Jamie's Blog

Characters

• Del-Muhammad “Dello”
• Fazila – one of Kaka Homayoun’s twin girls
• Homaira – Rahim Khan’s Hazara betrothed
• Homayoun
  • Baba’s second cousin
• Karima – one of Kaka Homayoun’s twin girls
• Mahmood – Assef’s father
• Salahuddin the Butcher
• Tanya – Assef’s mother

Locations

• Cinema Aryana
• Dadkohda’s Kabob House – Across from Cinema Park
• Jalalabad

Dates

• 1975 – Winter

Themes/Motifs

• Expecation
• Class

Plot

• Hassan is bedridden
• Baba’s family goes to Jalalabad for holiday
• Amir becomes an insomniac
• Hassan and Amir’s relationship becomes strained
• Amir distances himself from Hassan
• Baba is infuriated when Amir asks for new servants
• Amir attacks Hassan with pomegranates
• Amir’s birthday party
• Run-in with Assef
• Heart to heart with Rahim Khan

Characters

• Ahmad Zahir
  • Popular Afghani musician
• Assef
  • Corners Hassan with his crew
• Kamal – member of Assef’s crew
• Wali – member of Assef’s crew

Locations

• Haji Yaghoub Mosque
  • Amir passes a few blocks from it searching for Hassan

Themes/Motifs

• Class
  • Assef taughts Hassan with truth about class
  • Amir is not truly Hassan’s friend
• Cowardice
  • Amir shows cowardice when Hassan is in trouble
• Father/Son relationship
  • Amir is jealous that Hassan seems equal to himself in the eyes of his father

Plot

• Hassan has a dream about Gharga Lake
• Amir is nervous about the Kite tournament, Hassan calms him
• Assef corners Hassan while Amir looks on
• Assef sodomizes Hassan and Amir flees

Thoughts

This section is interesting in that dreams and memories are intersected into the narration.

Characters

• Saifo
  • Shoe repairman, kite maker

Locations

• Wazir Akbar Khan
  • Hosted 1975 Kite Tournament

Dates

• 1975
  • Winter: Hassan runs a kite for the last time

Themes/Motifs

• Purity of soul
  • Hassan’s purity v Amir’s ?
  • “He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him.”
• Faith
  • Hassan can use inshallah more freely
  • Amir says “God–if He exists, that is”
• Class
  • Iranian Shi’as versus jealous Sunni Aghanis
  • Hassan accepts his lot in life

Plot

• Winter kite-fighting
• Kite Fighting v Kite Running
• Hassan is best kite running

Thoughts

Amir’s feelings about Hassan seem incredibly antagonistic for the type of relaitonship they have, and for Hassan’s peaceful character. There is so much turmoil pent up inside of Amir that it’s going to explode right into Hassan.

Characters

• Assef
  • German/Afghan heritage
  • Sociopath
  • Assef Goshkhor, Assef “the Ear Eater”
  • Hitler
  • Threatens Amir
• Dr. Kumar
  • New Delhi surgeon who fixes Hassan’s lip
• Hassan
  • Protects Amir with slingshot

Locations

• Gharga Lake, the gardens of Paghman

Dates

• 1973
  • July 17th: Bloodless Coup in Afghanistan
    • Zahir Shah away in Italy
    • Daoud Khan takes over, creating republic
• 1974
  • Hassan has operation to fix cleft lip
• 1978
  • April: Communist coup d’etat
• 1979
  • December: Russian Tanks arrive

Themes/Motifs

• Reinvention/Change
  • Afghanistan changes through leadership
  • Hassan changes through operation
• Nature of relationship between Amir and Hassan
  • Their relationship is complex and only made more so through the class distinctions

Plot

• Explosions as coup occurs while
• Hassan protects Amir from Assef
• Changes in Afghanistan
• Baba gives Hassan operation to fix cleft-lip

Thoughts

This section seems mostly to setup other chapters. Assef’s introduction portends to something dark occuring in later chapters. Hassan’s operation is the start of some transformation, which may mirror Afghanistan’s transformation.

Characters

• Baba
  • Uninterested, even dismayed, by Amir’s interest in writing
• Rahim
  • Writes Amir a note encouraging his writing talent
• Hassan
  • Initiates Amir’s interest in writing
  • Finds a plot hole in Amir’s first story

Locations

• Bookstore
• Cemetery in Wazir Akbar Khan
  • Amir carves names into tree “Amir and Hassan, the sultans of Kabul”
• Cinema Park, across street from Amir’s favorite bookstore
• Shar-e-Nau (New City) section of Kabul, west of Wazir Akbar Khan district

Dates

• 1933
  • Baba born
  • Zahir Shah begins 40-yr reign
  • Hazara couple killed by DIY drivers
    • Drivers sent to Kandahar to enlist
    • Their orphan, Ali, raised by Baba’s father
• 1973
  • July: Amir makes up a story and Hassan says its the best story he’s read to him in a long time
  • Amir begins his writing career, gets Rhaim’s approval, Baba’s scorn

Themes/Motifs

• Class-based society
  • Ali and Baba are like brothers but not friends, and clear relationship
  • Pashtun v Hazara, Sunni v Shi’a
  • Hassan will not be literate

Thoughts

The section goes further into the childhood Amir has with Hassan and goes further into the dynamics of their relationship. Key is the dependence they have on each other. Amir’s dependent upon Hassan’s bravery, but Hassan is dependent upon Amir for his livelihood and intellectual development. Amir’s mean streak comes out more as we see him mock Hassan’s lack of vocabulary. Amir feels the need to be better than Hassan, while it does not seem like Hassan feels any such need. He is happy with his lot.

Again, Amir’s relationship with his father is highlighted. “Personally, I couldn’t see the tragedy in Rostam’s fate. After all, didn’t all fathers in their secret hearts harbor a desire to kill their sons?”

Amir finds release and pride through his writing. He is his mother’s son and has been following her path ever since he started to read the Farsi classics.

Other Notes

• Shahnamah, 10th century Persian epic
• Mashallah, Inshallah – allah is part of common words

Characters

• Baba
  • Bear wrestler
  • Toophan agha “Mr. Hurricane”
  • Towering, thick beard, wayward crop of unruly hair, massive hands, black glare
• Baba’s Father
  • Killed by thief
  • Respected Judge
• Mullah Fatiullah Khan
  • Short, stubby man, acne scars, gruff voice
• Rhaim Khan
• Sofia Akrami
  • Royal Ffamily descendent
  • Taught classic Farsi literature
• Thief
  • Killed Baba’s Father
  • From Kunduz region
  • Hanged by townspeople

Locations

• Baluchistan
  • Reportedly where Baba wrestled the bear
• Baba’s Orphanage, Jadeh Maywand, S Kabul River
• Ghargha Lake
  • Favorite destination of Baba, Amir, and Hassan

Dates

• ~1939? (When Baba was 6)
  • Thief kills Baba’s father
• 1960s
  • Baba builds orphanage
    • Took 3 years
    • Financed by Baba

Themes/Motifs

• Religious dogma versus pratical beliefs for a secular world
• Baba’s disappointment, expectations v reality
• Father v son dynamics

Thoughts

This section sets up Baba’s lore and Amir’s duality of his relationship with his father. He respects, loves, and admires him but hates him for his disappointment with amir. Amir is also jealous of anyone else who receives his father’s affections.

Baba becomes rich and marries a princess, despite doubts from his peers.

Additional religious mandates of Islam are introduced: the virtures of zakat, duty of hadj,  namaz prayers. Qiyamat, is the Judgement Day. Drinking is discussed and Baba’s feelings about religion are given. It all comes down to theft.

Amir feels responsible for the death of his mother and feels that the event contributes to his father’s hate of him. That and Amir’s love of literature as opposed to his father’s interests like Buzkashi or soccer. He even overhears his father doubting Amir’s birthright.

Amir finds a love of writing and literature. Enjoys the Sherjangi “Battle of the Poems” game in Farsi classs. Could recite versus from Khayyam, Hafez, Rumi’s Masnawi. Also read Western authors.

Characters

• Narator, Amir
  • I had thought at first that the narrator was Hassan
• Baba, Narrator’s father
• Narrator’s mother
• Hassan
  • Cleft-lip
  • Narrow, gold/green/sapphire eyes
  • Low-set ears
  • Pointed, stubby chin
  • Perfectly round face
• Hazaras
  • Ethnic group, mongul descendants
  • Shi’a
  • Flat-nosed, mice-eating, load-carrying donkeys
  • 19th Century uprising
• Ali, Hassan’s father
  • Baba’s servant?
  • Congenital paralysis in lower facial muscles
  • Atrophied right leg due to polio
  • Called Babalu “Boogeyman” by children
  • Called Flat-nosed, Mongoloid heritage
• Khorami – Irananian Female Historian
  • Wrote book about Hazaras
• King Nadir Shah
• Narrator and Hassan’s Midwife
  • From Bamiyan
  • Nursed both narrator and Hassan
• Pashtuns
  • “True” people of Afghanistan
  • Sunni
• Rahim Khan
  • Baba’s best friend and business partner
• Sanaubar, Hassan’s mother
  • loose morals
  • Deserted Hassan running off with traveling troupe
  • Ridiculed Ali
• group of soldiers
  insult Hassan’s about his mother

Locations

• Bamiyan
  • City of Giant Buddha Statues
• Narrator’s father’s house
  • Narrator lived there 18 years
• Wazir Akbar Khan district, northern Kabul
  Location of Narrator’s father’s house
• Isfahan
  mosaic tiles
• Calcutta
  gold-stitched tapestries
• servant’s home
  mudhut on Baba’s property where Ali and Hassan live
• Mashad
  Baba bought Ali tapestry from here
• Cinema Zainab

Dates

• 19th Century
  • Uprising of Shi’a Hazaras against Sunni Pashtuns
• 1933
  • King Nadir Shah assassinated
• 1963
  • Narrator Born
  • Narrator’s mother dies
• 1964
  • Hassan Born
  • Hassan’s mother runs off

Themes/Motifs

• Childhood
  Narrator describes his youth of playing with Hassan, and random childhood mischeif
• Childhood v Adulthood, Future v Past
  Baba’s “adult-time”, old grainy photos
• Affluence v Poor
  Carefree childhood, narrator’s father’s house, servant’s house “mud shack”
• Ethnic animosity, class issues

Thoughts

This section introduces the class relationship between Hazaras like Ali and Hassan who serve Pashtuns Amir and Baba.  Some religious elements of Islam are introduced including the hymn sung by the midwife to Hassan and Ali. Also, the final words of the section allude to the later conflict. Amir’s first word is “Baba.” Hassan’s is “Ali.” This hints at some conflict in the relationship between Baba, Hassan, and Ali.

Characters

• Hassan
  The harelipped Kite runner
• Rahim Khan
  From Pakistan
• Baba
• Ali
• Kabul

Locations

• Pakistan
  Home of Rahim Khan
• Spreckels Lake in Golden Gate Park in San Francisco
• The alley near the the frozen creek

Dates

• Winter of 1975

Themes/Motifs

• Past cannot be escaped
• Returning to the past
  • “There is a way to be good again.” Rahim Khan
  • Flashback structure of book

Thoughts

After reading this first section, I anticipate this being a coming of age story with populist sentiments one would find in books like the Alchemist, which, in my opinion, was a list of trite aphorisms.