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Hassan receives plastic surgery
While Hassan gets plastic surgery, Amir "[wishes he] too had some kind of scar that would beget Baba sympathy." (46) Amir is jealous and frustrated that Baba treats Hassan better than him; it is Amir's main goal so win Baba's attention. He cannot understand why Baba is showing affection for a lowly servant, and is trying so hard to get Baba to show the same affection for him. -
Hassan stands up to Assef
Assef threatens Hassan and Amir, but Hassan is quick on his feet and aims his slingshot at him, saying, "If you make a move, they'll have to change your nickname from Assef... to 'One-Eyed Assef'". (42) Hassan shows loyalty and bravery, and even though he is terrified, he will still risk himself for his best friend, Amir. Hassan is not sure if he will be successful by resisting Assef; however, he does not care if he is hurt as long as he is helping Amir. -
Amir runs away
Amir finds Assef raping Hassan, and instead of stanging up for Hassan, "the way he'd stood up for me all those times in the past"(77), he ran the opposite direction because he "was a coward...[he] was afraid of getting hurt." (77) -
Hassan smashes a pomegranate on himself
Amir screams at Hassan to hit him with a pomegranate, but instead, he picks one up and "crushed it against his own forehead", asking Amir if he was satisfied and if he felt better. (93) Hassan will always stay loyal to Amir no matter what Amir does to him. He be his faithful servant and his best friend, and really impacts Amir, confusing him and making him think about his actions. -
Amir wins the kite tournament
Amir wins the tournament and finally sees Baba "pumping both of his fists...[h]ollering and clapping", and he knows that Baba is "proud of [him] at last." (66) Amir thinks that a simple kite will instantly fix the relationship between him and Baba, and his Baba will love him the way he always longed his Baba to do. However, this one moment in time will only create a bond that is Amir and Baba only pretending to be close with another, not realizing that their relationship isn't real. -
Hassan and Ali move out
Baba was struck by Ali when he told Baba he was moving out. Amir recalls that he "saw Baba do something [he] had never seen him do before: He cried." (107) Although Ali and Hassan are only servants, their absence creates an empty space in Baba, showing that their relationship is much stronger than what we think. Hassan and Ali aren't just people destined to serve Baba, as we find out later in the story. -
Soviet Union Invasion
On the fateful day of December 27, "[t]he first Soviet troops parachuted into Kabul". (NYT) They stayed in Afghanistan for "more than nine years" (NYT). -
Amir and Baba move to America
After Baba and Amir move to America, Baba has had to work at a gas station "[s]ix days a week" working "twelve shift hours" (130). It is ironic that back home, Baba was a celebrity with the biggest house in Kabul. Now that they are in a different country, all their power has been lost and they have to start from the bottom and rely on food stamps. -
Baba is diagnosed with cancer
When Baba is diagnosed with "Oat Cell Carcinoma" (a form of cancer), he is offered chemotherapy, but Baba says "Thank you for that...[b]ut no chemo medication for me." (156) Baba acted similarly when he was offered food stamps, showing he has too much pride to accept help from other people. No matter what condition he is in, whether he is in poverty or he is dying, he will still refuse to accept he is, because the pride he has from Kabul is the one thing he has kept with him in America. -
Amir proposes
Amir calls Soraya on the phone and, after she tells him her darkest secret, asks her to marry him, saying that "[n]othing she said [changed] anything." (164) Amir envies Soraya because she had the courage to share her story with someone else; that's one reason why he wants to marry her. Amir wishes he could have some of the traits Soraya has,and wants to tell his secret to someone else too. But even though Amir still keeps his secret locked away, he is able to focus himself on other things. -
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The Soviet Union leaves
After staying in Afghanistan 'for nine years" (NYT), the "Soviet Air Force was... rendered largely useless" (NYT) and the last troops left in 1989. -
Al Qaeda is born
After the Soviets left, all that was left of Afghanistan was a country "devastated by war" (NYT) and "a beacon to Islamic extremists...who had come to assist in the fighting" (NYT), which included "Osama BinLaden and the group he helped found, Al Qaeda." (NYT). -
Mullah Omar's movement
The Talibans' first movement was led by "Mullah Omar, a Pashtun who had lost an eye fighting the Soviets" (NYT), who had "gathered a small band if men and attacked and group of warlords" (NYT) raping and torturing a girl. -
Taliban take over
Various "warlords and individual fiefdoms"(NYT) were competing for power, which was "anarchically divided"(NYT). Eventually, all the power was handed over to "a student movement dedicated to purifying the country" (NYT) called the Taliban. -
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Taliban rule declines
After Osama Bin Laden "arrived by charter jet at Jalalabad" to be protected by the Taliban, he and Al Qaeda convinced Mullah Omar "to order the destruction of... 800-year-old Buddha statues" (NYT). The Taliban were condemned and criticized, and "seemed almost to welcome pariah status" (NYT) -
Sohrab attempts suicide
Amir goes into the hotel bathroom and screams when he sees that Sohrab "had cut himself deeply and had lost a great deal of blood" (348). After hearing Amir's unsure statement about having to send him to an orphanage, Sohrab completely loses control of his life. His life has been a living nightmare; Amir had just been his limit to how much he could cope with. He is overwhelmed one bad event after another, and he just cannot handle it anymore, so he decides he might not have to. -
Sohrab comes to America
When Amir brought Sohrab to America with him, he was "unaware that almost a year would pass before [he] would hear Sohrab speak another word." (356) After Sohrab attempted suicide, the connection he and Amir had has been completely lost. He is not willing to live, and even though he is still alive, his soul and spirit are dead. Amir saved Sohrab, but he is the one that caused him to commit suicide, so Sohrab does not know where his life is going to go. Too much is happening all at once for him. -
Amir fights Assef
To obtain Sorhab, Amir must fight Assef, one-on-one. But instead of trying to fight, Amir lets Assef attack him until he's almost dead, but even though his "body was broken... [he] felt healed." (289) Amir proves just how far he will go to atone for what he had done, to feel free from the guilt he has kept with him since the day of the rape. Even though Amir already knows Hassan is dead, he still is determined to atone, which drives the direction his life goes for the rest of the book. -
Amir meets Rahim Khan again
Amir flies back to Afghanistan to find Rahim Khan and find out the "way to be good again"(2), according to Rahim Khan. Even after all the time Amir has had to forget about is past, he still feels obligated to make up for what he had did. His life revolves around that one memory and it will never leave his conscience until he does something about it. -
Amir finds out Hassan is his half-brother
Rahim Khan tells Amir that Baba is Hassan's biological father, and Amir's initial reaction is feeling "like a man sliding down a steep cliff clutching at shrubs... and coming up empty-handed." Amir is traumatized, and calls Rahim Khan "a...lying goddamn bastard" (222). Now that Amir had realized he had been lied to his whole lie, he doesn't know who to trust, or what his life before had been. He is ashamed of himself; he feels like he doesn't even know who his own father is anymore. -
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The Rise of Karzai
Harmid Karzai, who was "a supporter and relative of...the exiled former king of Afghanistan" (NYT) was named chairman, or leader of the country. He took the position as "interim president" (NYT) in 2002. -
9/11 attack and the aftermath
Osama Bin Laden led an attack with Al Qaeda to crash into the twin buildings of the World Trade Center in New York, killing almost 3000 people. The Taliban refused to "hand over Mr. Bin Laden" (NYT), forcing the "United States to join forces with rebel groups that had never accepted Taliban rule" (NYT) -
Sohrab smiles
After not talking for a year, Amir sees Sohrab smile for the first time. Even though "[i]t didn't make anything all right", Amir will "take it...[w]ith open arms." Amir cares for Sohrab more than anyone else now, and he just wants to know if Sohrab is happy. He cannot bear to see the lifeless, monotone expression on Sohrab's face every day; all he longs for is for Sohrab to feel like he belongs. -
Karzai's presidency
After becoming interim president, Karzai "was elected to a five-year term as president" (NYT). He was also a "White House favorite" (NYT) during the Bush administration, but his "popularity steadily plunged" (NYT) as he was blamed for the "manifest lack of economic progress and the corrupt officials who... stand at the doorway of his government." (NYT) -
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Obama administration
Barack Obama made a speech announcing "his plan to deploy 30000 additional troops" (NYT) to Afghanistan and emphasized "the idea that the United States will have forces in the country until at least the end of 2014." (NYT)