Kite Runner and the History of Afghanistan

By 21ConnollyD36

  • December of 1979

    In December of 1979 "[t]he first Soviet troops parachuted into Kabul on Dec. 27, 1979, to assist Babrak Karmal, who had become president in a coup within the Afghan Communist leadership."

  • February of 1989

    After several years of waiting, "the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in February 1989 in what was in effect a unilateral withdrawal." (NYT article pg 2)

  • Summer of 1994

    In Afghanistan by the summer of 1994, "power was anarchically divided among competing warlords and individual fiefdoms."

  • End of 1994

    By the end of the year in 1994, "Mullah Omar had nearly 12,000 followers and was rolling up the warlords to the north and east."

  • 1996

    Along with help from Pakistan, "the Taliban by 1996 had taken control of Afghanistan, imposing strict enforcement of fundamentalist Islamic law..."

  • May of 1996

    The Taliban provided a safe haven for Osama bin Laden, "who arrived by chartered jet at Jalalabad Airport in May 1996, and for Al Qaeda."

  • 2004

    Hamid Karzai, a supporter and relative of Mohammed Zahir Shah, "was elected to a five-year term as president in 2004." (NYT article pg 3)

  • December of 2009

    In a speech he gave on December 1, 2009 at West Point, "Mr. Obama announced his plan to deploy 30,000 additional troops" (NYT arrive pg 4), who would arrive in Afghanistan.

  • 2014

    The Obama administration changed what they had previously said in July 2011 "to increasingly emphasize the idea that the United States will have forces in the country until at least the end of 2014." (NYT article pg 4)

  • Hosseini 2

    Amir ponders his thoughts as he is told by Rahim Khan that "[t]here is a way to be good again" (2) and now Amir has to make the decision of if he wants to return to his old home or not. The choice that he makes will be reliant on whether or not he wants to redeem himself and atone for his actions in the past.

  • Hosseini 66

    Amir and Hassan had just won the kite running tournament. Hassan was congratulating Amir by saying, "[y]ou won Amir agha! You won!" (66). Amir responded by saying that they both won and he could not have done it without Hassan

  • Hosseini 86

    Amir's guilt of witnessing the rape begins to get to him. He told Baba but he was asleep and obviously could not hear. It began to kick in to Amir that he "was going to get away with it." (86)

  • Hosseini 77

    While Hassan was getting raped, Amir wanted to help but could not find the will inside of him to help his best friend. He was about to help but "[i]n the end [he] ran" (77) because he did not want to be placed in the same position Hassan was in.

  • Hosseini 81

    Amir denies all that he knows about Hassan getting raped. When asked by Baba and Ali to see if he knows anything, Amir responds by asking back, "[h]ow should I know?" (81) when really he knew everything that happened.

  • Hosseini 92

    Amir throws the pomegranate at Hassan to see if he would throw it back but in return Hassan picked up another one and "opened it and crushed it against his own forehead." (93) He asked Amir if he was satisfied and Amir just sat there in shock and sadness.

  • Hosseini 153

    Baba has been diagnosed with lung cancer from something that had just started "with a hacking cough and the sniffles." (153) Now Baba's life is being put at jeopardy and if he dies it could change everything.

  • Hosseini 169

    Now Amir and Soraya are getting married and "Baba nearly spent $35,000, nearly the entire balance of his life savings, on the awroussi, the wedding ceremony." (169) Now that Baba may not be around much longer, he spends most of his money on Amir and his wife.

  • Hosseini 180

    Now Baba is dead and "Soraya and [Amir] moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Fremont." (180) There new life is beginning to begin, despite the struggles that come with it.

  • Hosseini 195

    Amir arrives in Peshawar trying to redeem himself for his mistakes made as a child. Even the people that talk to Amir say, "terrible what is happening in our country..." (195) and Amir can now experience the change of his hometown firsthand.

  • Hosseini 213

    Hassan is already dead and in 1998 the Taliban "massacred the Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif." (213) Now Amir's mission to be good again would have to change.

  • Hosseini 227

    Now Amir has to take on a new task, he needs to find, "An orphan. Hassan's son." (227) and bring him home safely as a way to atone for his actions.

  • Hossieni 290

    Sohrab shoots Assef with a slingshot and knocks his eye out during the fight between Assef and Amir. Sohrab warned Assef by saying, "Don't hurt him anymore" (290) but Assef didn't stop so Sohrab took actions into his own hands and helped Amir to survive.

  • September 2001—Present Day

    The government of "The United States has been militarily involved in Afghanistan since 2001, when it led an invasion after the Sept. 11 attacks by Al Qaeda." (NYT)

  • Hosseini 131

    Amir graduated from high school in America in 1983 "at age twenty, by far the oldest senior tossing his mortarboard on the football field that day." (131) He was one step farther down the road of life but there was still much still to come.

  • Hosseini 143

    Amir met Soraya and immediately fell in love with her. He says the her beautiful face is "already in [his] head" (143) and he can't stop thinking about her.
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    Kite Runner and the History of Afghanistan