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Baba is born and Baba's family adopts Ali
The 1933 is important because it is, "the year Baba was born and the year Zahir Shah began his forty-year reign of Afghanistan..." (24) This is important because Baba is an essential character in the book. The book also takes place right after Zahir Shah's reign ends. -
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Monarchy in Afghanistan ends
Afghanistan's king is overthrown and, "Kabul woke the next morning to find that the monarchy was a thing of the past." (36) This is important because this is a major change and it could have an impact on the characters life. In place of the king, a cousin of the king, Daoud Khan, would take his place. -
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Hassan gets his hairlip fixed
Amir thought about the day "...in the hospital room, just after hassan's hairlip surgery." (219) Amir was thinking about the day when Hassan stopped smiling. He was thinking of Hassan because Rahim Khan was telling Amir about when Hassan got shot. -
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The first time Amir sees Hassan run a kite
Amir "...saw Hassan run a kite for the first time." (55) Hassan is a really good kite runner because he knows exactly where the kite is going to land. After Amir wins the kite battle Hassan runs the last kite for Amir. -
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Amir turns thirteen
Amir "...turned thirteen that summer of 1976, Afghanistan's next to last summer of peace and anonymity." (93) This shows that when Amir turns fourteen there will start to be war and everyone will know about Afghanistan because it will be all over the news. This also means that before any of the bad things began to happen nobody had heard of Afghanistan. -
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Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.
In 1979 "... the Soviet Union invaded" (NYT) Afghanistan. -
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Assef goes to jail.
Assef "...spent some time in jail, at Poleh-Charkhi, just after Babrak Karmal took over in 1980." Assef went to jail because the communist rounded up the wealthily people in Kabul. Assef decided in jail that he wanted to join the Taliban. -
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Baba and Amir leave Kabul for America
Amir's "...innards had been rolling since we'd left Kabul." (110) They were forced to leave Kabul because the Soviets were invading. They had to ride inside of a gas container to get across the boarder. -
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Amir graduates high school
Amir "...graduated from high school at the age of twenty, by far the oldest senior tossing up his mortarboard on the football field that day.(131) Since Amir moved to America he was old in his class. As a graduation gift from Baba he received a Gran Torino. -
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Soviet Air Force becomes useless
The Soviet Air Force became useless as a result of "advanced Stinger anti-aircraft missiles supplied by the United States" (NYT) -
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Rahim Khan goes to Hazarajat to see Hassan
After Amir and Baba moved to America Rahim Khan promised to take care of their house when they were gone. "There were a lot reasons why [Rahim Khan] went to Hazarajat to find Hassan in 1986. The biggest one ...was that [Rahim Khan] was lonely." (203) Rahim Khan offered Hassan and his new wife to move to Amir's old house with him. Hassan started to do work around the house like he used to before he left. -
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Amir writes his first story
In the summer of 1988 Amir "...wrote [his] first novel, a father-son story set in Kabul, written mostly with the typewriter the general had given [him]." (182) Amir sends his story to the publishers and they really like the book so they published it. Amir decides he is going to be a full time writer. -
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Soviet troops leave Afghanistan
"...Soviet troops left Afghanistan in February 1989 " (NYT) -
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Hassan and Farzana have Sorhab
"In early 1990, Farzana became pregnant again." (209) Farzana then gives birth to Sorhab. Hassan meets his mother for the first time when she comes to the house where Rahim Khan and Hassan are living. -
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Parts of Kabul are destroyed by rockets
As Amir walks around Kabul he notices the much of it has bee destroyed. Amir recalls that the "...Mujahedin forces had showered Kabul with rockets between 1992 and 1996 inflicting much of the damage [Amir] was witnessing now." (245) Some of the rockets had also destroyed some of Amir's old property. -
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Mullah Omar and was working to restore the centrality of Islam
Mullah Omar "had nearly 12,000 followers" (NYT) and was working to "restor[e] the centrality of Islam." -
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Taliban seized control of Afghanistan
"...the Taliban, the extremist islamic group... seized control [of Afghanistan] in 1996." (NYT) -
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The Taliban kills all Hazaras in Mazara-i-Sharif
The Taliban banned kite fighting and "...two years later, in 1998, they massacred the Hazaras in Mazara-i-Sharif." (213) During this time Hassan gets shot by a Taliban member. Amir never got to see Hassan before he died. -
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Amir returns to the U.S. with Sorhab
Amir adopts Sorhab and Amir brings him back to America. Amir and Sorhab arrived in America "...on a warm day in August 2001. Soraya picked [them] up from the airport." (356)Amir adopts Sorhab and Amir brings him back to America. The general first didn't approve of Sorhab because he was a Hazara and he would call him the Hazara boy. Amir tells the general that he has a name and that it is Sorhab. -
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Rahim Khan calls Amir to tell him to come Pakistan
Amir has "...to go to Pakistan... Rahim khan is very sick" (191) When Rahim Khan calls Amir, he tells him there is a way to be good again. Rahim Khan convinces Amir to go to Pakistan and find Hassan's son, Sorhab. -
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Attack on World Trade Center and Taliban ultimatum
"After the attack on the World Trade Center in New York on Sept. 11, 2001, President George W. Bush gave the Taliban an ultimatum to hand over Mr. bin Laden." (NYT) -
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U.S. Invasion of Afghanistan
"The United States has been militarily involved in Afghanistan since 2001 when it led in invasion after the Sept. 11 attacks by Al Queda." (NYT) -
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Karzai becomes interim president
Hamid Karzai "took office as interim president in June 2002" (NYT) -
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Obama deploys 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan
President Obama decides "to deploy 30,000 additional troops" (NYT) in Afghanistan -
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Plan to pass security responsibility to Afghan government
Obama administration planned to "pass responsibility for security to the Afghan government." (NYT)