has misjudged Amir. What might Farid's apology have to do with Amir's nightmare?<.LI>
What do you make of the last paragraph of the chapter? (Try to dig a bit deeper than what might be the obvious response.)<.LI>
<.LI>

TWENTY

20.1 Mahipar Dam
By Todd Huffman from Phoenix, AZ (Valley Trip) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
"We were driving down the cratered road that winds from Jalalbad to Kabul. ...a bone-jarring ride down a teetering pass snaking through the rocks..."
In the old days, the drive from Jalalabad to Kabul took two hours, maybe a little more. It took Farid and me over four hours to reach Kabul. And when we did...Farid warned me just after we passed the Mahipar dam.
"Kabul is not the way you remember it," he said.
"So I hear."
Amir has become a foreigner in his own land both because he has lived in America where the culture is very different and because Afghanistan has undergone huge changes since he left. What do you expect might be the affect of these personal changes and these political changes on his attempts to retrieve Hassan's son and to "make things right"?
Have you ever "tried to go back" to a place you'd left and found it "just not the same"? Was it different more because you had changed or because it had changed?

20.2 Kabul
Warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum with Hamid Karzai.
"We were driving westbound toward the Karteh-Seh district on what I remembered as a major thoroughfare in the seventies: Jadeh Maywand. Just north of us was the bone-dry Kabul River. On the hills to the south stood the broken old city wall. Just east of it was the Bala Hissar Fort—the ancient citadel that the warlord Dostum had occupied in 1992—... from which Mujahedin forces had showered Kabul with rockets between 1992 and 1999, inflicting much of the damage I was witnessing now."
"Jadeh Maywand had turned into a giant sand castle. The buildings that hadn't entirely collapsed barely stood, with caved in roofs and walls pierced with rockets shells. Entire blocks had been obliterated to rubble."
Warlord Dostum has played a very complex role in Afghanistan history during, as well as since the time frame of The Kite Runner. Read more about him here.

20.3 Bala Hisar Fort
Bala Hisar Fort
Read more about historic Bala Hisar Fort

20.4 Kabul Changed
Afghan Moral Police beating women.
"We walked back to Jadeh Maywand and turned right, heading west...A vehicle was approaching us. 'Beard Patrol,'... "
The author makes it clear that the Afghanistan people are being victimized by the Taliban's strict laws based upon their extremely fundamentalist interpretations of their religion. The problems in Afghanistan reflect a clear example of why The United States Constitution's First Amendment prohibits the government from favoring a specific religion or passing legislation to establish an official, national religion. This is frequently referred to as the separation of church and state. Though intended to protect people from having a government where one group's religious beliefs can be imposed on people with different beliefs, it is still a very controversial issue. Take this online quiz to see how informed you are on the concept of separation of church and state.
If you have an opinion about separating church and state, for example whether prayers or religious holidays should be celebrated in schools or not, can you list the three strongest arguments being made by those with the opposite opinion from your own?
Read more about the Taliban Beard Patrol and other religious restrictions here.
Read more about the struggles in Afghanistan that have caused so much destruction in Kabul here.

20.5 The Orphanage
" 'Do you know where the orphanage is in Karteh-Seh?" I said.
"It's not hard to find, it's just west of Darulaman Boulevard," he said. "The children were moved from here to Karteh-Seh after the rockets hit the old orphanage. Which is like saving someone from the lion's cage and throwing them in the tiger's."
" 'We found the new orphanage in the northern part of Karteh-Seh, along the banks of the dried-up Kabul River."
What do we learn about the history of the Taliban rule from the old beggar?
Can you think of other stories from history where what was originally seen as good gradually became not good? What might the lesson be here?
What do we learn about the old beggar's history?
What do we learn about Amir's history from the old beggar?
Zaman lies to Amir about Sohrab and then decides to tell the truth. What was Zaman's motivation for lying? What was his motivation for telling the truth? Was he "wrong" to lie? Why? Was he "wrong" to tell the truth? Why? Have you ever been in a similar situation? What did you do?
What is Zaman's moral dilemma? What would you have done in his place?
Have you ever been in a true "no win" situation? How did it affect you? Does it still affect you?
As has been the case earlier in the story, in fictionalizing his story, the author seems to have made very slight changes. For example, the orphanage is described as being west of Darulaman Boulevard in the Karteh-Seh District. Yet, it is also described as being on the banks of the dried-up Kabul River. We can see from this map that the Kabul River runs just east of Darulaman Boulevard just outside the Karteh-Seh District. However, a smaller tributary of the Kabul River does break off in the northern part of Karteh-Seh.
This place marker is on the west side of Darulaman Boulevard in the northern part of Karteh-Seh, however it is on the banks of the tributary of the Kabul River. Approximately, .4 miles further north the Kabul River is within 100 yards of the Kabul River which certainly could be considered "on the banks" of the Kabul River, However, the bank is clearly to the east of Darulaman Boulevard and not in the Karteh-Seh District.

TWENTY-ONE

21.1 Pashtunistan Square
The Khyber Restaurant in Pashtunistan Square.
"We crossed the river and drove north through the crowded Pashtunistan Square. Baba used to take me to Khyber Restaurant there for kabob. The building was still standing, but its doors were padlocked, the windows shattered, and the letters K and R missing from its name. I saw a dead body near the restaurant...Hardly anyone seemed to notice him."
If you have a fairly powerful computer, you may want to click the 3D Buildings checkbox in the LAYERS section of the Google Earth sidebar. There are several buildings in Kabul that have been created in Google's SketchUp application that will "pop up" including the Khyber Restaurant in Pashtunistan Square. Please note that this may take a few minutes. Once the buildings appear you can use Google Earth's compass to explore these and other buildings in Kabul.

21.2 North of Pashtunistan Square...
"We rode silently through the square and headed toward the Wazir Akbar Khan district. ...A few blocks north of Pashtunistan Square, Farid pointed to two men talking animatedly at a busy street corner."
What were the two men discussing that Amir found worthy of noting? What is the greatest sacrifice you can see yourself making for someone you care about? Try to be realistic.

21.3 Baba's House*
* It is difficult to know precisely where Baba's home was located in the Wazir Akbar Khan District.
"He drove us into a wide street with fairly clean sidewalks and walled homes on either side... "Street 15..."
I think that's it!" I said...
Farid turned onto the street. I saw Baba's house right away."
"The house itself was far from the sprawling white mansion I remembered from my childhood. It looked smaller. The roof sagged and the plaster was cracked...Like so much else in Kabul, my father's house was the picture of fallen splendor."
"I have to look at one more thing,' I told him...
'I don't want to forget anymore,' I said. 'Give me ten minutes.' "
What purpose is served by the author's having Amir return to see his home even though he really only sees it from the outside and for a very few moments?
Of all the memories that Amir might have of his childhood experiences with Hassan, why do you suppose the author focuses upon the experience on the hill by the pomegranate tree?

21.4 Return to the Hill
"We hardly broke a sweat, Hassan and I, when we hiked up the hill just north of Baba's house...
Now, by the time I reached the top of the craggy hill, each ragged breath felt like inhaling fire.
I hunkered down on my knees and brushed my hands against the trunk. I found what I was looking for. The carving had dulled, almost faded altogether, but it was still there: 'Amir and Hassan. The Sultans of Kabul.' I traced the curve of each letter with my fingers....
I sat cross-legged at the foot of the (Pomegranate) tree and looked south on the city of my childhood. "
Why do you suppose it is important for Amir to visit the hill where the pomegranate tree is at this point in the story?

21.5 near Pashtunistan Square
"We drove south again, back toward Pashtunistan Square. We passed several more red pickup trucks with armed, bearded young men crammed into the cabs...
I paid for a room at a small hotel near Pashtunistan Square...He charged me $75, an unthinkable price given the run-down appearance of the place, but I didn't mind. Exploitation to finance a beach house in Hawaii was one thing. Doing it to feed your kids was another."
"He told me about growing up in Mazar-i-Sharif, in Jalalabad... They were stranded without food and ate locust to survive. He told me of the day helicopter gunfire killed his father, of the day the land mine took his two daughters. He asked me about America. I told him that in America you could step into a grocery store and buy any of fifteen or twenty different types of cereal. The lamb was always fresh and the milk cold, the fruit plentiful and the water clear. Every home had a TV, and every TV a remote, and you could get a satellite dish if you wanted. Receive over five hundred channels...We fell silent for a while."
After comparing Farid's difficult life experiences with the "wealth" that Amir has in America, should Amir (and most Americans perhaps) fill any guilt or responsibility to the less fortunate people of the world?
Considering Farid's sense of scorn for Amir earlier when he believed that Amir was just another Afghan who had gone to America and only come back to "cash in" and the current scene contrasting Amir's "luxurious" life in America with the harshness of life in Afghanistan, how does this affect your understanding of America's "reputation" among countries and people who do not like Americans? Be careful. Assuming that it's all about jealousy may be a bit too simplistic.

21.6 Ghazi Stadium
Stoning to death
"A bustling crowd was filling Ghazi Stadium when we walked through the entrance tunnels. "
"When it was all over, when the bloodied corpses had been unceremoniously tossed into the backs of red pickup trucks—separate ones—a few men with shovels hurriedly filled the holes. One of them made a passing attempt at covering up the large bloodstains by kicking dirt over them. A few minutes later, the teams took the field. Second half was under way."
How does the Talib with the black sunglasses "excuse himself" from responsibility for the cruelty of the stoning?
Note that the author precedes the scene of hideous cruelty of stoning people to death with a scene of Amir and Farid telling jokes. How does the juxtaposition of these opposites affect your reaction to the description of the stoning?
Why would the Taliban conduct the stoning during the "half-time" of the sporting event? How would you feel about watching the second half of the sporting event after having witnessed a stoning?
Regardless of your personal opinion about capital punishment, what arguments for the opposite opinion cause you to at least consider the other point of view?
Read more about the long history of stoning people to death.
Read more about the debate over Capital Punishment.

TWENTY-TWO

22.1 The Talib
"Farid eased the Land Cruiser up the driveway of a big house in Wazir Akbar Khan. He parked in the shadows of willow trees that spilled over the walls of the compound located on Street 15, Sarak-e-Mehmana, Street of Guests."
"You don't know the meaning of the word 'liberating' until you've done that, stood in a roomful of targets, let the bullets fly, free of guilt and remorse, knowing you are virtuous, good, and decent. Knowing you're doing god's work. It's breathtaking....
We left the bodies in the streets, and if their families tried to sneak out to drag them back into their homes, we'd shoot them too."
" "Assef's brow twitched. 'Afghanistan is like a beautiful mansion littered with garbage, and someone has to take out the garbage,' "
" 'In the west, they have an expression for that,' " I said. 'They call it ethnic cleansing.' "
If you had lost a family member to the cruelties of the Talib, would you have risked your own life to retrieve the remains of your loved one? How many famous people from history can you think of whose ethical beliefs had them face government punishment or even death because they did what they felt they had to do?
Though Assef is an extreme example, he actually claims the , "moral high ground." Do you believe he has a right to his own opinion even if you strongly disagree with that opinion? If you wanted to create a perfect government, what restrictions would you put on government itself to protect the rights of people to have their own personal opinions while also protecting the people from those who would use government to impose their extreme personal beliefs on all the people as Assef does?
Is Amir "heroic" in Chapter Twenty-Two? Explain. Does it influence your answer knowing that Amir would most likely have died in the fight with Assef if it had not been for Sohrab and his slingshot? Explain.
Babrak Karmal
Read more about the Hazara massacre in Mazar-i-Sharif.
The Talib's story about the Hazara massacre at Mazar-i-Sharif is particularly gruesome in that the dead were left to be eaten by dogs. And, families who attempted to retrieve thier bodies were shot. This is reminiscent of Sophocles' play "Antigone," written in 500 BCE, where King Creon ordered Antigone's brother Polynices left to rot, ordering that anyone who attempted to bury him would be put to death. Read more about historical persons who became heroes because of their civil disobedience.
(Page 282) Assef indicates that he was imprisoned "just after Babrak Karmal took over in 1980." Assef suggests that his imprisonment was politically motivated because he was fighting against the Soviets for whom Babrak Karmal was considered a "puppet." Read more about Babrak Karmal.
The chapter ends with Farid saying, "Bismillah, Bismillah" twice. Read more about this very important Arabic noun here.

TWENTY-THREE

23.1 In Hospital
"You are in a hospital in Peshawar. You've been here two days. You have suffered some very significant injuries."
(Farid)" '...What happened between you and the Talib?' "
" 'Let's just say we both got what we deserved,' I said."
" 'Your father, like you, was a tortured soul, Amir jan.'..."
" '...And this is what I want you to understand, that good, real good, was born out of your father's remorse...And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.' "
" 'There never was a Thomas and Betty Caldwell in Peshawar. According to the people at the consulate, they never existed."
The chapter begins with Amir describing very brief, but confused recollections. At what point, as a reader, did you "figure out" what was actually going on here?
We learn of Amir's serious physical injuries. But, these confused recollections may hint that he is also suffering serious psychological "injuries." If you were a psychologist, what might you think these "confused recollections" would tell you about Amir's emotional condition?
As you read through this chapter pay particular attention to Sohrab's reactions to Amir's attempts to befriend him. What pattern do you detect? How might you explain Sohrab's behavior?
Dr. Faruqi jokes about the fact that Amir will sound like Al Pacino in The Godfather. There are other passages in this chapter where Amir is compared to Hassan and even to Assef. Can you find these passages? What do you suppose the author is trying to suggest by making these comparisions?
Amir is being painfully honest with himself as he confesses to Sohrab and to himself that he had not been a good friend to Hassan. He also implies that he recognizes a "twin-ship" between himself and Assef. It is easy to see that though difficult for Amir, his honestly facing his own feelings of guilt may be a "healthy" part of "making things right again." Have you ever experienced the "relief" brought by being honest about your guilty feelings?
What do you think were the most important lessons of Rahim Khan's letter to Amir?
It comes as a surprise to many readers that Rahim Khan had lied to Amir about the Caldwells who would adopt Sohrab. Does Rahim Khan's lie affect your opinion of him? Explain.

TWENTY-FOUR

24.1 Islamabad
Islamabad
"Islamabad was the city Kabul could have become someday. The streets were wider than Peshawar's, cleaner, and lined with rows of hibiscus and flame trees...The architecture was more elegant too, more modern..."
"...Farid found a small hotel on a side street running along the foot of the Margalla Hills. We passed the famous Shah Faisal Mosque on the way there, reputedly the biggest mosque in the world."
"I wondered what I'd do with the wounded little boy lying on the bed, though a part of me already knew."
"I imagined Sohrab lying in a ditch. Or in the trunk of some car, bound and gagged. I didn't want his blood on my hands. Not his too..."
When Amir wakes and finds Sohrab missing, he has a lengthy, frustrating conversation with Mr. Fayyaz, the hotel manager, who is hardly helpful. As Amir's frustrations rise, he imagines Sohrab "lying in a ditch. Or in the trunk of some car, bound and gagged." When Amir says "I didn't want his (Sohrab's) blood on my hands. Not his too.... What does he mean?
Is Amir "saving" Sohrab because he has come to care about Sohrab or because he is "saving" himself from the guilt he has felt about having abandoned Hassan?
If someone "does good," is there any difference if his or her motives were a little self-serving? For example, making a charitable donation in order to get a tax deduction or a T-shirt or admiration from others for one's generosity?

24.2 Shah Faisal Mosque
Video Source
"But we found him about a hundred yards from the mosque, sitting in the half-full parking lot, on an island of grass."
"...He was looking at the mosque. Shah Faisal Mosque was shaped like a giant tent...We listened to the call to prayer, watched the building's hundreds of lights come on as daylight faded. The mosque sparkled like a diamond in the dark. It lit up the sky, Sohrab's face."
A kinship exists between people who've fed from the same breast. Now, as the boy's pain soaked through my shirt, I saw that a kinship had taken root between us too. What had happened in that room with Assef had irrevocably bound us..."
"...I decided the moment was now, right here, right now, with the bright lights of the house of God shining on us. Would you like to come live in America with me and my wife?"
If you had to identify a passage from Amir's conversation with Sohrab near the Shah Faisal Mosque as a possible "major turning point" in the story, which passage would you select?<.LI>
Why did you select that particular passage? How does it affect Amir or Hassan's view(s), opinions, or feelings in a major way?
Read more about the Shah Faisal Mosque, the largest mosque in the world.

24.3 Daman-e-Koh Viewpoint
Daman-e-Koh Viewpoint
"Then one day Sohrab and I took a taxicab to the Daman-e-Koh Viewpoint—or "The hem of the mountain." Perched midway up the Margalla Hills, it gives a panoramic view of Islamabad,..."
"But why did people hide it from father and you?"
"...we weren't supposed to be brothers."
"...Because he was a Hazara?"
"...Did your father love you and my father equally?..."
"...I think he loved us equally but differently.
"...Was he ashamed of my father?"
" 'No,' I said. 'I think he was ashamed of himself.' "
Amir shares "the" family secret with Sohrab. Do you think it was wise of Amir to let Sohrab know that Hassan was "illegitimate" and that Babba was not ashamed that he had fathered Hassan, but rather that he was probably ashamed of himself?
Every family has "stories." Have you ever discovered one of the family stories that "had been hidden" from you? If so, how did you feel? Why was the story hidden? In the long run, were you better off knowing the story or would you have preferred not to know? Why?
Read more about the movie, Pakeeza (Pakeezah), that Amir references on Page 321.

Presidential Palace

Rawalpindi

24.4 Visions of San Francisco
TransAmerica Building
San Francisco, California
Cable Car with Alcatraz Island in Distance
" 'I saw a picture of San Francisco once,'Sohrab said..."
"There was a red bridge and a building with a pointy top."
Page 323" 'You should see the streets,'" I said...
"They're so steep, when you drive up all you see is the hood of your car and the sky."
"Sometimes the fog is so thick in the morning, all you see is the tip of the two towers poking through."
Golden Gate Bridge, San Francisco, California
Do you think Sohrab found these descriptions attractive? Why?
Have you ever had to move away from "everything?"

24.5 American Embassy*
"The lawn outside the American embassy in Islamabad was neatly mowed, dotted with circular clusters of flowers, bordered by razor-straight hedges. The building itself was like a lot of buildings in Islamabad: flat and white. We passed through several roadblocks to get there and three different security officials conducted a body search on me..."
"A Les Miserables poster was nailed to the wall behind Andrews next to a topographical map of the U.S...."
"...I felt like Jean Valjean sitting across from Javert. I reminded myself that I was on American soil now, that this guy was on my side, that he got paid for helping people like me. 'I want to adopt this boy, take him back to the States with me, I said."
At first Mr. Andrews, at the embassy seems to be a heartless bureaucrat, simply discouraging Amir because the "rules" make it nearly impossible for Amir to bring Sohrab to the United States? What might be the "good reasons" for the rules that Mr. Andrews informs Amir about?
If you were Mr. Andrews, would you "follow the rules" or "bend the rules"? Explain your decision.
What was your reaction when Mr. Andrews gave Amir a card for an immigration lawyer?
What was your reaction when the embassy secretary told Amir that Mr. Andrews' had a daughter who had committed suicide?
Have you ever "seriously" misjudged someone? If so, how did you deal with it when you realized your error?
Read more about the plot of Le Miserables and the specific reference Amir makes to feeling like Jean Valjean sitting across from Javert.
* It is very difficult to know exactly where the American Embassy is in Islamabad; perhaps because of the long and continuing history of violent attacks. However, you can read more about the American embassy in Islamabad.

24.6 The Lawyer
" 'I hope my children take after their mother when it comes to organization. I'm sorry, probably not the sort of thing you want to hear from your prospective lawyer, heh?' He laughed."
Faisal dabbed at the sweat beads above his lips. 'I'm familar with the version of the situation you gave Mr. Andrews,' he said...'This must be the young man who's causing all the trouble,...' "
At what point do you come to your final opinion about whether the lawyer was a "good guy" or a "bad guy"? What event solidified your opinion of the lawyer?
If you were Amir, what would you have done when you discovered that the best chance you had to get Sohrab out of the country was to break your promise about never making him go to an orphanage again? Do you think Amir "did the right thing?" Given how the chapter ends, did Amir have another option he should have considered?
Sometimes when, like Amir, we find ourselves having to choose between two options, neither of which is satisfactory, we say sometimes say we are caught between a rock and a hard place. As is the case with Amir, sometimes these are the toughest decisions we must ever make.
Have you ever found yourself having to choose between two truly unacceptable choices? If so, how did it turn out?
If you were a politician today having to cast a vote on tightening immigration laws further or loosening immigration laws, how would you vote? How is your opinion affected by the scene with the lawyer regarding the difficulty of allowing Sohrab into the United States? How would the influence of knowing about international terrorism affect your decision?

TWENTY-FIVE

25.1 In Hospital
" 'He is alive.' "
"Dr. Nawaz smiles. It takes me a moment to register what he has just said. Then he says more but I don't hear him. Because I have taken his hands and I have brought them up to my face. I weep my relief into this stranger's small, meaty hands and he says nothing now. He waits."
"I dream I am back in the lounge downstairs. Dr. Nawaz walks in and I rise to meet him. He takes off his paper mask, ... and I see he is not Dr. Nawaz at all but Raymond Andrews, the little embassy man with the potted tomatoes. Andrews cocks his head. Narrows his eyes."
"What can I do, Sohrab? Please tell me."
" ... 'I want my old life back,' he breathed."
"... 'I want Father and Mother jan. I want Sasa. I want to play with Rahim Khan sahib in the garden ... I want my old life back.'
"... 'I can't give you that,' I said."
"In Afghanistan, the ending was all that mattered...Did the bacheh film, the Guy in the film, become kamyab and fulfill his dreams, or was he nah-kam, doomed to wallow in failure?"
"Was there happiness at the end, they wanted to know."
As the doctors attempt to save Sohrab's life, the author shifts the focus away from the the battle to save Sohrab's life, to the thoughts and feelings of Amir as he waits to hear if Sohrab will live. From a story telling point of view, why do you suppose the author thought it was "more important" to focus on Amir than on Sohrab at this point in the story?
When authors include characters' dreams, they are often "suggesting" thematic connections. What thematic connections might the author want us to contemplate when he has Amir dream that Dr. Nawaz "becomes" Raymond Andrews, the "little man at the embassy with the potted tomatoes"?
Compassionate readers "feel" little Sohrab's pain when he wishes that he could have his old life back. Although Amir certainly feels compassion for Sohrab's emotional pain, he also knows that he can not give Sohrab his old life back and says, "I can't give you that..." Have you ever had to face the truth that your parents could not "make it right" because sometimes life's problems are "too big" even for loving parents to fix?
If you had to stop reading this book right after the part where Amir discusses the "typical" Afghan desire to know "Was there happiness at the end,...?", what options do you think the author has for concluding this story on a positive note without resorting to an unrealistic "fairy-tale" ending where everyone's problems are magically resolved and they all live "happily ever after"?

25.2 San Francisco
"Looking at her smiling at Sohrab, her eyes tearing over a little, I had a glimpse of the mother she might have been, had her own womb not betrayed her."
——
"The sheets showed brightly colored kites flying in indigo blue skies..."
"I stood over him, looking down, and saw ... Rahim Khan's Polaroid, the one I had given to Sohrab the night we had sat by the Shah Faisal Mosque. ... Hassan and Sohrab ... smiling like the world was a good and just place..."
"...The half that, maybe, in the most secret recesses of his heart, Baba had thought of as his true son."
Then I realized something: That last thought had brought no sting with it. ..., I wondered if that was how forgiveness budded, not with the fanfare of epiphany, but with pain gathering its things, packing up, and slipping away unannounced in the middle of the night."
(after Soraya's father suggests that Sohrab's being Hazara may bring shame to his family)
" 'And one more thing, General Sahib,' I said. 'You will never again refer to him as 'Hazara boy' in my presence. He has a name and it's Sohrab.' "
(several references to recent history and culture that students may have "first hand" awareness of including the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center, the American bombing of Afghanistan which started America's "War on Terror," news anchors Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw, "people sipping lattes at Starbucks ... talking about the battle for Kunduz, the Taliban's last stronghold in the north", and Hamid Karzai)
How might Amir's recalling Soraya's and his difficulty in having their own child, the photograph of Hassan and Sohrab, and his recollections of Baba's "favoritism" for Hassan, help Amir come to an understanding of why he must be patient with Sohrab taking so long to accept his having been brought to America to live "happily ever after'?
Have you ever had a bad experience where you needed "some time" to adjust to the emotional impact of the experience? (death of someone you cared deeply about?, parents' divorce?, a romantic break up?, having to move away from best friends or having a best friend move away?)
Have you had the experience of being the best friend of someone who "needed some time to adjust to the emotional impact of a bad experience? How did you handle it?
Amir's telling his father-in-law that he would not tolerate his "racism" against Sohrab nor his cultural conditioning against adoption was "the right thing to do" even though it might be perceived by the general as disrespectful and might even cause Amir and his wife to have "strained relationships" with Soraya's parents that may never be forgiven. How does Amir's decision to "not overlook" the general's prejudices relate to the main theme of this story?
In several interviews, Khaled Hosseini has said that although The Kite Runner does draw heavily upon his own life experiences, that the story is essentially fiction. What impact does it have on you as a reader when a fiction writer includes references to real events that you are aware of such as the 9/11 attacks and sipping lattes at Starbucks?

25.3 Kite Running
Video Source: Al Jazeera English
Visit the official Kite Runner Movie Site.
"I took Soraya, Khala Jamila, and Sohrab to a gathering of Afghans at Lake Elizabeth Park in Fremont. The general had finally been summoned to Afghanistan the month before for a ministry position, ..."
"...He introduced me to a dozen men, ... a retired teacher, another an engineer, a former architect, a surgeon who was now running a hot dog stand... They all said they'd known Baba in Kabul and they spoke about him respectfully. ...he had touched all their lives. The men said I was lucky to have had such a great man for a father."
"Around us, kids chased each other,... Someone was playing an old Hindi movie soundtrack now. ...elderly men were praying afternoon namaz ... I wished time would stand still."
" 'Do you want me to run that kite for you?' "
"His Adam's apple rose and fell as he swallowed. The wind lifted his hair. I thought I saw him nod."
" 'For you, a thousand times over,' I heard myself say."
"Then I turned and ran. ..."
"I ran."
1. What might be the thematic value of having the story end back in Fremont with Amir and Sohrab attending a gathering of Afghans who are enjoying a day of Afghan music and food and kite fighting? What might be the thematic value of having Soraya's father removed from the story and going back to Afghanistan before the story's conclusion?
Amir has always had mixed feelings about Baba, never quite knowing whether to like him or not. When he meets the Afghan men, all of whom had been well educated men in Afghan, but who have been "reduced" to making their livings running hot dog stands or presumably working at the flea market, they tell Amir that he is lucky to have had such a great man for a father. How might Amir be better able to accept this appraisal now that he has found a way to forgive Baba his "sins"?
After meeting the men who knew Baba and after spending time among the Afghan community in Fremont, Amir says, "I wished time would stand still." How is this both touching and ironic given the fact that his wish is reminiscent of Sohrab's wish to have his old life back?
The story ends with Amir symbolically reversing the roles that he and Hassan had had so many years before as he offers to "run that kite" for Sohrab and his repeating the phrase, "For you, a thousand times over." How does this symbolism address the theme of Amir "making things good again"?
The last time Amir flew a kite was the time Hassan was raped and Amir did nothing to help his friend (Chapter 7 Page 77). The moment of his shame begain when he said, "I could step unto that alley, 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. Or I could run... In the end, I ran... I ran because I was a coward." Compare the moments of Amir's initial shame with the last moments described in the book.
If you went to see the movie of The Kite Runner and when you returned home, your friends asked, "Did the bacheh film, the Guy in the film, become kamyab and fulfill his dreams, or was he nah-kam, doomed to wallow in failure? Was there happiness at the end?" How would you respond?