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Amir born and Sofia Akrami dies
Amir is narrating and and says "my mother hemorraged to death during childbirth" (6) This is important because this is what makes it harder for Amir to get all of Baba's love and pride because he "killed" Baba's wife. -
Hassan and Amir's first words
Hassan and Amir grew up in the same house and "[they] spoke [their] first words. [Amir's] was Baba. [Hassan's] was Amir. [Amir's] name."(11) This is very important because it shows what the rest of their childhoods will be like, Amir trying to win Baba's love and Hassan just living for Amir.
~date not specified in book~ -
Baba builds an orphanage
Baba, without any experience in architecture decided to build an orphanage and "it took three years to build the orphanage." This is important because this really shows how loving and caring Baba is. It shows that he feels like everyone deserves to be loved equally and that is what drives Amir to think Hassan is more loved. -
Hassan's Surgery
Hassan gets surgery for his harelip and Amir said"I wished I too had some kind of scar that would beget Baba's sympathy. It wasn't fair. Hassan hadn't done anything to earn Baba's affections; he'd just been born with that stupid harelip." This is important because this is the start of Amir's underlying resentment for Hassan for getting more attention and love than him from Baba. -
Amir and Hassan win the kite fighting tournament and Hassan gets raped
This moment right here was the main turning point of the entire book. This is what really showed just what Amir would do to get more love from Baba than Amir. Amir thinks to himself, "Nothing was free in this world. Maybe Hassan was the price I had to pay, the lamb I had to slay, to win Baba. After this moment in the book, Hassan and Amir were never the same together and it created Amir's immeasurable guilt that stays with him throughout the book -
Amir wins kite contest
Amir felt like his dad was never proud of him and when he won the kite contest "that right there was the single greatest moment of [his] twelve years of life, seeing Baba on the roof, proud of [him] at last." This was important because it made Amir feel slightly better about how Hassan always got more of Baba's love. -
Amir and Hassan's fight under the pomegranate tree
"Then Hassan did pick up a pomegranate. He walked toward me. He openned it and crushed it against his own forehead." This is important because Amir was just begging for Hassan to feel some type of anger towards him. Hassan lives for Amir and cares way too much about Amir and so he smashed the pomegranate on his own head so that he wouldn't hurt Amir. -
Amir's 13th birthday
"Baba would never have thrown me a party like that if I hadn't won the tournament." This is important because on one hand he is happy because the spotlight is on him and not Hassan for once but on the other hand, his father was only throwing him the party because he won the kite battles. That means he knows that this attention is only temporary and the it will go straight back to Hassan being in the spotlight again. -
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Kite Runner and Afghanistan history time span
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Soviet troops parachuted into kabul
On Dec. 27, 1979, "Soviet troops parachuted into Kabul... to assist Babrak Karmal" and thus affiliated themselves with the Afghan Communist leadership. This also lead to more and more tension in the government and with the Taliban killing lots of people including characters in the Kite Runner. -
Amir and Baba move to America
"Baba loved the idea about America. It was living in America that gave him an ulcer." This is important because the entire book life just gets worse and worse while they were in Afghanistan and Baba thought that it would automatically be much easier when they went to America. It shows how hard it is to move into another country and become successful. -
Amir gets a book published
Amir wrote a book and "A month later, Martin called and informed me I was going to be a published novelist." this is important because Amir finally feels like he is worth something to Baba. It made him feel much more valued and less like a failure. -
Soviet Troops leave Afghanistan
In February 1989, peace talks happened and "the last soviet troops left" leaving a country wrecked by war. That is important because that made the government very unstable impacting the characters in Kite Runner in a negative way. -
Amir and Soraya start a family
After Amir and Soraya got married, they started trying to have a child but "The idea of fatherhood unleashed a swirl of emotions in [Amir]."(184) This is important because this swirl of emotions was because he was thinking about his childhood and how he always felt less loved than Hassan and he never wanted to do that to his own son. -
Sohrab is born
Hassan and Farzana had a child and "They named him Sohrab, after Hassan's favorite hero." This is significant because his naming his child Sohrab is a small tribute to Amir who read Hassan all those stories in which he saw these characters. It shows a small amount of forgiveness to Amir, like he still remembers and loves him. -
Mullah Omar Gains Power
In 1994, Mullah Omar gained popularity and went to "12,000 followers and was rolling up the warlords to the north and east." His gain in power created more and more tension between other warlords making it a very hectic environment for the characters in Kite Runner. -
Pakistani Intelligence
Pakistani Intelligence was helping out Mullah Omar's men and "funneling arms, money and supplies to [his] men". This is what made life more and more crazy for all the characters involved in Kite Runner because they all got exposed to weaponry because of this. -
Amir finds out Hassan is his half-brother
Amir says, "'How could you hide this from me? From him?'" when Rahim Khan reveals that Hassan is his half-brother. Amir feels terrible because not only did he sin to someone who was his servant but it also happened to be his half-brother. He felt like he could never truly atone for his sins now and that carried on with him for the rest of the book -
Hassan Dies
Hassan was punished for being Hazara "so they took him into the street... and order him to kneel.. and shot him in the back of the head" (219) This is important because it is a terrible moment for Amir because he then thinks that after that he can't atone for his sins anymore. -
Taliban Resurgence
Even though the Taliban lost a lot of power after the 9/11 attacks, "[they] continued to wage Guerilla warfare" on the pakistan-Afghanistan border and eventually started getting more powerful. They got more and more powerful, but the war America had with Afghanistan made sure Taliban killings happened a lot less often. -
Hamid Karzai taken from king
Hamid Karzai was king of Afghanistan but he got exiled and later he "was named chairman of an interim government that replaced the taliban." Although it "replaced the taliban", the taliban was still at large and able to kill Hassan and his wife. -
9/11 attacks
In 2001, the "attacks by Al Qaeda" happened, making the Taliban much less important. The Taliban was very powerful but after the 9/11 attacks, they were just an afterthought compared to Al-Qaeda.The Taliban plays a very important role later in the book with Assef. -
Sohrab and Hassan fly the kite
Amir and Sohrab, Hassan's son, were doing a kite fight and they won together and when the won, Sohrab smiled at him and "It didn't make everything all right. It didn't make anything all right. Only a smile... But I'll take it. With open arms. Because when spring comes, it melts the snow one flake at a time, and maybe I just witnessed the first flake melting." This is significant because this is where Amir finally feel like he has atoned for his sins to Hassan a little bit. -
After Hamid Karzai became chairman...
Afetr Hamid Karzai was chairman, he ran for president saying "he hoped to secure peace" and eventually won the election and got a "five year term as president in 2004". His presidency kept more attacks from happining so that more people didn't die like Hassan and his wife -
General Petraeus takes charge
General Petraeus, an former Iraq commander, took "charge of United States Central Command" and was responsible for military operations in the Iraq-Afghanistan area. He was able to help end the war and keep another attack like 9/11 from happening which would effect the characters in Kite Runner negatively. -
Obamas plan
In Dec. of 2009, Obama promised to "deploy 30,000 additional troops" and vowed to bring troops home by the middle of 2011 to end the war. This is adding to the book because these troops were deployed to fight the same group that also killed Hassan and his Wife.