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Hassan is born
Hassan is born, and he and Amir quickly became more than best friends, so close that his first word was, "...Amir. My name" (11). This is the beggining of the relationship between Hassan and Amir, and from the very start, Amir is his best friend. This just shows how much Hassan respects Amir, and it also shows how the two are more like brothers. -
Hassan Gets raped
After Amir wins the Kite festival, Hassan is cornered by Assef, Wali, and Kamal, and gets raped. while this goes on, Amir is aware, and thinks, "I had one last chance to make a descision. One final opportunity to decide who i was going to be... In the end, I ran" (77).This moment sparks the main conflict in this novel, which is Amir feeling guilty about what he did. This moment haunts him for the rest of his life, until he is able to atone for it at the end of the novel. -
Ali and Hassan both leave
After the rape, Amir is constantly haunted by it, and realises that he must do something about it. He frames Hassan for stealing his watch, as well as money, and even though Baba forgives them, Ali and Hassan still want to leave, as they state, "we can't live here anymore... Life here is imposible for us now, Agha Sahib" (106). After they leave, things escalate in the novel, mainly being them escaping from Kabul 7 years into the future. This shows how Amir was able to relax after Hassan left. -
soviet troops first arrive
These soldiers first arrived in Kabul, and they came "to assist Babrak Karmal, who had become the president in a coup within the Afghan Communist leadership" (2) -
Amir and Baba leave
Five years after Hassan and Ali had moved away, Amir and Baba decided to leave their home. This was a result of Kabul becoming a place where, "You couldnt trust anyone-for a fee or under threat, people told on eachother, neighbor on neighbor, child on parent, brother on brother, servant on master, friend on friend" (112). Amir and Baba are forcing themselves out of their home, and that shows everyone's fear. This decision will change a lot of things, letting Amir finaly be free of his old life. -
Amir and Baba arrive in America
Amir and baba arive in america sometime in the 1980's after they flee from kabul. Baba and Amir both admit that coming to america was for Amir's sake, because, "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 else far" (136). when Amir and Baba finaly move to America, Amir finaly feels releived of his sins. However, it is because he lives in America that he feels bad when he goes back. -
Amir graduates High School
In the summer of 1983, amir finaly graduated highschool, at the age of twenty. Amir also notes that Baba is proud of him, when "[Baba's] eyes gleamed when he said that, and i liked being on the receiving end of that look" (131). After Amir graduates, he finaly gets the real, and lasting recognition that he craved since childhood. This is the turning point in the story when power is shifted from Baba to Amir, and Amir becomes more self confident, sticking with the coice to become a writer. -
Amir and Baba start going to the Flea Market
Amir and Baba start spending their saturday mornings at the flea market, which leads them to become involved with the afghan community there, where there was, "Afghan families working an entire section of the San Jose flea market" (137). This is important for them, beause it was important for Baba to stay connected to the comunity. This is also the area where Amir meets his future wife, Soraya Taheri. -
Baba gets cancer
After many weeks since their first arrival at the flea market, Baba gets cancer, and their doctor says, "As you can see, the cancer's metasized... He'll have to take steroids to reduce the swelling in his brain and anti-seizure medications" (159). This is important, because Baa is on the verge of death. This causes Amir to realise that he has limited time with baba, and he must make the most out of things. -
Amir gets Married to Soraya
Since Baba has cancer, Amir realises that he has to see to it that Baba's last days are happy, and also that he can properly wed Amir, so he says to baba, "I want you to ask general Taheri for his daughter's hand" (161). Amir realises that he must ask Baba to do this last favor in order to live a happy life. This also helps Baba become happy as well, as his final words befor he dies is that he feels no pain, and he is happy. -
Baba Dies
Baba finaly dies one day, after Amir is Married. Baba dies in his sleep, and says, "Not tonight... There is no pain tonight" (173). Baba dies a happy death, watching Amir with his family. This finaly transitions Amir into a man, as he now has no one to guide him, and he has to find his way without Baba. -
The soviet troops leave
The soviet troops finaly leave, due to, "Peace talks moderated by the United Nations [led] the last soviet tropps [to leave] Afganistan in Febuary 1989" (2) -
Power is divided among warlords
After the war, Afghanistan, "Descended into vicious internecine strife; by the summer of 1994, power was anarchicaly divided among competing warlords and individual fiefdoms" (2) -
Taliban Takes over
By 1996, one group, the taiban took over thge weak afghanistan which was still fighting, and they started by, "Imposing strict enforcement of fundamentalist islamic law" (3 -
Amir meets rahim Khan in Peshawar
Rahim khan informs amir that he must meet him in peshawar. He Reveals to him that he knows that Hassan got raped, and he tells Amir that, "There is a way to be good again" (192). finaly, after 18 years of being in the US, Amir finaly must return to Afghanistan to Atone for his sins. This coupled with the fact that he feels as if things in his life are meaningless, causes him to go to peshawar, and see how rahim khan can help him. -
Amir Arrives in Kabul
After being away from Kabul for 20 years, when amir arrives back in KAbul, he is shoked, as he says, "Rubble and Beggars. Everywhere I looked, that was what I saw" (245) Amir is shoked to find that the taliban had destroyed what he remembered as his home. This shows how the taliban have so much power that they completely changed the way Amir thinks of Kabul, his previous home. -
Amir Fights Assef
When Amir fights to take back sohrab from Assef, Assef beats Amir very bad, but amir smiles, and thinks, "I hadn't been Happy, and i hadn't felt better, not at all. But i did now. My body was broken... but i felt healed. Healed at last. I laughed" (289). Finaly, amir feels some sort of Punnishment for what he didn't do for Hassan, and he takes it happily. This finaly signifies that Amir feels like he got what he deserved for not standing up for Hassan, thus gaining a feeling of Atonement. -
Amir and Sohrab finaly arive home
After spending a long time away, Amir and sohrab finaly arrive in the US. However, when they arive, sohrab is very quiet, still mad at how he was saved from suicide as, "He was looking at us now in the impassive way he looked at the plates of boiled rice the hospital orderly placed before him" (358). This creates one last conflict in the story for which amir feels bad for. It represents how even though one generation can take harships, there comes a time when the pain is just too much for others -
Post 9/11 invasion
After the devestating events of 9/11, "President George W. Bush gave the Taliban an ultimadum to hand over Mr. Bin Laden. When it refused, the United States joined forces with rebel groups that had never accepted the Taliban rule..." (3) -
Amir and Hassan's relationship lives on
At the park with sohrab, while fighting to cut a kite, Amir remembers, "The spool rolled in [Sohrab's] palms, the tendons in his scared wrists like rubab strings. Then I blinked and, for just a moment, the hands holding the spool were the chipped-nailed, calloused hands of a harelipped boy" (370). This not only strengthens the relationship of Amir and Sohrab, but it represents Amir's bond with Hassan once more. Even after death, their bond lives on through Sohrab, and shows their undying kinship -
Hamid Kazai becomes the leader of Afghanistan
As he takes the office, he states "He hoped to secure peace for afghanistan and win the country much needed international aid" (3) -
President Obama's plan
On West point, Mr. Obama "announced his plan to deploy 30,000 additional troops. He vowed to start bringing american forces back home from afghanistan..." (4) -
Obama removes McCrystal from war effort
In 2010, Obama removed Gen. McCrystal, "after contemptuous quotes from the general and his staff about senior administration officials appeared in an article in rolling stone magazine" (4) -
President Obama's deadline to bring back troops
Inm his speech in 2009, Obama agreed to bring back the troops "in the middle of 2011, saying that the United States could not afford, and should not have to shoulder an open-ended commitment" (4) -
The New Deadline
Obama decided later that the new deadline should be increased to 2014, mainly because, "the 2014 date was based on the presumption that the american military would be successful enough in fighting the taliban that significant withdrals would be underway by then" (4)