In Chapter 18 Hosseini describes how every mention of Hassan caused Amir to feel ‘like the scab was being removed’ on a fresh wound. This is very effective in demonstrating Amir’s emotions at this point. Hassan’s death is likened to a wound inflicted on Amir’s body. It hurts him that his friend is dead. Every time someone mentions Hassan it causes this ‘wound’ to hurt again.
There are a number of things that Amir sees as unmistakeable signs of Baba’s relation to Hassan. First of all Baba paid for Hassan’s lip surgery so his cleft pallet wasn’t as obvious. He bought him an expensive kite for his birthday. He always gave Amir and Hassan money to go to the cinema. He forgives Hassan for ‘stealing’ Amir’s watch. He completely over reacts when Ali says he is taking Hassan away from Kabul and at Amir’s graduation he states that he wishes Hassan could have been there.
The truth that Baba kept certain information hidden from Amir hurts so much because of two elements. Baba told Amir that the worst thing any person could do was to steal. He said that if you tell a lie or hide the facts then you are stealing the truth from the people involved. By not telling the truth about Hassan Baba has hidden the facts from both his children. It also suggests that Baba was embarrassed about Hassan on some level as he didn’t want to admit that his child was half-Hazara. Amir would have felt that his father didn’t trust him completely.
The cliché ‘like father, like son’ is true because both Baba and Amir hide the truth and this has devastating effects on the future. Baba has hidden Hassan’s true identity which leads to Hassan being left in Afghanistan and eventually leads to his death. Amir never admits to witnessing the assault on Hassan and therefore ruins his friendship with his best friend and brother.
When Amir speaks of his ‘oblivion’ he is speaking of the emptiness he feels now that he knows Hassan is dead and that his father lied to him.
This chapter is ended very effectively on several levels. Hosseini begins to close the chapter by making Amir have a dream in which Hassan is seen praying, muttering the mantra ‘a thousand times for you’, over his bloodied hands. Taliban men then come and shoot Hassan in the head. This tells us that Amir’s guilt still hangs heavy on him at this point in the book. He goes outside to get some air and accidently overhears Wahid, his host, and his wife arguing about food. There is none left because they gave it all to Amir. This reinforces just how poor and desperate many Afghan families have become under the Taliban regime.

The book is told in first person from the perspective of Amir. It begins in the middle of the story, when Amir gets a phone call in San Francisco in 2001 from Rahim Khan calling him back to Afghanistan. It then throws the reader back to Kabul in 1975 where it begins to follow the story of Amir’s childhood. This continues along through the rest of Amir’s life up until the point where he rescues and adopts Sohrab.
This is important as it means we look at the events in Kabul through the eyes of a reflective adult rather than the eyes of child. We have an adult reaction to the things that happen, but it also allows us as the reader to understand why the children and young adults react to things the way they do. For example, we understand that Amir feels he cannot stop the rape from happening because he is too cowardly and is afraid of the outcome for himself. We understand that Assef bullies others because he has insecurity issues about his own mixed race heritage.
In Chapter 7 there are two unusual points to the tale. There is a strange inclusion of a dream sequence told through Hassan. He is given a huge chunk of text to say. In this dream sequence he predicts the outcome of the kite tournament and his impending abuse at the hands of Assef through the metaphor of the lake monster that he and Amir defeat.
At the end of the chapter there is also a descriptive flashback of an Eid sacrifice whilst Hassan is being assaulted. In this scene Amir does not want to watch his friend being assaulted and he does not want to acknowledge that he should really be preventing it from happening. Instead he shuts his eyes and conjures up an image of the Eid sacrifice. During the Eid festival a sheep or goat is sacrificed to represent the loyalty of men to God. Amir remembers this now as Hassan is sacrificing himself out of his loyalty for Amir.
In Chapter 16 the narrative shifts to Rahim Khan as he relates the story of Hassan’s life and eventual death at the hands of the Taliban. Rahim Khan was closer than Amir to Hassan at this point and so it gives the story more emotional weight. We expect, because the story of Hassan has a lot of happy points to it, that his tale will end well. It is a shock when Rahim Khan eventually reveals Hassan’s death with the simple statement that the Taliban were committing genocide by ‘ridding’ Afghanistan of Hazaras.

At the beginning of Chapter 16 we hear Rahim Khan’s voice. Rather than relate the story of Hassan second-hand through Amir, Hosseini has chosen to tell it to us straight from Rahim Khan. This is a significant choice, as Rahim Khan would have been the closest person to Hassan in his later years and so when we are told about Hassan’s death it has a greater emotional impact.
Hassan had been living in Amir and Baba’s old house, helping Rahim Khan look after it for them. Hassan went to such pains to return the house to its former glory because he took a pride in his old home and he wanted to keep it ready for Baba and Amir’s return.
Hassan names his son Sohrab after the character in his favourite tale – Rostram and Sohrab. There is a certain irony in his name choice for his son as the Sohrab in the Arabic tale never knows who his true father is, much like Hassan is completely unaware that Baba is his biological parent.
There is a short paragraph about Hassan’s village which create an impression of it as a wasteland. First there is the rutted and dried track one musht drive along to reach it. The village is so hidden and unreachable that it either doesn’t have a name or people have forgotten it. The people who live there take no pride in their home as they have left a donkey carcass to rot at the side of the road. The plants and trees that have taken root there are all dying from a lack of water. The people live in what are described as mud huts creating a sense that life out there is primitive. Lastly, the mountains that shelter the village are compared with sharp teeth creating a sense that this area will eat you alive and that death in some form is always imminent.
For a very long time Amir has not bothered to think about Hassan or Afghanistan finding the topic of his childhood to painful and guilt-ridden. In contrast to this Hassan has thought constantly about his lost friend and has even gone to the trouble of learning to write so he can contact him. In his letter, Hassan asks a number of questions in between telling Amir all about himself and what life is like for him now with a son and wife. Hassan appears interested whereas Amir doesn’t want to go near the subject of their childhood or friendship and Amir has to be forced to do so by Rahim Khan.
Hassan had cleaned the house ‘like he was preparing for someone’s return’. This statement is odd because we know he was actually preparing it for someone’s return, specifically Amir’s. He wanted to see his old friend again to remind himself of a time before invasions and war had torn his homeland apart.
Sanaubar is Hassan’s mother, and she makes reappearance when Hassan is an adult. She takes great care of Sohrab. Firstly, this is because it is her only grandson, and so she naturally dotes on him. There is also an element here of making up for things that were lost. This is Sanaubar’s redemption. If she takes good care of Sohrab it might make up for her not being around to raise Hassan.

In chapter 9 it is Amir’s birthday. The presents he receives are listed to show us just how much he has been given (spoilt) but also that despite all these new play things he struggles to focus on anything. His mind is racing with the guilt and confusion of falling out with Hassan.
The colour of the bike being compared to that of blood is a reminder of the Eid sacrifice and therefore the assault on Assef.
Ali and Hassan get Amir a copy of the Shahnamah for his birthday. This is a brand new hardback copy of the stories Hassan and Amir read together under the pomegranate tree. Amir feels like crying when he receives this because so much thought and care has gone into selecting the present but at this point he and Hassan are not talking. It is a reminder to him of how good a friend Hassan truly is and how bad a friend Amir is currently being in not giving Hassan any support. At this point Amir is actually shunning him.
Amir frames Hassan, by making it look like Hassan was jealous of all his presents and hiding the watch and money under Hassan’s pillow. Amir does this in the hope that Baba will get mad and send Hassan away, that way Amir will no longer have to look at Hassan, who makes him constantly feel guilty. When Hassan is called in by Baba for questioning he actually admits to stealing the watch – even though he didn’t! He is still prepared to stick up for, and protect and defend, Amir no matter what it costs him.
Baba’s response is even more shocking. Instead of getting angry, as Amir was expecting, Baba immediately forgives Hassan. He doesn’t even shout, he just calmly tells Hassan that he is absolved. We are just as shocked as Amir. Obviously later, this weird moment of forgiveness is explained through the discovery that Hassan is actually Baba’s child. He would clearly not want to give up his son.
At the end of the chapter Hassan and Ali leave whilst Amir watches from the window. We are told that “all he saw was the rain through windowpanes that looked like melting silver.” Here the stormy downpour mirrors Amir’s terrible mood. He is heartbroken that Hassan is leaving but doesn’t know how to deal with it. The silver disappearing down the outside of the windowpane is like something precious getting away – Amir is losing his best friend.

Pomegranate tree
The Qu’ran mentions the pomegranate tree as one of the fruits in the garden of paradise. In Islam the pomegranate tree is one of the trees present in the garden of Paradise. In The Kite Runner there is a pomegranate tree in the cemetary where Amir and Hassan play. The fruit is also the colour of blood.

Slingshot
A simple but powerful weapon, they are used both as a domestic weapon and by military personnel. In Iraq’s recent past, slingshots became associated with insurgent groups/guerrilla warfare. . Hassan’s slingshot represents his devotion to Amir, and Sohrab uses his to finally defeat Assef.

Kites
Kites have been used throughout history for various purposes including sending a message in war time, sending prayers to heaven and as a form of entertainment.. During kite flying competitions two or more ‘sides’ are joined in confrontation. The kite flying itself needs two people to make it work properly – one to control the spool and one to control the line.

Harelip
A harelip is a congenital disorder. The lip fails to form properly within the womb, leaving a gap. With modern surgery this “deformity” is easily fixed.

Eid sacrifice
“Festival of Sacrifice” is an important Islamic holiday in which Muslims commemorate the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son, Ishmael, as an act of obedience to God, before God intervened to provide him with a sheep to sacrifice instead.

Rostam and Sohrab
The Shanemeh, (Book of Kings) tells of Rostam, a Persian hero, who kills his son, Sohrab, a champion swordsman, in a battle between Iran and Turan. Accounts vary as to whether Rostam knew Sohrab was his son. All accounts make clear Sohrab never knew his father. This story is Hassan’s favourite from the whole book.

Answers
Textual Analysis of The Kite Runner, chapter 7 (answers)

1. a) How does Hosseini’s word choice in the opening paragraph create an unsettling mood on the morning of the kite tournament?

The final sentence in the opening paragraph creates the unsettling mood as it tells us that there is a ‘monster’ in the lake and that it has been swimming at the bottom, ‘waiting’. The idea that there is a monster is already unsettling as we see these as something disturbing and not to be trusted. It is a malevolent being. It is made worse by the point that the monster is ‘waiting’. There is a sense that it is lurking there, biding its time before it launches an attack or take some innocent.

b) Show how this mood changes in the telling of the rest of the dream.
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The mood changes from unsettled to happy and exultant. The word choice demonstrates this – we read the people are ‘clapping’ for Amir and Hassan telling us they are applauded for their actions and therefore revered. The idea of them being revered and celebrated is also suggested in the name-change for the lake, it becomes the ‘Lake of Amir and Hassan, Sultans’. Here they are viewed as heroes and their actions catapults them to the highest rank in the land of ruler.
c) How does this dream mirror a later event in the chapter?
In the dream Amir and Hassan work together to prove there is no monster in the lake and are applauded by the adoring crowd. In the kite tournament, Amir and Hassan win, and are congratulated by the tournament audience. The monster however, comes to represent Assef. He is the lurking danger in the two boys life and although he shouldn’t really be a problem he is the thing that splits the two boys up.

2. Comment on the significance of the description of the snow covered scene on p. 57 in terms of later events. Look closely at word choice and imagery.

The snow in this scene is significant because it comes to represent purity and innocence. We are told that everything ‘glistened with fresh snow’ and that it was a ‘blinding white’. The snow should be seen to represent Hassan. The alliteration of the ‘blameless blue’ drags your attention to the odd word choice. The word choice suggests an event is going to happen for which someone should have taken responsibility. We know this event will be Amir’s betrayal of Hassan.
Building on this Amir notes that Ali “always said a prayer when his son left the house” – Ali knows Hassan is in permanent danger of discrimination because he is a Hazara. It is important that this is mentioned now. It gives a sense of foreboding to the chapter.
Both of these phrases are at odds with the purity image, suggesting something bad is going to happen.

3. Explain how the writer conveys the thrill of kite flying on p. 60

The section on kite flying conveys how thrilling it is in several ways. First of all Amir says a prayer – ‘koran ayat’ – before he plays. This is like a charm to protect himself. A series of similes are used to reinforce the thrill of kite-flying. He says the players are like Olympic athletes showing their gold medals. This suggests that they have gone through a tough competition to get where they are and suggests feelings of victory. The kites are also described as “paper sharks roaming for prey”, this makes it sound like the game they are playing is deadly and dangerous, again ramping up the sense of adrenaline. The last simile is that the kites looked “like shooting stars”. This tells us how beautiful they were to watch.

4. Show how sentence structure helps to reinforce how focused Amir is on winning both the tournament and his father’s approval on p. 61

There are a series of short sentences used which demonstrate Amir’s focus like ‘the blue kite’. His thoughts are becoming very centred on winning. In particular he tells us and convinces himself that “I was going to win”. A colon is used to add information that the competition is near an end point and that now there is only two of them left.
Parenthesis also adds that all Amir was thinking about was winning.
The use of ‘I’ and ‘me’ at the start of sentences demonstrates Amir is aware of only himself and the tournament.

5. Study Hosseini’s description of Amir’s ‘out of body experience’ on p. 62. How does this momentary pause motivate Amir into action?

This pause allows Amir to see what he needs to do. He can see himself and he smiles at himself which pushes him onto victory.

6. Comment on the effectiveness of the structure of the sentence beginning “and that right there was the single greatest moment…” p. 63

A list is used to build up a sense of Amir’s emotions. The sentence begins with the conjunction ‘and’ which tags it on to the rest of the paragraph and emphasises that this is a separate but linked point which expresses this is the happiest Amir had been up until that point. The placement of “at last” at the end of the sentence emphasises just how long Amir had been waiting for Baba’s approval.

7. What is the significance of Hassan’s final word to Amir on p.63

Hassan’s final words to Amir are “for you a thousand times over” shows the extent of Hassan’s devotion to Amir. Also becomes a motif throughout the novel of one’s devotion to another.

8. In light of later events, how do these words seem poignant?

Hassan refuses to give up the kite, proving he meant what he said. Amir’s loyalty to Hassan does not work like this though as he betrays Hassan by not stepping forward.

9. How do word choice and sentence structure reinforce Amir’s buoyant mood in the first paragraph on p. 64?

colon – to expand on how he plans the scene in his head
One word sentences – places a great deal of importance on these things. This shows how much Amir wants them from his father.
Rhetorical questions – Amir doesn’t know what else will happen. He has not planned beyond that point of celebration.
Elipses – a moments pause whilst Amir and the reader envision the scene.

“warrior”, “hero” – word choice, victorious champions of violence .
“prized trophy” – treasured reward for which one worked hard
“bloodied hands” – pride in his wounds, which prove his might
“worthiness” – deserving of his father’s attention.
“grand entrance” – dramatic scene
“Rostram and Sohrab” – pictures a happy ending to the tale, over the sad.
Vindication, salvation, redemption. – everything will be fine now