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"Assef knelt behind Hassan, put his hands on Hassan's hips and lifted his bare buttocks" (Hosseini 75.)
This is important because this event is when rifts start occuring between Hassan's and Amir's relationship. -
"I hurled the pomegranate at him. It struck him in the chest, exploded in a spray of red pulp. Hassan's cry was pregnant with surprise and pain" (Hosseini 92.)
This is important because Amir is trying to atone for his sins by tyring to make Hassan hit him back. -
The Soviets "parachuted into Kabul [to] assist Babrak Karmal, who had become president in a coup within the Afghan Communinst leadership" (Afghanistan - An Overview 2.)
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"Tell him he'd better better kill me good with that first shot. Because if I dont' go down, I'm tearing him to pieces, goddamn his father!"
This is important because it is showing how brave Baba is and how cowardly Amir is when he grows up. -
"But before any of us could say or do a a thing, Kamal's father shoved the barrel in his own mouth. I'll never forget the echo of that blast. Or the flash of light and the spray of red" (Hosseini 124.)
This is significant because it is disturbing to Amir and he quotes that'll he'll never forget that expierience. -
"Baba loved the idea of America. It was living in America that gave him an ulcer" (Hosseini 125.)
This is an important event because the setting has changed and things will be very different. -
"I graduated high school at the age of twenty, by far the oldest senior tossing his mortarboard on the football field that day" (Hosseini 131.)
This is important because Amir is becoming an adult and showing his maturity. -
"'Does it bother you enough to change your mind?' 'No, Soraya. Not even close,' I said. 'Nothing you said changes anything. I want us to marry.' She broke into fresh tears" (Hosseini 165.)
This is important because Amir is marrying and getting older. -
"'I'll come back with your morhpine and a glass of water, Kaka jan,' Soraya said. 'Not tonight,' he said. 'There is no pain tonight' 'Okay,' she said. She pulled up his blanket. We closed the door. Baba never woke up" (Hosseini 173.)
This is important because Amir lost Baba, his father, and he has no one to look up to anymore. -
The Soviets Air Force was "rendered largely useless by advanced Stinger antiaircraft missiles supplied by the United States to to the rebels (Afghanistan - An Overview 2.)
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In the summer of 1988, about six months before the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, I finished my first novel, a father-son story set in Kabul, written mostly with the typewriter the general had given me" (Hosseini 182.)
This is important because it's starting to show Amir as an adult and his life. -
"In the summer of 1988, about six months before the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan..." (Hosseini, 182.)
This event is important because its showing the timeline of the war in Afghanistan. -
Last Soviet troops leave Afghanistan but "They left behind a country that was not only devastated by the war but that had become a beocan to Islamic extremists from across the globe who had come to assist in the fighting, including Osama bin Laden and the group he helped found, Al Qaeda (Afghanistan - An Overview 2.)
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"He sat across from us, tapped his desk with his fingers, and used the word 'adoption' for the first time. Soraya cried all the way home" (Hosseini 186.)
This is important because it shows foreshadowing for Ali not being able to have kids and he may have to adopt kids. -
The Soviets had come and gone and what they had left behind was a corrupt country where, "Power was anarchically divided among the competing warlords and the individual fiefdoms" (Afghanistan - An Overview 2.)
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The Taliban was meant to be a student movement to purify the country. The leader of Taliban was Mullah Omar. He was gaining followers rapidly because, "By the end of 1994 Mullah Omar had nearly 12,000 followers and was rolling up the warlords to the north and east" (Afghanistan - An Overview 2.)
http://us.yhs4.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?hspart=ironsource&hsimp=yhs-fullyhosted_003&type=ast_ggfc_14_41_ch¶m1=1¶m2=sid%3Dfb6d8bfb112403c616ffa4cf4a4cc2d1%26ulng%3Den-US%252Cen%253Bq%253D0.8% -
By 1996, the Taliban, "had taken control of Afghanistan, imposing strict enforcement of fundamental Islamic law, banning movies and music and forcing women out of schools and into all-enveloping burqa clothing. [The] Taliban also provided a haven for Mr. bin Laden, who arrived by chartered jet at Jalalabad Airport in May 1996, and for Al Qaeda" (Afghanistan - An Overview 3.)
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When Osama bin Laden finished his work on the World Trade Center on 9/11, "President George W. Bush gave the Taliban an ultimatum to hand over Mr. Bin Laden. When it refused, the United States joined forces with rebel groups that had never accepted Taliban rule, notably the Northern Alliance, which represented minority tribes. An air and ground campaign began that drove the Taliban out of the major Afghan cities by the end of the year" (Afghanistan - An Overview 3.)
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Mr. Karzai was an exiled former king of Afghanistan, who was, "[named] chairman of an interim government that replaced the defeated Taliban, making him leader of the country. He took office as interim president in June 2002, saying he hoped to secure peace for Afghanistan and win the country much-needed international aid. Mr. Karzai was elected to a five year term as president in 2004" (Afghanistan - An Overview 3.)
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2001 - 2010/unclear date The Taliban were rebuilding even after their defeat, "As the American military focus was diverted to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, the Taliban regrouped and began to extend its influence in the southern part of Afghanistan. Their rise was assisted by a resurgent opium trade, which helped to fill the group's coffers" (Afghanistan - An Overview 3.)
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Obama's plan was to watch the Iraq and Afghanistan and much of that region and deploy troops in Afghanistan, "In a speech, delivered [at] West Point, Mr. Obama announced his plan to deploy 30,000 additional troops. He vowed to start bringing American forces home from Afghanistan in the middle of 2011, saying the Untied States could not afford and should not have to shoulder an open-ended commitment" (Afghanistan - An Overview 4.)
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Even though Obama said that troops would be coming home in the middle of 2011, "the Obama administration changed its tone to increasingly emphasize the idea that the Untied States will have forces in the country until at least the end of 2014" (Afghanistan - An Overview 4.)
