The+Kite+Runner

Literapedia Book Notes for
=//The Kite Runner// by Khaled Hosseini=

Characters

 * **Amir** (ch 1)—the narrator of the story.
 * **Rahim Khan** (ch 1)—a friend of Amir; He is also a close friend and business partner of Baba.
 * **Hassan** (ch 2)—Amir's childhood friend with beauty only marked by a cleft lip.
 * **Ali** (ch 2)—Hassan's father and servant to Baba.
 * **Baba** (ch 2)—Amir's father; He is very well-off and respected in the community in Afghanistan.
 * **Assef** (ch 5)—a neighborhood bully who is very cruel to Hassan.
 * **Kamal** (ch 10)—a friend from Kabul who was raped and then stopped speaking.
 * **Kamal's father** (ch 10)—father of friend; He kills himself when Kamal dies.
 * **Soraya** (ch 11)—the daughter of General Taheri.
 * **General Taheri** (ch 11)—Soraya's father and Baba's old friend.
 * **Sohrab** (ch 16)—Hassan's son.
 * **Farid** (ch 19)—a friend that helps Amir back into Afghanistan.

Chapter Summaries

 * 1) Amir recalls a phone call from Rahim Khan who asks Amir to visit in Pakistan, triggering memories from the past. He sees the twin kites in the city he lives in, San Francisco.
 * 2) Amir relates Hassan's description and the story of Hassan's mother. He then describes his own father, Baba and Hassan's father, Ali.
 * 3) Baba is described as a very influential and wealthy man in Kabul. Baba fears that Amir is not like him, because Amir does not stand up for himself.
 * 4) Baba's father adopted Ali and raised him with Baba. Amir contrasts himself to Hassan and writes his first short story. Rahim Khan encourages him, but Hassan points out a mistake in the plot, angering Amir.
 * 5) Amir, Hassan, and Ali hide during an attack. Assef confronts Amir and Hassan. Baba pays for a surgery to fix Hassan's cleft lip for his twelfth birthday.
 * 6) Amir describes kite-fighting tournaments and that Hassan was the best kite runner, people who run after kites after their own are cut down.
 * 7) Hassan is raped and beaten by Assaf and his friends. Amir watches behind a wall and wonders of Hassan saw him. Amir wins the kite fight and presents the kite (that Hassan ran after and found) to Baba.
 * 8) Amir feels guilty and can not enjoy the extra attention from Baba. Hassan continues to show his loyalty to Amir. Everyone celebrates Amir's thirteenth birthday.
 * 9) Amir lies about Hassan stealing his birthday presents, and Hassan admits to stealing to protect Amir. Baba forgives Hassan, but Ali and Hassan still leave.
 * 10) Amir and Baba flee to Pakistan from Kabul (March 1981). They are stopped by the border, but an older soldier allows them to pass. Amir and Baba meet Kamal and his father, both of whom die.
 * 11) Baba and Amir move to California. Baba buys Amir a car for his graduation. Amir decides to major in English. Both meet Soraya while selling garage sale items at the flea market for profit.
 * 12) Amir and Soraya date but break up due to General Taheri's disapproval. Baba is diagnosed with lung cancer and arranges Amir and Soraya's marriage.
 * 13) Amir and Soraya marry. Soraya cares for Baba, who dies one moth later. They give up hope for adopting a child after General Taheri's disapproval.
 * 14) Amir decides to visit Rahim Khan in Pakistan, because he is sick. He believes that Rahim Khan knows everything about Hassan and Amir.
 * 15) Rahim Khan recounts the happenings in Afghanistan under the Taliban. He wants to tell Amir about Hassan, who lives with Rahim Khan.
 * 16) Ali has died and Hassan's mother can to see him. Hassan's wife had a son and his mother died.
 * 17) Rahim Khan gives Amir a letter and picture from Hassan. Taliban officers kill Hassan and his wife. Rahim Khan reveals that Hassan was Baba's son, because Ali was sterile.
 * 18) Amir feels angry at his father and guilty for betraying Hassan.
 * 19) Farid helps Amir enter Afghanistan. Amir reveals that he returns to Afghanistan to find Sohrab.
 * 20) Amir finds out that Sohrab was bought by Tablib Official from the orphanage.
 * 21) Amir's old neighborhood is home to the Taliban. Amir and Farid make an appointment with the shaded Taliban official in Ghazi Stadium.
 * 22) The official, Assef, beats Amir but is defeated when his eye is hurt by Sohrab's slingshot.
 * 23) Rahim Khan leaves a letter for Amir in the hospital to forgive himself and Baba. Amir takes Sohrab to Islamabad.
 * 24) Sohrab attempts suicide when he learns that he may need to return to the orphanage while Amir tries to get him a visa to return to the United States with him.
 * 25) Sohrab stops speaking for a year. Amir teaches Sohrab to kite fight and realizes that he is Sohrab's kite runner now.

Book Note Creator
Zenubia Madhani, '08