The Kiterunner Flashcards
“The past claws… last twenty-six years.”
“The past claws its way out. Looking back, I realize I have been peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”
The past is always there, lingering just under the surface of the present.
“The least I could have done… like him.”
“The least I could have done was… to have turned out a little more like him. But I hadn’t turned out like him.”
As a way of redeeming himself for this betrayal, Amir tries to be like Baba and make Baba proud, but he is constantly faced with the fact that he is absolutely nothing like Baba, and Amir’s strengths don’t lie in areas Baba finds worthy or important.
“A boy who won’t… stand up to anything.”
“A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.”
Self-fulfilling prophecy- Amir knows that Baba thinks he is weak and cowardly, so he acts weak and cowardly.
“In the end… nothing was ever going to change that.”
“In the end, I was a Pashtun, and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni, and he was Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that.”
“I was going to win… his son was worthy.”
“I was going to win… then I’d bring it home and show it to Baba. Show him once and for all that his son was worthy. “
Shows Amir’s childlike desire for ‘redemption’- he feels he must somehow prove himself or achieve a tangible victory in order to earn Baba’s love.
“You’re nothing… pet.”
“You’re nothing but an ugly pet.”
“In the end… would do to me.”
“In the end, I ran. I ran because I was a coward. I was afraid of Assef and what he would do to me.”
“Maybe Hassan was the price… to win Baba.”
“Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba.”
“He was just… wasn’t he?”
“He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?”
Because Hassan is a Hazara, he is seen by many Pashtuns as inferior/sub-human taking this prejudiced view allows Amir to feel a little less guilt for his actions- if the person he’s betraying isn’t really a person, then it isn’t really a betrayal.
“There was… that monster.”
“There was a monster in the lake… I was that monster.”
Amir feels he has done something monstrous and grotesque. The nature of his betrayal also seems especially inhuman.
“This was Hassan’s f- s- for me.”
“This was Hassan’s final sacrifice for me.”
Instead of being angry, Hasaan has only proven his devotion for seemingly forgiving Amir and now sacrificing himself for Amir’s sake. Hassan’s only response is to accept the punishment meekly.
“You couldn’t… in Kabul anymore.”
“You couldn’t trust anyone in Kabul anymore. “
The theme of betrayal is no longer just a personal one relating to Amir but now seems to be a part of the very consciousness of the war-torn country.
“America was a river… someplace far.”
“America was a river, roaring along unmindful of the past. I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far.”
Amir is still consumed by guilt and self-hatred for his betrayals, and so he is eager to forget the past and try to lose himself in the strange, overwhelming new world of America and its fast-paced society.
“I envied her… betrayed Hassan.”
I envied her… I opened my mouth and almost told her how I’d betrayed Hassan.
“Baba couldn’t show…. on my own.”
Baba couldn’t show me the way anymore; I’d have to find it on my own.
“There is… again. “
“There is a way to be good again. “
“A few weeks later… Mazar-i-Sharif.”
“A few weeks later, the Taliban banned kite fighting. And two years later, in 1998, they massacred the Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif.”
The first section of the book focussed on the theme of violence and rape at a personal level; in the second half, Hosseini expands this theme to Afghanistan itself, as the country is violently violated by external forces like the Soviets and the Taliban.
“A boy who won’t…. what you’ve become?”
“A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything. I wonder, is that what you’ve become? “
The past is very much alive, and as a man Amir has a chance to redeem himself for the mistakes he made as a boy.
“Rahim Khan had summoned… for Baba’s too.”
“Rahim Khan had summoned me here to atone not just for my sins but for Baba’s too. “
Time seems almost cyclical.
“You’ve always… here.”
“You’ve always been a tourist here.”
Amir has always had the privilege of being able to avoid or look away from poverty and violence, whilst most Afghans like Farid cannot.
“I don’t want… anymore.”
“I don’t want to forget anymore.”
“What was the old saying… always turning up.”
“What was the old saying about the bad penny? My past was always like that, always turning up.”
“My body…. healed.”
“My body was broken… but I felt healed. “
As Amir experiences what he would have felt should he have intervened for Hassan before, he feels a cleansing kind of suffering, as though he is being punished for the sins he escaped originally.
“And that, I believe… leads to good.”
“And that, I believe, is what true redemption is, Amir jan, when guilt leads to good.”
Hosseini suggests that redemption is still possible for the country- peace can come out of war, and Afghanistan can be “good again”.
“H-“
“Flat-n- do-“
Assef refers to Hassan only by ethnicity, never by name; “Hazara/flat-nosed donkey”
“Oh they’re just… fun!”
“She never… public again”
Gender prejudice; “Oh they’re just men having fun!”/ “She never sang in public again”.
“drew… himself”
Baba’s atonement for fathering Hassan – builds an orphanage “drew the blueprints himself”.
“He has.. it’s Sohrab”
Evidence of Amir’s penance with General Sahib– reminiscent of Baba’s “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a boy who won’t stand up for anything”- redemption in “He has a name and it’s Sohrab”, finally standing up for his beliefs.
“I knocked on… long line of shameful lies”
Hiding items under the mattress - “I knocked on Baba’s door and told what I hope would be the last in a long line of shameful lies” - childish ignorance in thinking lying will solve problems
“something I had done…. under a mattress”
“something I had done 26 years earlier; I planted a fistful of crumpled money under a mattress” - maturement and repentance in helping others.
“Mr. Nyugen… ID”
American dream sickens Baba, unable to integrate, dream not for everyone – lack of English restricts him - “Mr. Nguyen had asked for ID”
“forg-, neg-“
American dream is that everyone can live their own freedom, their own identity – yet the cancer made him “forgetful, negligent.”, losing his sense of identity
“By that summer… San Jose flea market”
Afghanistan in America - “By that summer, Afghan families were working an entire section of the San Jose flea market.” - No American dream, things continue the way they have always done, but in discovering the illusion Afghan’s retain their cultural identity, sense of resistance/hope
“my boys… american action films”
American movies – idolisation of western culture – hotel clerk “My boys, they will do anything for American action films”
“Yes, 13 times/… the End.”
“Yes, 13 times/sin of Spoiling the End.” - lack of tact means Afghans will always be outsiders in America.
“You don’t know the meaning of liberating… bullets fly”
Physical conflict – violence and sex as weapons in the rise of Assef - “You don’t know the meaning of liberating until you’ve stood in a roomful of targets and let the bullets fly”
“slaughter sh- e-“
Sohrab’s parallel with Hassan – restrictive? - slingshot, “slaughter sheep eyes”
“they don’t let… human”
Taliban repression in Rahim Khan - “they don’t let you be human”
“my father once… bare hands”
Baba’s myth – “my father once wrestled a bear with his bare hands”
“Baba and I… than I’d ever known”
Like father like son - Amir comes to see that his father is exactly like him; a liar, betrayer, and a deeply flawed man, one who has sinned and urges others not to make the same mistake. “Baba and I were more alike than I’d ever known”.
“we planted… in silence”
Emotionally distant - “we planted the rest of the tulips in silence” - avoidance of his own sin
“I was pathetic… my own team”
Desire for fatherly approval - attempt to change his sense of self in athleticism, not poetry; “I was pathetic, a blundering liability to my own team”
“When it comes to words,… an imbecile”
Jealousy – cruelly mocks Hassan for lack of education; “When it comes to words, Hassan is an imbecile”
“for you… times over”
Loyalty – unwavering - “for you a thousand times over” - haunts Amir
“he was so goddamn pure… phony around him”
Purity – “He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him” - lets Amir win at cards
“let he… cast the first stone”
Angelic – biblical connotations – “let he who is without sin cast the first stone” – Hassan throws a rock at Assef
“I passed… colours”
Infertility - “I passed with flying colours” - Soroya’s punishment and shaming for eloping represents Afghanistan’s judgmental society, inclined to controlling women and defining them by their ability to reproduce – Amir is a product of this as well
“Soraya dedicated herself…. my father”
Kindness - “Soroya dedicated herself to taking care of my father” - resemblance to Hassan in devotion, same harelip in her birthmark
“there were many ways… better person than me”
Parallel to Amir - “there were many ways in which Soroya Taheri was a better person than me” - confesses her chequered past, both having domineering fathers, Amir finds solace in her similarities
“That’s how children… fall asleep.”
“That’s how children deal with terror. They fall asleep” - whilst Hassan never gives up, Hosseini shows that a country can only take so much abuse, manifested even in the younger, innocent generation
“his hand slid… slowly, gently.”
Homosexuality – inability to cope manifests itself in racism, rape and sodomy - “his hand slid up and down the boy’s belly. Up and down, slowly, gently.”
“best of all.. en masse”
Taliban – finds himself at home - “best of all, education en masse” - these are truly Assef’s beliefs – foreshadowed in his early gift of ‘Mein Kampf’
