The Kite Runner Analysis Notes Chapters 1-25 (Includes Character Logs)

The Kite Runner:
Character logs:

Amir:
Narrator
Mother dies giving birth to him in 1963
Aches for his mother
Pashtun Sunni
Rich by Afghanistan standards
First word “Baba”
Seeking love and acceptance from his father Baba
In awe of his father
Good at reciting poetry
Avid reader
Bad at sports
Selfish
Sometimes wishes Rahim Khan was his father
Has a master-servant relationship with Hassan
His belief in God: When Hassan catches the Kite, Amir is shocked saying, “And my god – if he exists, that is – strike me blind…” Amir is skeptical as to whether there is a god – he thinks he killed his mother – what god would take his mother away?
Amir’s proudest moment at age 12 was when he saw that Baba was proud of him
Amir says “I opened my mouth and almost said something… the rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had” – Amir sounds guilty that he could’ve saved Hassan
Stayed hidden while Hassan got raped by Assef
Became insomniac the night he and Baba went on a trip to Jalalabad
Turns 13 in the summer of 1976
Rahim Khan tells him that he can tell him anything = 4th chance of retribution
Amir puts the watch Baba gave him for his bday (blue) and some money under Hassan’s mattress. This is done to blame Hassan for theft. He thought Baba would throw them out because he said theft was the ultimate sin. We are disgusted but we understand because Amir and Hassan were suffering. Hassan says “yes” he did steal it. Hassan did this to protect Amir because he knew Baba would not forgive Amir. Amir = “I love Amir more than ever”
Realizes he caused a lot of pain when Baba cries
In American – a place for him to leave all of his sins and guilt (Hassan) behind
Has a ford truck that he takes for drives
Sea – always talked about going to the sea with Hassan. Almost cried when he saw the pacific
Graduates
Amir sent in his first novel to be published and Soraya’s family threw him a celebratory dinner
Rahim Khan calls and asks him to return to Afghanistan “there is a way to be good again”
Hassan:
Hazara “Shia Muslim”
Amir’s servant
Mother left him when he was a baby
Has a cleft lip
Lives in a small shack on the same compound as Amir
Has a round “Chinese doll” face/flat, broad nose, slanting narrow eyes like bamboo leaves, gold green and sapphire (3)
Tiny low set ears
First word was “Amir”
Never tells on Amir
Amir likes to coerce: “Hassan never denied me anything” (4)
Looks like his father Ali
Sensitive about being Hazara and insults about his mother
“Deadly with a slingshot”
Illiterate
Amir reads to him underneath a pomegranate tree
Feels friendship towards Amir
Got raped by Assef after the kite competition

Baba:
Amir’s father
Pashtun
“Father enjoyed parties, he gave one every week” (5)
Large man 6’5
Always did the opposite of what people told him
Designed and built an orphanage
Has a very strong sense of morality
“He had those three paralleled scars coursing a jagged path down his back” (12)
“In those dreams I can never tell Baba from the bear”
Nickname: Toophangha “Mr. hurricane”
“force of nature” “ a towering Pashtun specimen” “black beard” “a wayward crop of curly brown hair as unruly as the man himself”
“hands that looked capable of uprooting a willow tree”
“a glare that could drop he devil to his knees and beg for mercy”
Willful emotional disconnect from Amir
Became embarrassed when Amir was uncomfortable with Assef at his (Amir) birthday party
Has “wrestled bears” in business, building orphanages, losing his wife and raising his son without having a mother figure in the picture
“In the end, a bear had come that he couldn’t best” (174) – meaning that the one obstacle in his life that he couldn’t overcome was cancer
Baba dies before seeing Amir’s first book published
Ali:
Hassan’s father
Gentle
Polio left him with “A twisted atrophied right leg” “Congenital paralysis of his lower face”
Unable to smile normally, so will always be grim-faced
Baba’s servant and servant to the household since they were young
Older kids mocked him and called him “bablealu” or “boogeyman”
Flat nosed
Suspects Amir knows more than he’s letting on after Hassan returns home bloodied
Sanubar:
Hassan’s mother
A week after giving birth to Hassan she ran away with travelling singers and dancers
19 years younger than Ali
Lady of loose morals
Shi’a Muslim – Hazara
Ali’s first cousin
Brilliant green eyes, impish face
Was forced to be with Ali by her father in hopes of bringing honor back to the family name
Sophia Akrami:
Amir’s mother
Educated
Royal blood
Beautiful

Rahim Khan:
Loves Hassan’s stories
Told Hassan “bravo”
Amir sometimes wishes he was his father
Almost married a Hazara girl and they would spend time together at night, however because they disapproved his family sent her away
Gives Amir a leather bound book to put his stories in for his 13th birthday

Assef:
Bully
Blonde hair and blue eyes
Mother German, father Afghan/Pashtun
Brass knuckles
High-class/affluent
Reputation/notorious
“sociopath”
“ear eater”
Dislikes Hazara
Prefers having a president rather than a king
Approves of Nazi Germany
Raped Hassan
For Amir’s 13th birthday he picked out his gift by himself, Hitler’s biography
Kabul:
One of Assef’s friends
Helps Assef rape Hassan
After being raped himself he is shaken and not the same person
He becomes a symbol for what is going wrong in Afghanistan
Soraya:
General Taheri’s daughter
Made eye contact with Amir
Amir refers to her as his “swap-meet-princess”
Themes:

Symbols:
Colour (blue, red, yellow and green)
Kite
Red with yellow borders (62)
Blue kite (64)
Books/Literacy
Hassan’s hare lip
Sheep
Pomegranate tree
Red  revelation
Blue  Betrayal
Yellow redemption
Green  Renewal

Friendships:
Amir refers to his relationship with Hassan up until the age of was like “a long lazy summer (25) which contrasts with the shocking event of the winter fay that will move Amir from childhood to adulthood
Amir does not consider his relationship with Hassan a friendship
(27) Pomegranate tree  “Amir and Hassan, sultans of Kabul”
Storytelling: the story of Shanaman is a mistaken identity of father and son. Rastan and Sohrab  try to determine how this connects to our character
Destiny:
(25) History isn’t easy to overcome – A = Pashtun – Sunni “Hazara Shia”
(28) Literacy = that Hassan would grow up “illiterate like Ali and most Hazaras had been decided the minute had been born

Religion:
Amir has not made up his mind about god (62), but he says a prayer anyway
Amir thinks that if baba is right and there is a god then god will let him win

Relationships:
 Amir and Baba
Baba can’t be bothered to read Amir’s story and Amir does not back down – “longest minutes of my life,” “shows strong-willed nature of both Baba and Ali
Hassan’s character serves as a fail to demonstrate Ali’s shortcoming
Ali and Baba essentially have the same relationship as Amir and Hassan masterservant
(Chapter 5) Baba arrives in the morning with apparent concern, hugs both Amir and Hassan with equal amount of love. Amir is jealous
Birthday:
For Hassan’s birthday he gives him a plastic surgeon to fix his lip
Amir is not happy and wishes that he also had a deformity so that Baba can take care of him
Whenever they were buying kites and Amir wanted a bigger kite, Baba would also buy a big one for Hassan which made Amir upset
Baba thinks that Amir has a good chance at winning the kite tourney (56)
Baba was used to winning “didn’t he have the right to expect the same for his son?”
“show him once and for all that his son is worthy”
When Amir asked Baba if they could get new servants Baba became enraged with Amir
Threw a huge party with over 400 guests for Amir’s 13th birthday party
Moves to America for Amir
Baba and Amir open a flea market in America by operating out of a van with
When Amir tells Baba he wants to study creative writing Baba becomes angry saying it is a useless degree but Amir sticks with his decision

 Hassan and Ali
They may not have a lot of material things but they have each other – Amir is jealous

 Hassan and Amir
Amir witnesses Hassan’s rape quietly
After Hassan’s incident Amir distances himself
When Hassan asked him to go on a walk and read to him Amir refused and went home
On one of their walks Amir starts hitting Hassan with multiple pomegranates and told Hassan to hit him back. Hassan refused and picked a pomegranate up and smashed it into his own face asking Amir if he were satisfied

 Soraya and Amir
Get married in chapter 12
Become disappointed when they discover they cannot have children
Amir believes that “Something, someone had denied him fatherhood”

Winter:
When Hassan’s scar had almost faded. Amir called it ironic “because that was the winter that Hassan stopped smiling” (47)
This foreshadows: change or something worse

Kites:
Hassan is the kite runner – is the book about Hassan or Amir? Or the affect Hassan has on Amir?
“The chill between Baba and me thawed a little. And the reason for that were the kites. Baba and I lived in the same house, but in different spheres” (49)
(55) Hassan seems to know exactly where the kite will land
Hassan and Amir 
(58) “that was the thing with Hassan he was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around”
Hassan lets Amir win at cards
(52) Afghans cherish customs but abhor/rules
Kites with glass strings symbolize the dichotomy between beauty and violence/Afghanistan and America/Amir + Hassan. The two main kite fights in the book – the tournament and the one at the end of the book – not only represent Amir and Hassan but also symbolize the juxtaposition of roles; Amir becomes the kite runner. Also symbolize the interrelationship between betrayal and redemption
Power (Abuse of):
(54) Amir asks Hassan if he’d really eat dirt if he (Amir) asked him to
“I knew I was being cruel… but there was something fascinating- albeit in a sick way – about teasing Hassan” “… now he was the ant and I was holding the magnifying glass.”
Extra:

Setting:
Baba’s estate
Wazir Akbar Khan district/”new and affluent” neighborhood in the northern part of Kabul
Living room: Pictures: “my grandfather and the king’s assassination “(5) / Baba and mother, “a smiling young princess in white” Rahim Khan is in a picture an a picture of Amir when he was a baby in his father’s arms but it is Rahim Khan’s finger that he grasps
Ali and Hassan’s home (property) “Modest little mud hut”
“where he (Hassan) would live his entire life (6)
End of Chapter 2:
Hassan and Amir fed from the same breast (Ali mentions a brotherhood) – a woman with blue eyes
Amir being the narrator is discovered
Chapter 5:
The king’s cousin is Daoud Khan and he ended his 40-year reign with a coup and Afghanistan is turned into a republic
When Hassan stood up to Assef with his slingshot, his followers and him had to stand down and leave. Assef then threaten him that “this does not end today, believe me. This isn’t the end for you either, Amir, someday I’ll make you face me one on one.”

Chapter 6:
Hassan’s second face (54) “unsettling feeling that I’d seen it before”

Chapter 7:
Fortune tell returns Hassan’s rupia – why?
Snowstorm dream: Hassan rescues Amir – green grass, kites, in sky represent happiness
Memory: “…brotherhood between people who’ve fed from the same breast” (73)
“ I had one last chance to make a decision…in the end I ran back because I was a coward” (72)
“Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba” (77)
Chapter 8:
Inscribed in the pomegranate tree is “Amir and Hassan the Kabuls of Afghanistan”
On page 86 Amir realizes his guilt for letting Hassan getting raped as he lays awake at night

Chapter 9:
Blood money:
The money is the money paid
Baba wouldn’t have thrown a party if Amir didn’t win
Feels like Baba only did it out of obligation
Ungenuine gifts/money (to impress Baba)
Rahim Khan’s leather journal  only gift not attacked to blood money (genuine)
End of chapter – turning point  Hassan and Amir become separated Baba broke down and Amir is content
Chapter 10:
Amir’s weaknesses = car sickness
Karim = smuggler (human trafficker)
Fleeing: run from soviets (Russians)
Baba threatened Russian soldier to shoot him for wanting a half hour with a woman (Baba has morals). Upholds Afghanistan honour
Arrive by tour. Truck not working.
Stay in a basement for a week
Discover Kamal (one of Assef’s friends who helped him rape Hassan)
Chapter 11:
New setting is introduced  California, America
Baba and Amir have a booth in the swap shop (thrift shop) in San Jose
Amir tells Baba he wants to major in English. Baba does not think this is a real major. He thinks this is a story teller
Baba: “it may be unfair but what happens in a day can change the course of a whole lifetime.” He is speaking about Soraya and the rumours. This is significant because it relates to Hassan (ironic)
Chapter 12:
The double standard: “did you see him chatting with her?” but “Woo oy! Did you see how she wouldn’t let him go? What a lochack”
Pulmonogist: Baba realizes that Dr. Schneider has ancestors from Russia and Baba snaps at him.
Baba is diagnosed with “oat cell Carcinoma”
“What about me, Baba” (Amir). Baba’s reaction - he gave Amir a look of disgust. Tells him he is a grown man. Says “All those years, that’s what I was trying to teach you, you never asked that question
Amir asks Baba to meet with General Taheri to ask the General for Soraya’s hand in marriage for Amir
Chapter 13:
Amir learns that he found a request from a New York agency for the completed manuscript of his first novel (Martin Greenwalt) called later
In 1989 the Shorawi completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan. The war raged on
Chapter 14:
The story has advanced 4 years
When Amir’s takes a walk on the golden gate bridge and sees a man playing catch with his son and flying kites it remind him of his childhood
It is significant because he thinks of what Rahim Khan said to him and how he can be good again by helping Rahim
Transition chapter
From the past into the near present, back to the time period of chapter 1
2001
Chapter 15:
Afghanistan is seized by Taliban
The elephant in the room between Amir and Rahim is the topic of Hassan and the fact that Rahim is dying
Rahim Khan and Amir are in Peshawar Pakistan
Fifteen years after they said goodbye, Amir receives a call from Rahim Khan; he tells Amir that he is ill and dying that wants him to come to Pakistan
Chapter 16:
As Rahim Khan speaks of Hassan the narrative shifts from his point of view in first person
Rahim tells Amir that he found Hassan and his pregnant wife Harzana and asked them to come and live with them. He declines at first but eventually says yes
When Rahim tells Hassan of Baba’s passing Hassan cries
Sanaubar’s return is ironic because she is wearing blue which used to symbolize that something bad was going to happen but now it seems as if it is something good is going to happen
Farzana is Hassan’s wife and Sohrab is their son
In 1996 the Taliban takes control and after two weeks of being in control he bans the flying of kites

Chapter 17:
The tone of Hassan’s letter to Amir is very nostalgic
Hassan’s mentions that Harzana was hit in the leg with the butt of a gun for raising her voice for a hard-of-hearing man to hear her. It was because her voice was above a whisper
In Hassan’s letter he mentions the pomegranate tree and that there has been a drought so the tree hasn’t borne fruit in years. However he still takes his son Sohrab there to read to him
6 months have passed
Hassan gets shot by the Taliban because he was living in Rahim Khan’s house
Rahim asks Amir to go to Kabul get Sohrab and move back
Amir discovers that Hassan is Baba’s illegitimate child making him Amir’s half brother
Chapter 18:
Amir realizes some of the signs that Hassan was his brother were:
Baba arranging Dr. Kumar to fix Hassan’s lip
The fact that Baba never forgot Hassan’s birthday
When Baba was planting tulips and Amir asked him if he ever thought about getting new servants and Baba became angry and said that Hassan wasn’t going anywhere and he was where he belonged
In Amir’s opinion Baba had stolen his right to his brother Hassan, Ali’s honour, and even Hassan’s identity
The cliché “like father like son” relates to Amir and Baba because like Amir, Baba betrayed someone who would’ve given their life for him
Amir tells Rahim that he is coming to Kabul and to call the Caldwells

Chapter 19:
Soraya doesn’t know that Amir is going to Afghanistan this is implying that she doesn’t think that it is safe because it is being run by the Taliban. “Telling her wasn’t an option. If I had she would have booked herself on the flight to Pakistan” (231)
Farid means that Amir grew up privileged and didn’t face the financial struggles that most Afghans face. He implies Amir had a sheltered and pampered life (tourists tend to experience the best qualities of the countries they visit)
The significance of Amir’s dream is that he believes that his actions resulted in Hassan’s death, even if he didn’t mean for them to
Amir leaves a stash of money underneath Wahid’s mattress

Chapter 20:
Amir sees a destroyed village, war remains from buildings and a dog that won’t move
Zaman takes the cash and spends it on food to feed the kids

Chapter 21:
The Taliban frightens the audience at the stadium anNd they are careful not to cheer to loudly as some Taliban activists are walking around with a whip.
The Taliban activists also unload a blindfolded man and woman from a truck and bury each of them up to their chests in a hole
At halftime, a man with dark sunglasses walks in. he ends up stoning a man to death
Farid and Amir make plans to meet the Taliban man
Chapter 22:
Amir realizes that the Taliban official with the dark sunglasses is in fact Assef
Assef thinks he needs to get all the “garbage” out of Afghanistan like he used to believe with Hitler
Assef says Amir can have Sohrab after he deals with him because they have “unfinished business”
Assef starts beating Amir up while Amir laughs because he finally gets what he’s wanted for 26 years “..for the first time since the winter 1975, I felt at peace.”
Just like his father Hassan, Sohrab saves Amir
Many years ago when Hassan threatens to shoot out Assef’s eye and that people will have to call him “one-eye Assef” Hassan doesn’t fulfill this threat but his son, Sohrab does When Amir finds Sohrab he discovers that he looks just like Hassan.

Chapter 23:
The letter was presented at a perfect time. Baba was trying to cope with the “sin” he had committed. In my opinion there are no good or bad people, just people who have been hurt badly in life or made mistakes that will always follow them. Baba was just trying to compensate in lavish ways (everyone saw him as a good man) which made him feel better and distracted him from the pain he was feeling and causing Amir and “abandonment” of Hassan
Rahim Khan’s final request was for Amir not to come and look for him
I think Baba is a man with many layers; he is human and has both the good and the bad. He knows he was doing wrong by Hassan but he tried to make up for it by building an orphanage for the children who have no parents at all.
I think he insisted on this saying because he felt guilty for lying to everyone and owned up to it in the only way he knew how. By insisting on this, he in a way taught Amir not to make his mistakes

Chapter 24: asdfgh Chapter 25: asdfghj 1. Chapter 25 resolves the action with Sohrab and Amir returning to San Francisco. Describe Sohrab for the first seven months that he is in San Francisco
2. General Taheri is worried about something when he comes to visit. What is it? What is Amir’s reaction to this?
3. Why do Afghans gather at Lake Elizabeth Park?
4. What happens as Amir runs the kite for Sohrab?
5. How is this a full circle?