The Kite Runner Plot

Question 1

Chapter 1?

Answer 1

• Amir the narrator lays out a framework of what is to come
• in December of 2001 Amir gets a phone call from Rahum Khan who tells him there is a way to be good again
• Amir remembers the day in 1975 when his life changed forever

Question 2

Chapter 2?

Answer 2

• Amir introduces the reader to his friend Hassan who always took the blame for Amir
• he lived in a nice house built by his father
• neither Amir of Hassan have mothers
• Hassan is teased by soldiers as his mother Sanaubar was promiscuous amongst soldiers
• Ali is affected by Polio which causes the muscles in his face to drop

Question 3

Chapter 3?

Answer 3

• Baba is known to have wrestled and bear and won
• Baba is given the nickname Toophan agha which means Mr Hurricane
• Baba funds and builds and orphanage
• Amir says that his mother was an impressive woman who taught Farsi at the local school and descended from royalty
• Baba states that all sin comes from some form of stealing
• Baba thinks that Amir is too emotional and weak

Question 4

Chapter 4?

Answer 4

• Ali’s parents were run over by 2 wealthy high men and Ali was adopted by Baba’s father who raised him with Ali
• Hassan and Amir spend a lot of time together when growing up. Hassan cooks for Amir and Amir reads him books
• Amir decided to write through experience but Baba is not impressed

Question 5

Chapter 5?

Answer 5

• 1973 there is war in Afghanistan
• Amir and Assef climb the pomegranate tree and face Assef, Wali and Kamal
• Assef takes out his brass knuckles but Hassan pulls out his slingshot and aims at his eye
• for Hassan’s birthday Baba gets him a doctor to fix his lip

Question 6

Chapter 6?

Answer 6

• school closes for the icy season and boys spend their time flying kites
• Baba takes them to buy a kite from an old blind man
• Baba and Hassan tell Amir they think he is going to win the tournament

Question 7

Chapter 7?

Answer 7

• winter of 1975- Kite Flying tournament
• Hassan tells Amir about a dream- they swim in a lake where there is supposedly a monster
• Amir wins the tournament and Hassan chases the kite
• Amir watches Hassan being raped by Assef

Question 8

Chapter 8?

Answer 8

• after the tournament Amir doesn’t see Hassan often
• Amir does not tell Ali even when asked
• Amir asks Baba if they can go to Jalalabad but Baba invites most of their relatives
• Amir says out loud whilst everyone is asleep that he saw Hassan be raped
• Amir asks Baba if they can get new servants
• hopes Hassan will fight back and throw pmgt at him
• on Amir’s bday Assef turns up and gives him a book of Hitler
• Rahim Khan gives Amir a leather bound notebook

Question 9

Chapter 9?

Answer 9

• Amir takes his wristwatch and cash beneath Hassan’s mattress
• Hassan admits to taking them even when he did not but Baba forgives him
• Ali and Hassan decide to leave anyway as it is no longer safe for them to stay

Question 10

Chapter 10?

Answer 10

• chapter opens in 1981 with Amir and Baba in a truck headed to Pakistan
• Afghanistan is no longer safe
• Baba stands up to the guard who wants to fool with a girl in the back
• they find a way to Peshawar
• Kamal stops breathing and his father shoots himself

Question 11

Chapter 11?

Answer 11

• Baba is forced to work at a gas station in America, as soon as he got a job he returned food stamps
• Baba sells his car and buys a VW bus when they start going to flea markets and garage sales
• Amir is introduced to General Taheri and his daughter Soraya

Question 12

Chapter 12?

Answer 12

• Amir becomes obsessed with Soraya and spends a lot of time speaking to her
• she says she wants to become a teacher so Amir gives her a story but the General throws it away
• Baba gets sick and Amir asks to organise the marriage of him and Soraya
• she tells Amir about how she abandoned her las husband and disgraced her family

Question 13

Chapter 13?

Answer 13

• Baba goes to the home of the General and formally asks him to accept Amir
• Soraya and Amir live with Baba as he is ill
• Baba passes in his sleep one month after the wedding
• both Soraya and Amir enrol into college and Amir begins to write and finds a publisher
• they try to have a child but find out Soraya is infertile

Question 14

Chapter 14?

Answer 14

• Amir gets a phone call from Rahim Khan who says he has found a way “to be good again”
• Amir leaves for Pakistan a week later
• he thinks about how his relationship with Soraya is not how it used to be

Question 15

Chapter 15?

Answer 15

• Rahim tells Amir that he is dying and needs Amir to do something before he does
• He tells the story of Hassan

Question 16

Chapter 16?

Answer 16

• Rahim narrates this chapter

- Rahim couldn’t look after the house alone so went to Hazarajat to find Hassan

Question 17

Chapter 17?

Answer 17

• Rahim gives Amir letters from Hassan and a picture of his son Sohrab
• Rahim tells Amir what happened to Hassan (executed on street)
• Rahim asks Amir to rescue Sohrab and tells him that him and Hassan are half-brothers

Question 18

Chapter 18?

Answer 18

• Amir thinks about how Baba thought the only sin was theft but he’d stole Ali’s honour by fathering his child
• Amir thought he and his father were actually quite similar as they both betrayed people who would’ve done anything for them
• he thinks if he gets Sohrab he can atone for his and his father’s sins

Question 19

Chapter 19?

Answer 19

• Amir is carsick on the way to find Sohrab so Farid offers him a lemon to cure the sickness showing the class struggle
• Farid dislikes Amir as he is wealthy and wasn’t around for the war
• Amir has a dream about Hassan being executed that night and he sees his own face as one of the executors
• Amir leaves some cash for Wahid’s kids under the mattress

Question 20

Chapter 20?

Answer 20

• Amir and Farid make their way to Kabul
• Amir speaks to a beggar who used to know his Mum when she was a teacher
• the director admits that the Taliban buy children from the orphanage and Sohrab had been bought
• the director tells them they can go to the Ghazi stadium the next day to find the man

Question 21

Chapter 21?

Answer 21

• Amir visits his old house and the pomegranate tree with the inscription “Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul”
• the next day at the Ghazi Stadium the Taliban stone adulterers to death at half time
• Amir schedules a meeting with the cleric for later that day

Question 22

Chapter 22?

Answer 22

• at the cleric’s house Sohrab comes in with bells on his ankles
• Amir realises it is Assef and Assef tells Amir he will give Sohrab to him if he wins their fight
• Assef beats Amir until Sohrab slingshots him in the eye

Question 23

Chapter 23?

Answer 23

• Amir is in hospital and has a split upper lip
• Rahim sends a letter which says he has left some money at a bank in Peshawar
• Amir discovers the parents who were supposed to adopt Sohrab don’t exist

Question 24

Chapter 24?

Answer 24

• in the hotel Amir wakes up to find Sohrab is missing and finds him at a mosque
• Amir asks Sohrab to live in America with him but he does not respond straight away but eventually decides to
• Amir and Soraya research the adoption and find a way that Sohrab goes back to an orphanage which Amir promised against
• Amir finds Sohrab has slit his wrist with a razor

Question 25

Chapter 25?

Answer 25

• Amir prays to Allah asking for forgiveness
• Sohrab recovers but will not speak
• Sohrab goes to America and General Taheri asks why there is a hazara boy there and Amir says he is never to be called hazara boy again
• Amir and Sohrab fly kites and Amir runs the kite for him saying “for you, a thousand times over”