Kite Runner and the History of Afghanistan

  • Baba creates an Orphanage

    Amir explains his fathers accomplishments,"In the late 1960's, when I was five or six, Baba decided to build an ophrange"(13). Amir is proud of his father and his great accomplishments and what he has offered to their society.
  • Amir was born

    Amir who is the main character was born in 1963, he "became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1963"(1). Amir's birth was a significant part of the novel, becasuse of Amir being born his mother's life ended. Baba lost his true love, but has a newborn child. Amir grows up to be a significant part of the story and his father's life.
  • Hassa is born

    Hassan, "was bron in the winter of 1964"(6). Hassan is one of the main charcter in the novel and is Amir's best friend. Beacause of Hassan, Amir went on his journey of atonment.
  • Hassan recieves lip surgergy as a gift

    For Hassan's birthday, Baba gets one of the bets surgeouns to fix Hassan's cleft lip. The affcets of the surgery were,"swelling subsided, and the wound healed with time. Soon, it was just a pink jagged line running up from his lip. By the following winter, it was only a faint scar"(47). This is just another one of Baba's kind and caring actions that he does for the people he loves and cares most about.
  • Amir frames Hassan for the stealing of his watch

    Amir knows that he can't live Hassan because he is a constant reminder of his reappearing guilt. Amir has a plan to get rid of his guilt by, "lifting Hassan's matress and planting his new watch and a handful of Afghani bills under it"(104). The resusult of this action is the deaparture of Hassan and Ali. This is the final cause of the breakage of Amir's and Hassan's relationship. Even though Hassan is gone, Ammir is constantly reminded about his sins.
  • Hassan gets raped

    After the festival Assef and his freinds decided to rape Hassn. HIs friends pinned Hassan down and,"[Assef] positinoed himself behind Hassan.Hassan didnt struggle. Didnt even wimper"(75). Hassan knew he if he resisted he would be beaten to the ground, so he just had to suck it up and deal with the torture. This just shows Assef's evil and his urge to gain power over anyone.
  • Soviet Union Invasion

    "Afghanistan, offically the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, has known little peace since 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded"(new york times, 2) This becomes a major threat to the United Staes because they are trying to help the corrupt government, meanwhile the soviet union has invaded the weak country.
  • Amir graduates from High School

    Amir graduating High School was a sign of sucess for his future, in Baba's eyes. Baba says that he is,"moftakhir [of] Amir...proud"(131). Baba is excited for Amirs new life and oppurtinites that are upon him.
  • Amir gets married to Sourya

    This is the day Amire marries the love of his life, not only does this bring joy to him but also to Baba. Baba expressed his emotions for Amir on this special day by saying,"the happiest day of [my] life"(165).
  • Baba passes away

    Shortly after Baba and Amir arrive to America, Baba unfortunley finds out that he has a serious diagnoses of cancer. Because of Baba's refusion to cancer treatment, he sadly dies. Amir thinks to himslef, "Soon we'd leave too, and for the first time ever, Baba would be all alone. Soraya pulled me to her and tears finally came"(176). In this qoute Amir expresses his guilt for not being as close to Baba as they both wished.
  • The departure of the Soviet Union

    The last Soviet Union troops left Afghanistan in 1989. "Eventually, after peace talks moderated by the United Nations, the las Soviet Union troops left Afghanistan in Feburary 1989, in what what was in effect a unilateral withdrawal"(new york times,2). They left behind a country that was not only devastated by the war but that now had Islamic extreamists leading the country.
  • Amir finally piblishes his book

    Once Amir has finished his fisrt novel, it was "realesed in the summer of 1989"(183). For Amir, this is a huge advacemnet for his future as a writer. The money that Amir earns for his book, is used so he can travel back to Afghanistan.
  • Taliban takes control

    After many years of civil war in Afghanistan, the Taliban grouo finally toke control of the country. "The group had been given safe haven in the country by the Taliban, the exttreamist Islamic goup that had seized control in 1996 after years of civil war"(new york times,1). Al Qaeda supported the Taliban with thousands of imported fighters from all over the Middle east.
  • Taliban takes control

    Supporting counties helped the Talban asn Iskamic extreamist group, gain power and take over Afghanistan. This leads to caous across the country. "Buoyed by Pakistani aid, the taliban by 1996 had taken control of Afghanistan, imposing strict enforcement of fundamentalists Islamic law, banning movies and music and forcing women out of schools and into all-eneloping clothing"(new york times,2). The Taliban leaders want women to be conservative and banning any type of entertainment.
  • US involment in Afghanistan

    "The united States has been military involved in Afghanistan since 2001, when led an invasion after Sept. 11attacks by Al Qaeda"(new york times,1). Theb United States first got involved with Afghanistan in 2001 after 9/11. This attack causesd attention to the Middle east, especially Afghanistan.
  • Post 9/11 Invasion

    "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."(new york times,2). After the denial for this offer from the US, the US had to take charge. They joined forces with the Taliban's rival. An air and ground campaign began which eventually drove the Taliban out of control by the end of the year.
  • Aimr arrives to America with Sohrab

    Sohrab and Amir, "arrivehome..on a warm day in August 2001"(357). By bringing Sohrab to America, Amir has Atoned for his sins. He has saved Sohrabh from Assef and showed affection for Sohrab in his new life in America.
  • Amir copes with guilt

    After Amir ate the food that was meant for the kids, he felt bas so he,"plantes a fistful of crumpled money under a mattres"(242). This quote shows how Amir has changed his morals and valus, he really showed emotion for the kids and he did what was right. This shows that with age comes a great deal of maturity and responsibility.
  • Amir and Assef Reunite

    Amir meets Assef again to 'recieve' Sohrab from him and the Taliban. Assef wants to fight Amir but Amir does not want to participate in that violence, but if this is what he has to do to get Sohrab; he must fight Assef. As soon as they begin the fight Assef pulls something out of his pocket, "stainless-steel brass knuckles"(287). This symbolizes Assef's cruelty by his wanting to fight Amir with a weapon.
  • Rahim Khan makes a call to Amir

    Rahim Khan wants Amir to pay a visit to Afghanistan so he call him up in America and says,"asks Amir to come see him"(111). This alerting phone call leaves Amir with a decion of weather or not to go back to Afghanistan and atone for his sins.
  • Sohrab tries to commit suicide

    Sohrab tries to commit suicide, when Amir finds out he is torn apart resulting him "on his knees, screaming"(343). This tradgic event left Amir in pieces, and Sohrab was also traumatized.
  • President Obama's actions

    Preident Obama saw these major conflicts in the Middle East and took action. "President Obama made Afghanistan the central military focus of his administration, drawing troops out of Iraq and increasing the number in AFghanistan by almost 50,000"(new york times,1). Obama made these changes, hoping that the amount of issues with terriosm would slowly resolve.
  • The hope fot peace

    "Mr. Obama annouced his plan to develop 30,000 additional troops"(new york times, 4). He promised to start bring more American troops into Afghanistan to hopefully resolve most of the issues.,
  • US changes and promises

    The intial plan was to slowly start to remove the amount of troops in Afghanistan but changes to this promise needed to happen fast. "Though intial plans called fro American combat forces to beging withdrawing from Afghanistan in the summer of 2011, the Obama admiinstartion increasingly emphasizes the idea that the United States will have forces in the country until at least theend of 2014, when it intends to pass responsibility fro security to the Afghan government"(new york times,1).
  • The Future of the Middle East

    "Yet in amove away from that July 2011 deadline, the Obama administration changed its tone to increasingly emphazie the idea that the United States will have forces in the country until at least the end of 2014"(new york times,4). Aminstartion is conving te Afghans that the United States is not walking and to warn teh taliban that agressive operations against them would continue.