The Kite Runner summary

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The Kite Runner summary

Title: The Kite Runner
Author: Khaled Hosseini
Publication: 2003
Number of Pages: 371
Genre: Literary Fiction
Geographical Setting: Kabul, Afghanistan and San Francisco, California
Time Period: mid-1960s-2001
Series: N/A

Plot Summary: The Kite Runner is a heartbreaking story about the friendship between two young boys, Amir and Hassan, growing up in Kabul. Although both were raised in the same household, they both come from two different social classes. Amir is the son of a wealthy man and Hassan comes from a servant family. They become inseparable friends and enjoy competing together in kite running tournaments. Until one unfortunate event changes their lives. Their friendship is intertwined with feelings of jealousy and betrayal, and their fates are separated by the tragedies surrounding them.

Subject Headings: Kabul, Afghanistan, Middle East, Islam, Muslims, Russian occupation, Soviet invasion-1978, social classes, coming-of-age stories, boys and friendship, father and son relationships, brothers, family and love, childhood choices, personal salvation, kite flying, tournaments, betrayal, child abuse, male rape, gang rape, bullying, The Seventies, immigrants, American Dream, exile communities, the Taliban, Taliban-ruled, political turmoil, war-torn countries, effects of war, writers/novelists.

Appeal: striking debut novel, passionate writing, fast-paced, page turner, first person narrator, tone of book thought provoking, memoir, autobiographical, war, death, flashbacks, foreshadowing, realistic, well developed characters, plot-centered, sad, eye-opening, sensitive, child abuse, loss, brutal, tragic, torture, scandalous, guilt and regret, intriguing, astonishing, cruelty, violent, graphic, historical details/chronicle, Afghan culture, descriptive (descriptions of San Francisco, California and Kabul, Afghanistan), occasional foreign words/Farsi, heartbreaking struggle, bittersweet, emotional triumph, hopeful.

Similar Authors and Works (Fiction): Masha Hamilton—Staircase of a thousand steps: a novel (Set in the time of the Arab/Israeli war, this is the story of the coming of age of a psychic, gifted young girl who has to walk the line between a world of tradition and a world of change.), Ian McEwan—Atonement (In the summer of 1935, three children lose their innocence and their lives change forever.), Camila Way—The Dead of Summer (Debut novel of a young thirteen year girl who witnesses three murders and seven years later she reveals her experience.)

Similar Authors and Works (Nonfiction): Steve Coll—Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001 (Research details of the CIA’s involvement during the beginnings of the Taliban and Al Qaeda before September 11.), Rory Stewart--The Places In Between (A journal about a Scottish writer’s traveling experience in Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.), Stephen Tanner—Afghanistan: A Military History from Alexander the Great to the Fall of the Taliban (An overview history of Afghanistan’s empire and military building and collapsing.)

Name: Semiramis Date: November 14, 2007

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The Kite Runner summary

Kite Runner Summary
Amir, a well-to-do Pashtun boy, and Hassan, a Hazara and the son of Amir's father's servant, Ali, spend their days in a peaceful Kabul, kite fighting, roaming the streets and being boys. Amir’s father (who is generally referred to as Baba, "daddy", throughout the book) loves both the boys, but seems critical of Amir for not being manly enough. Amir also fears his father blames him for his mother’s death during childbirth. However, he has a kind father figure in the form of Rahim Khan, Baba’s friend, who understands Amir better, and is supportive of his interest in writing stories.
Assef, a notoriously mean and violent older boy with sadistic tendencies, blames Amir for socializing with a Hazara, according to Assef an inferior race that should only live in Hazarajat. He prepares to attack Amir with his steel knuckles, but Hassan bravely stands up to him, threatening to shoot Assef in the eye with his slingshot. Assef and his henchmen back off, but Assef says he will take revenge.
Hassan is a successful "kite runner" for Amir, knowing where the kite will land without even watching it. One triumphant day, Amir wins the local tournament, and finally Baba's praise. Hassan goes to run the last cut kite, a great trophy, for Amir saying "For you, a thousand times over." Unfortunately, Hassan runs into Assef and his two henchmen. Hassan refuses to give up Amir's kite, so Assef exacts his revenge, assaulting and raping him. Wondering why Hassan is taking so long, Amir searches for Hassan and hides when he hears Assef's voice. He witnesses the rape but is too scared to help him. Afterwards, for some time Hassan and Amir keep a distance from each other. Amir reacts indifferently because he feels ashamed, and is frustrated by Hassan's saint-like behavior. Already jealous of Baba's love for Hassan, he worries if Baba knew how bravely Hassan defended Amir's kite, and how cowardly Amir acted, that Baba's love for Hassan would grow even more.
To force Hassan to leave, Amir frames him as a thief, and Hassan falsely confesses. Baba forgives him, despite the fact that, as he explained earlier, he believes that "there is no act more wretched than stealing." Hassan and his father Ali, to Baba's extreme sorrow, leave anyway. Hassan's departure frees Amir of the daily reminder of his cowardice and betrayal, but he still lives in their shadow and his guilt.
Five years later, the Russians invade Afghanistan; Amir and Baba escape to Peshawar, Pakistan and then to Fremont, California, where Amir and Baba, who lived in luxury in an expansive mansion in Afghanistan, settle in a run-down apartment and Baba begins work at a gas station. Amir eventually takes classes at a local community college to develop his writing skills. Every Sunday, Baba and Amir make extra money selling used goods at a flea market in San Jose. There, Amir meets fellow refugee Soraya Taheri and her family; Soraya's father, who was a high-ranking officer in Afghanistan, has contempt of Amir's literary aspiration. Baba is diagnosed with terminal oat cell carcinoma but is still capable of granting Amir one last favor: he asks Soraya's father's permission for Amir to marry her. He agrees and the two marry. Shortly thereafter Baba dies. Amir and Soraya learn that they cannot have children.
Amir embarks on a successful career as a novelist. Fifteen years after his wedding, Amir receives a call from Rahim Khan, who is dying from an illness. Rahim Khan asks Amir to come to Pakistan. He enigmatically tells Amir "there is a way to be good again." Amir goes.
From Rahim Khan, Amir learns the fates of Ali and Hassan. Ali was killed by a land mine. Hassan had a wife and a son, named Sohrab, and had returned to Baba’s house as a caretaker at Rahim Khan’s request. One day the Taliban ordered him to give it up and leave, but he refused, and was murdered, along with his wife. Rahim Khan reveals that Ali was not really Hassan's father. Hassan was actually the son of Baba, therefore Amir's half-brother. Finally, Rahim Khan tells Amir that the true reason he has called Amir to Pakistan is to go to Kabul to rescue Hassan's son, Sohrab, from an orphanage.
Amir returns to Taliban-controlled Kabul with a guide, Farid, and searches for Sohrab at the orphanage. In order to enter Taliban territory, Amir, who is normally clean shaven, dons a fake beard and mustache, because otherwise the Taliban would exact Shariah punishment against him. However, he does not find Sohrab where he was supposed to be: the director of the orphanage tells them that a Taliban official comes often, brings cash and usually takes a girl back with him. Once in a while however, he takes a boy, recently Sohrab. The director tells Amir to go to a soccer match and the man "who does the speeches" is the man who took Sohrab. Farid manages to secure an appointment with the speaker at his home, by saying that he and Amir have "personal business" with him.
At the house, Amir has his meeting with the man in sunglasses,who says the man who does the speeches is not available,. The man in sunglasses is eventually revealed to be his childhood nemesis, Assef. Assef is aware of Amir's identity from the very beginning, but Amir doesn't realize who he's sitting across from until Assef starts asking about Ali, Baba and Hassan. Sohrab is being kept at the home where he is made to dance dressed in women's clothes, and it seems Assef might have been sexually assaulting him. (Sohrab later says, "I'm so dirty and full of sin. The bad man and the other two did things to me.") Assef agrees to relinquish him, but only for a price - cruelly beating Amir. However, Amir is saved when Sohrab uses his slingshot to shoot out Assef's left eye, fulfilling the threat his father had made many years before.
Amir tells Sohrab of his plans to take him back to America and possibly adopt him, and promises that he will never be sent to an orphanage again. After almost having to break that promise (after decades of war, paperwork documenting Sohrab's orphan status, as demanded by the US authorities, is impossible to get) and Sohrab attempting suicide, Amir manages to take him back to the United States and introduces him to his wife. However, Sohrab is emotionally damaged and refuses to speak or even glance at Soraya. This continues until his frozen emotions are thawed when Amir reminisces about his father, Hassan, while kite flying. Amir shows off some of Hassan’s tricks, and Sohrab begins to interact with Amir again. In the end Sohrab only shows a lopsided smile, but Amir takes to it with all his heart as he runs the kite for Sohrab, saying, "For you, a thousand times over.".

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The Kite Runner summary

K.Nwanguma
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
03/22/12
Chapter 20-25
Summary: On the way to Kabul with Farid, Amir sees a lot of broken down Soviet tanks and destroyed villages. Amir does not even recognize the Kabul he used to know. Amir goes to the orphanage that he thinks Sohrab is in. It turns out that Sohrab is not there but the director, Zaman, tells Amir where he might be. Zaman also says that it may be too late. He explains that a Taliban official comes buy with money and buys a child every month or so. Farid attacks Zaman for allowing this but then realizes that he is in the children’s sights. Zaman then explains that there’s nothing he can do about it and it is the only way he can get money to feed the children in the orphanage. He then tells Amir and Farid that the official took Sohrab a month ago. Zama told them if they want to find him they should go to the Ghazi Stadium the next day. Farid takes Amir to Baba’s house. It is falling apart but he still recognizes it. Amir finds his old bedroom. He goes up the hill to the pomegranate tree where he and Hassan used to play. Farid says that they should leave. That night they stay at a hotel. They go to a soccer game at Ghazi Stadium the next day. The field is dirt and the crowd is quiet. The Taliban drive into the stadium and pull a man and a woman, both blindfolded, from two trucks. They burry them to their chests in a hole in the field. The woman screamed uncontrollably. They proceeded to stone both of them to death. They pile the bodies into the back of a truck, and the second half of the soccer game begins. Farid tells official that he needs to talk to him, and the official agrees to see them that afternoon. Amir and Farid arrive at the house where Amir will meet the Taliban official. Farid waits in the car, and two guards escort Amir to the room where he has to wait. The Taliban official comes in with guards. The Taliban official asks Amir if he enjoyed the show in the show in the stadium, he goes on to say that it was not as liberating as when he went into the Hazaras homes and shot them. Amir tells the official that he is looking for Sohrab. The guards bring Sohrab in and make him dance. Amir says that he will pay him for Sohrab. But the official, Assef, said that money is no object to him. He says that that wasn’t the reason he joined the Taliban. He said that his mission was to get rid of Afghanistan’s garbage. Amir says that it is ethnic cleansing and that he wants Sohrab. And Assef tells Amir that they have unfinished business. Assef puts on brass knuckles and starts hitting Amir. He remembers little after that. Sohrab raised his slingshot up and hit Assef in his eye with it. Sohrab and Amir ran out of the house to where Farid waited with the car. As they drove away, Amir passed out. Amir has a blur of images like Baba wrestling a bear but when he looked into Baba’s eyes he realizes that it was Amir wrestling the bear not Baba. When Amir regains consciousness he is in a hospital in Peshawar. Amir’s mouth is wired shut, his upper lip is split, he has cracked bones, a ruptured spleen, and his eye socket bone is broken. Farid and Sohrab are there and Amir thanks both of them. Farid tells Amir that Rahim Khan was there and left a note. In the note Rahim says that he knew everything that happened with Hassan. He also says that what he did was wrong, but Amir was too hard on himself. He says that he understands because of how Baba used to treat him. Rahim said that the reason that Baba treated him that way was because he felt guilty for not being able to love Hassan openly; he just took it out on Amir. Rahim also left money to cover Amir’s medical expenses. Amir leaves to Islamabad and takes Sohrab with him. Amir and Sohrab get to Islamabad. When Amir wakes up from his nap, Sohrab is gone, he finds him at the at the mosque parking lot.
They talk to each other about their parents. Amir tells Sohrab that Hassan will be happy for what he did to save Amir. Sohrab says that he is happy that his parents aren’t there to see him because of the sexual abuse he endured. He said that it made him feel dirty. Amir asks if Sohrab wants to go back to America with him, he doesn’t answer, but a later he asks what San Francisco is like. Sohrab tells Amir that he is worried that Amir and his wife will tire of him but also says he never wants to return to the orphanage. Amir promises that won’t happen, after Sohrab agrees to go to America, Amir calls Soraya to explain everything. When Amir goes to the American embassy the next day the man there tells him that adoption will be almost impossible. Without his parents death certificates there is no way to prove that Amir is an orphan. He says that Amir should speak to an immigration attorney, Omar Faisal. Amir and Sohrab see Faisal the next day. The attorney says that it will be hard but they have options. He tells Amir that he can put Sohrab in an orphanage and then file a petition and wait two years for the government to approve it.
When Amir tells Sohrab he may have to go back to an orphanage Sohrab cries that they will hurt him again. While Sohrab is asleep, Amir talks to Soraya, who tells him that Sharif, a family member who works for the U.S. immigration department, says that there are ways to keep Sohrab in the country once he’s in. Amir goes to tell Sohrab and finds him bleeding and unconscious in the bathtub. Sohrab is rushed to the emergency room. Amir prays for him in the waiting room. The doctor says that Sohrab lost a lot of blood but that he will live. When Sohrab wakes up Amir asks him how he feels but Sohrab doesn’t answer. Amir explains that there is a way for Sohrab to come to America with him but Sohrab stopped talking completely.
Amir and Sohrab arrive in America in August 2001. General Taheri and Jamila come over for dinner Amir tells General Taheri about the Taliban and Kabul. General Taheri asks why Amir brought back a Hazara boy. Amir says Baba slept with a servant woman and that they conceived a child, Hassan, who is now dead. Sohrab is Hassan’s son and Amir’s nephew. Amir tells General Taheri not to call Sohrab a “Hazara boy” in his presence. After September 11 and the American bombed Afghanistan. Amir and Soraya take jobs helping to run and raise money for a hospital on the Afghan-Pakistani border. One rainy day, Amir takes Sohrab, and Soraya, to a gathering of Afghans at a park. Sohrab, who is still not speaking, stands out in the rain, but eventually the weather clears. They see a kite seller and Amir buys Sohrab a kite.
Amir shows Sohrab a one of Hassan’s favorite tricks. They cut the other person’s kite free and people cheer. Sohrab smiles and Amir asks if he should run the kite for Sohrab, and Sohrab nods. “For you, a thousand times over,” Amir says and sets off running.
Analysis: I really liked this part of the book. This completely tied the book together. I really started to understand the characters more and realized they all had a very important role in the story. I enjoyed how a lot of characters from the beginning of the book showed up at the end of the book. I also like how everything that ended up happening has a specific purpose. It gave the book a lot more meaning for me. I really enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend that other people read it too!
Application: This last section of the book most definitely applied to the essential question and course objectives. There are many human characteristics that span time and culture. The characteristics that stuck out the most in this section are love and taking accountability. Love is something that humans learn from a very early age. We’re taught to love your parents, your friends, and yourself. This is a huge part in the Kite Runner because when Amir meets his nephew Sohrab he doesn’t know him at all. But he cared enough for him to rescue him from Assef and bring him to America. Just because they are family made Amir love him enough to save him. Another characteristic is taking accountability. Amir recognized that it was partially his fault that Hassan died in the first place and that it was almost his duty to take Sohrab in and raise him as his own. Another example of accountability is how Baba always tried to look out for Hassan; Baba knew that he’d had Hassan illegitimately and that he should take care of him. This novel says a lot about human nature, roles, behavior, and ideals. It is human nature to question yourself like Amir did for most of his life. It is also human nature to be jealous and envy what other people have or can do, like Amir did with Hassan. Amir’s role went from being completely submissive to Baba, too being more equally, too in the end rising above Baba’s mistakes. The behavior of Baba and Amir drastically changed from the beginning to the end of the book. Essentially human ideals are almost impossible to achieve because humans are constantly striving for perfection. Through his whole life Amir tried and tried to live up to what he thought Baba wanted. The Kite Runner was an amazing novel and it displayed human nature, characteristics, roles, behavior, and ideals that span time and culture.

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The Kite Runner summary

The Kite Runner
(By Khaled Hosseini)
Chapter summary

Chapter 1:

Amir, the Afghan narrator of the novel, now lives in San Francisco.
Amir has received a phone call from his father’s old friend, Rahim Khan, asking him to come to Pakistan.
The phone call has reminded Amir of events from his past.

Chapter 2:

Amir looks back and remembers how he and Hassan were childhood friends despite Hassan being the son of Amir’s family’s servant, Ali.
We learn that Amir’s mother died in childbirth.
Amir recounts how Hassan’s mother abandoned her family shortly after giving birth to him.
We learn that the families of Amir and Hassan are two different ethnic groups.

Chapter 3:

Amir remembers time spent with his father during his childhood, and how his father was disappointed with his lack of manly attributes.
Amir’s father, Baba, was seen as a great man by the people around him.
Amir recalls becoming interested in reading and writing as a way to escape his father’s lack of interest.
Amir takes out his resentment and jealousy on Hassan.

Chapter 4:

We learn how Ali, Hassan’s father, was an orphan raised by Baba’s father.
When they were growing up, Hassan acted as Amir’s servant.
Amir recalls writing his first story.

Chapter 5:

The king of Afghanistan is overthrown in a coup.
Amir and Hassan are attacked by three bullies- Assef, Wali and Kamal- but Hassan scares them of with his slingshot.
Baba arranges for Hassan’s cleft lip to be corrected as a birthday present.

Chapter 6:

In the winter the schools close and the children take part in kite fighting tournaments.
Hassan is a gifted kite runner.
Amir tests Hassan’s loyalty by asking him if he would eat dirt if commanded to do so.

Chapter 7:

Amir wins the kite flying tournament and Hassan runs to catch his kite.
Hassan is captured by Assef and the other bullies in an alley. He is raped.
Amir sees the attack on Hassan but does nothing to help him.

Chapter 8:

After the events following the tournament, Amir feels guilty for not having helped Hassan.
Hassan tries to patch up his relationship with Amir, but Amir rejects him.
Amir has a birthday and Assef, the bully, comes to the party and brings him a biography of Hitler as a present.

Chapter 9:

Hassan and Ali give Amir a birthday present of a copy of the book Amir used to read to Hassan.
Amir falsely accuses Hassan of stealing birthday presents.
Ali and Hassan leave Baba’s service.

Chapter 10:

It is 1981 and Amir and his father are escaping from Russian controlled Afghanistan.
Baba stands up to a Russian soldier who wishes to rape a female Afghan refugee.
One of the bullies from the attack in the alley, Kamal, who is also escaping, dies on the journey.

Chapter 11:

It is the 1980’s and Amir and Baba are now living in the USA.
Baba is a little unsettled there but is still capable of commanding respect.
Baba and Amir buy items from garage sales and sell them from a stall in the Afghan section of the San Jose flea market.
Amir falls in love with a girl named Soraya whom he meets at the flea market.

Chapter 12:

Amir is in love with Soraya, but is warned off by her father.
Baba falls ill with lung cancer.
Amir asks his father to approach Soraya’s family for her hand in marriage, and it is all agreed.

Chapter 13:

Amir marries Soraya.
Baba dies.
Amir publishes his first novel.
Amir and Soraya find that they are unable to have children.

Chapter 14:

It is June 2001 and Amir has just received a phone call from Rahim Khan.
Amir and Soraya are still childless.
Amir flies to Pakistan.

Chapter 15:

Amir arrives in Pakistan and meets a very ill Rahim Khan.
Rahim Khan recounts to Amir the terrible changes in Kabul.
Rahim Khan is dying and he wishes Amir to perform a final favour for him.

Chapter 16:

Rahim Khan relates the story of what has happened to him since Amir last saw him.
Rahim Khan brought Hassan and his wife to live with him.
Hassan’s mother, Sanaubar, returned.
Hassan and his wife had a son, Sohrab.

Chapter 17:

Rahim Khan gives Amir a letter from Hassan.
Hassan and his wife have been murdered by the Taliban and their son, Sohrab, is now in an orphanage.
Rahim Khan asks Amir to retrieve Sohrab and informs him that Hassan was his half-brother.

Chapter 18:

Amir considers the news that Hassan was his half-brother.
He wonders if his betrayal of Hassan led to his friend’s death.
Amir makes the decision to go to Kabul to find his nephew.

Chapter 19:

Amir returns to the Taliban-held Afghanistan to rescue Sohrab.
Farid, the driver, accuses Amir of always having been a visitor in his own country.
Wahid, Farid’s brother, gives Amir all the food he and his family have to eat.
Farid agrees to help Amir once he realises the reason for his return.

Chapter 20:

Kabul has been severely damaged by twenty years of war.
The Taliban patrol the streets looking for people to punish.
Amir discovers that Sohrab has been sold by the orphanage director to a prominent member of the Taliban.

Chapter 21:

Amir’s old neighbourhood is largely undamaged because it has been taken over by new leaders.
Amir climbs the hill to the old cemetery and discovers that the pomegranate tree has died.
Amir and Farid watch the man in sunglasses- the man who bought Sohrab from the orphanage- stone two people to death at a football match.

Chapter 22:

Amir meets the man in the sunglasses who has bought Sohrab.
The man reveals himself to be Assef, the bully from Amir’s childhood.
Assef fights with Amir and hurts him badly, but Amir is saved by Sohrab and his slingshot.

Chapter 23:

Amir is in hospital after his beating.
Rahim Khan has left to die in peace and there is no sign of the adoptive parents he promised for Sohrab.
Amir decides to take Sohrab with him to Islamabad while he considers what to do with him.

Chapter 24:

Amir invites Sohrab to go back to the USA with him.
Soraya is happy for Amir to bring Sohrab home.
The process of adoption is difficult and Amir admits to Sohrab that he may have to go into another orphanage for s time.

Chapter 25:

We learn that Sohrab has attempted suicide but has survived.
Amir takes Sohrab back to the USA, but the boy is now withdrawn and uncommunicative.
Helping to fly a kite in a kite fight starts the return of Sohrab’s spirit.

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