Ben Flocken
The Kite Runner Handout
The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
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Title: The Kite Runner
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Written in 2007
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Focuses on the guilt of a young boy who has a frightening experience in his childhood who then
tries to redeem his guilt throughout the rest of his life.
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Kite Runner is a term referring to when after a kite fight, someone has to run to fetch the losing
kite because its string has been cut.
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Author: Khaled Hosseini
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Born in 1965 in Kabul, Afghanistan
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Kabul is exactly how he wrote about in the story
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Was a cosmopolitan city
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Included western and Afghan cultures
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Even though he expresses that the story is fictional, the main character is a lot like him and the
setting is exactly like the Afghanistan he lived in
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Setting: 1975- 2001 – the story takes places during these years in Kabul, Afghanistan and also California.
The boys originally live in Afghanistan and then when Amir is older he moves and lives in California.
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Main Conflict/Theme: The main conflict of the novel is man vs. self. Amir’s own guilt because he knows
and saw the rape of his best friend and half brother Hassan. This also turns into the theme of the story
because Amir’s goal of life is to somehow redeem himself and get rid of his guilt. He has guilt because he
knows he could have done something about the rape and eventually even got Hassan and his dad kicked
out of his own house. After Hassan dies Amir feels even worse and his goal in life is further pursued and
he eventually finds a way to feel better about himself.
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Amir- Amir is the protagonist of the story. He is a young boy who lives with his father, Baba, and their
“servants” Hassan and his father, Ali. Even though they are Hassan’s and Baba’s servants, Hassan and
Amir are very good friends and basically half-brothers. Amir is the main character in the story because he
has to overcome the main conflict of self-guilt. He sees Hassan being raped and does nothing about it.
Amir also takes part in kicking Hassan out of his own house by framing Hassan in stealing money.
Eventually Amir redeems himself though through the adoption and saving of Hassan’s son Sohrab.
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Hassan – Hassan as noted lives with his father Ali, Amir, and his father Baba. Amir and Hassan are very
close until one day after kite fighting he has to chase the lost kite and goes missing. When Amir looks for
him he finds him in the back of an alley being raped. He is being raped by Assef. Hassan is then forced out
of Baba’s and Amir’s house along with his father because he is framed for stealing. Hassan is eventually
killed in a raid of his home by the Taliban.
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Assef – Assef is the antagonist of the story. He is the one who rapes Hassan and is the bully of Kabul
because he wants to get rid of the minorities and people of so called “lesser value.” He causes much
trouble in Kabul and also is the one when the characters are grown up who owns the children’s
orphanage where Hassan’s son is and beats up Amir when he comes to save Hassan’s son.
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Sohrab – Sohrab is Hassan’s son. When he enters the story he is seen very much like his father and is just
like his father because he is abused and taken advantage of in the orphanage that he lives in by Assef just
as his father was. Sohrab is important to the story because of his representation of his passed father and
the events that he goes through to be saved from Assef.
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Amir describes a story he recalls from 1975 in which he got a call from his good friend Rahim Khan and he
tells him he wants him to come to Pakistan to visit him
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Amir then remembers certain stories from when he was a child. Stories that included his best friend
Hassan and the fun things they would do.
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He also remembers the man his father was. He wanted to please his father but it was hard to because
they did not have interest in the same things. An example of this is soccer, Amir did not like soccer but
Baba did.
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Then when he continues the story he explains that Assef was a bully in the town because he picked on the
Hazaras (Hassan’s culture).
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He threatens to beat up Amir and Hassan because they are together
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One day when kite wars are going on, Amir wins the championship and Hassan is the kite runner and he
goes missing.
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Amir then looks for him and finds him being raped by Assef. He just walks away however and doesn’t do
anything about it.
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He is heavily beat down by guilt and needs to escape Hassan so he frames him in stealing money and a
watch and Hassan and his father are kicked out of the home.
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Amir and Baba then escape from attack to Pakistan where they now live. Amir then marries Soraya,
General Taheri’s daughter, and Baba dies shortly after due to lung cancer.
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Rahim Khan who is Baba’s good friend, then calls Amir and tells him to come and see him because he is in
Pakistan.
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He tells him about the Taliban take over in Kabul and the devastation to Hassan.
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Hassan and his wife Farzana were murdered in a Taliban raid and their child, Sohrab, was taken to an
orphanage.
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Rahim wants for Amir to go and find the child and bring him back to Pakistan and Amir agrees to do so.
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He travels to Afghanistan and tracks down the orphanage at a soccer game only to find out it is his
childhood enemy Assef
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He finds out that Sohrab is being abused physically and sexually
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Assef beats Amir up with brass knuckles, but because of the help of Sohrab and his slingshot ability, Amir
and Sohrab escape
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Amir then wants Sohrab to live with him in America and Sohrab wants to until they find out he might not
be able to because of adoption officials.
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Sohrab then tries to kill himself but fails and then becomes basically a mute
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However, Amir finds a way to get him to America
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One day they go to a park and fight kites with other children and they win using one of Hassan’s tricks and
Sohrab finally smiles and this time Amir chases the kite
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“A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up for anything.”
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This quote is stated by Baba, about Amir. He was talking to Rahim his good friend and explaining Amir’s
characteristics. Baba is constantly questioning Amir’s ability to stand up for himself which relate to the
story because he doesn’t stand up for what he believes is right and later in the story is a test to himself
because he has to decide whether or not he should try to save Sohrab. I believe this quotation is
important to the novel because it sums up the main conflict and theme of the story because Amir is faced
with guilt put on by himself because of his decision making. His decision was to not stand up for what he
believed was right and it caused him a long time of stress and guilt. However he showed that he could
change because later in the story he makes the decision to go back to Kabul and save Sohrab because he
wants to and he believes that doing that is the right thing to do because of his earlier actions in basically
not saving his father’s life.
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Would you recommend? – Yes, I would recommend this book to read because it proved and taught a
lesson even though the main character didn’t do what was right. The lesson was to always do what is right
and stand up for what you believe in and don’t back down. Amir backed down and didn’t stand up for his
best friend and even got him in trouble and kicked out of his house. Because he decided to do this, he had
to fight and risk himself to try and redeem himself and relieve the guilt that he felt.
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Best Audience/Important lessons for audiences – I believe the best audience for this book would be highschool students. I would suggest this audience because at this age students will be going through and
experiencing tough situations. They will be forced to make the right decision and follow what they believe
in. Yes, later in life the same decisions will need to be made but in this time in life these types of situations
start to occur.