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KR p6: Hassan is Born or Young (Winter 1964)
During this season, that is, by this date, Ali saw the product of his fathership "in that small shack that Hassan's mother, Sanaubar, gave birth to him one cold winter day in 1964." This date marks a turning point in the thread of the story because Hassan being born into such a domicile, such a life, begins the rift between him and Amir. Amir's physical distance from Hassan's life causes him to feel Hassan welcomes his going home despite it's inner feeling, not because of it. -
KR p36: Guns Signal the Beginning of the End in Kabul
Although frightening, the insurgents concerned "weren't shooting ducks after all. As it turned out, they hadn't shot much of anything that night of July 17, 1973." Although Amir and his family were scared beyond all else of their own lives, Amir himself was glad of all of the night's occurrences if they allowed Baba to voluntarily hug him. While the new emotion on the face of Baba of fear scares Amir, all that reaches Amir's mind serves to calm his emotions much like the word "republic" on TV. -
KR p30: Amir Improvises Reading Story to Hassan (July 1973)
Once Amir has finished reading, "after, [Amir] started to ask him if he liked the story, a giggle rising in [Amir's throat], when Hassan began to clap". Amir's fascination at the matter hinges on Hassan's illiteracy because Hassan forms a natural wonder for language, yet another example of the power struggle between them. Hassan's wonderment causes Amir such a surprise because he counts on Hassan's illiteracy, his expectations of Hassan placing him as unequal to Amir, almost like a child. -
KR p44: Hassan's Mysterious Birthday Present (Winter 1974) - last word is "matter"
As the facial surgeon who was found to appear on Hassan's birthday "said, 'my job is to fix things on people's bodies. Sometimes their faces.'" This comes as such a surprise to Amir and Hassan because not only are they shielded from this kind of lack of esteem as children, but the only information that they are given regarding medicine involves the death of a classmate. As both children find impassiveness in looking to Ali, this causes thought on the sobriety of Hassan's parent's thought on the -
KR p1-2; The Winter of 1975
Amir's sins are determined not from "the precise moment, crouching behind a crumbling mud wall. peeking into the alley near a frozen creek", but by him remembering such an event in the way that he does. In parallel, one's own misgivings are not determined by the acts themselves, but by the guilt and the repurcussions of having committed them, for a bad man who does bad things who is seen as good is not as bad as a good man with the best of intentions and the worst of outcomes. -
KR p93: Amir Turns Thirteen
Upon Amir's birthday season "that summer of 1976, Afghanistan's next to last summer of peace and anonymity", Baba's relationship with Amir cooling off represents the testing of Amir at how long this would last, as it seemed too good to be true, such that Amir does not mind returning to silent dinners until it is too late to detract his comment. Amir keeping the stories under his bed yet doubting Baba asking them of him causes Amir to focus less on his present situation with Baba than the past. -
first Soviet troops parachute into Kabul
Soviet armed forces "parachuted into Kabul on Dec. 27, 1979, to assist Babrak Karmal, who had become president in a coup". -
KR p36: The Official End (Begins April 1978)
This moniker for the fall of Amir's lifestyle "would come first in April 1978 with the communist coup d'etat, and then in December 1979, when Russian tanks would roll". The fact that the bloodbath still continues today serves both as an anchor point of Amir's to his past life and as a disconnect between the times of Before and After. In Amir's life, the end of the Afghanistan he knows severs his link with his own past on a personal level, instilling a feeling of hollowness and futility. -
KR p126: Baba's Politics (Reagan Elected)
Once coming to America, Baba both becomes and wishes for representation by "a man to be reckoned with, someone who took action instead of wringing his hands. That someone came in the form of Ronald Reagan", an individual that because of his election, causes Baba to find an outlet for connection to his heritage at the expense of others (those blue-collar people that would suffer under Republicanism) as he loses touch with his idealistic view of America. This point is so significant because as his -
KR p126: Baba's Politics Part II
cynical perspectives develop in parallel with his aggressive attitude towards American culture, his settling into his traditions slowly replaces his vision of an ideal new life. -
KR p110: Amir's Journey to Pakistan (March 1981)
The driver of the vehicle which Amir and Baba are inside "was a people smuggler - it was a pretty lucrative business, driving people out of Shorawi-occupied Kabul to the relative safety of Pakistan." Baba's hopelessness at the reduction of his life to two sutcases and a son causes him to become vindictive towards Amir. This reflects Baba's inclination against Amir for theiving his wife at childbirth, which results in not one appearance of Baba in any of Amir's internal throught processes. -
KR p127: Baba's Confrontation With Store Owners (Sunday Spring 1983)
Once the increased sway of protocol comes over the economy, after 'Almost two years we've bought his damn fruits and put money in his pocket and the son of a dog wants to see my license!'" While Baba supports Reaganomics in practice, the effects upon his life countermand the Afghan tradition of customs over policy, further distancing these two cultures within him. This lashing out is because Baba's upbringing of culture over rules does not bring with it an understanding of the rules concerned. -
KR p131: Amir Graduates High School (Summer 1983): Part II
imposition on this state, he himself recognizing it's fallibility, causing him to physically strangle Amir at the mention of the name of Hassan. -
KR p131: Amir Graduates High School (Summer 1983)
Baba was unusually proud "that his son was going to college in the fall. [Amir had] debated breifly about that just before graduation, and told him that [he wanted] to get a job. Help out, save some money, maybe go to college the following year." Amir revels all the more in Baba's pride because this remark immediately gets Amir one of Baba's looks of sternness, causing Amir to value what little happiness he knows he has all the more. Once he is inebriated, Baba reacts all the more forcefully to -
KR p144: Spring Quarter Ends For Amir (May 1985): Part II
dignity, in these times, comes of one's desire to be better than oneself, being justified by the proposition that everyone would be better off if everyone was dignified always but thus overpowering fact. -
KR p144: Spring Quarter Ends For Amir (May 1985)
Late in this month, Amir "aced all of [his general] education classes, which was a minor miracle given how [he would sit] in lectures and think of the soft hook of Soraya's nose." Baba's feeling that Amir compromises Soraya's chastity based on her father's honor and pride reflects the importance of Afghan custom over rules because custom, in the modern world, is based entirely upon dignity. This nang and namoos also comes up in Amir seeing how Baba kept the secret of Hassan from him because -
last Soviet troops out by this time
One the Soviet leaders had agreed to and participated in "peace talks modersted by the United Nations, the last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in February 1989, in what was in effect a unilateral withdrawal". -
Mullah Omar had nearly 12,000 followers
By this time, "Mullah Omar had nearly 12,000 followers and was rolling up the warlords to the north and east". -
Osama arrives in Afghanistan by this time
As a result of the Taliban's takeover, they were able to "provide a haven for Mr. bin Laden, who arrived by chartered jet at Jalabahad airport in May 1996, and for al Qaeda". -
KR p190: Amir Is Called To Pakistan For Rahim Khan (June 2001): Part II
temporarily from his life in order to reconcile this, as well as thinking overmuch about the remark of Rahim Khan's concerning his flexible past morals. -
KR p190: Amir Is Called To Pakistan For Rahim Khan (June 2001)
Since Rahim Khan was the first adult Amir ever thought of as a friend, Amir "pictured him and Baba drinking tea in Baba's study, then smoking near the window..." The incredible description with which Amir describes his memory in the book reflects his value of Rahim as a rare tie from his to Baba's life, one with whom he could connect in a way that was never possible with Baba. His inner trepidation at Rahim's illness and even withholding this information from his loved one causes him to retreat -
9/11 and Aftermath
After the 9/11, "President George W. Bush gave the Taliban an untimatum to hand over Mr. bin Laden. When it refused, the UNited States joined forces with rebel groups that had never accepted Taliban rule". -
Karzai elected
By the end of this month in 2001, "Hamid Karzai, a supported of Mohammed Zahir Shah, the exiled former king of Afghanistan, was named chairman of an interim government that replaced the defeated Taliban, making him leader of the country". -
Karzai takes office by this time
By June 2002, his office was taken and proclaimed that " he hoped to secure peace for Afghanistan and win the country much-needed international aid". -
Obama announces plan for more troops
On this date, "at West Point, Mr. Obama announced his plan to deploy 30,000 additional troops". -
Obama originally planned end of action by this time
At the speech at West Point, Obama "vowed to start bringing American forces home from Afghanistna in the middle of 2011, saying the United States could not afforc and sould not have to shoulder an open-ended commitment". -
Obama plans to have troops out by this time
Although plans were made to pull forces out earlier, " the Obama administration increasinly emphasizes the idea that the United States will have forces in the country at least untill the end of 2014".