ENG 4U1: The Kite Runner
Questions for Discussion or Response Log Ideas
Section One: Childhood and Brotherhood
Chapter 1 to the end of Chapter 5 (pg. 50)
1. The narrator refers to an incident in his past as a pivotal even in his youth. What are his feelings
about this event? How does he convey these feelings?
2. What might Rahim Khan mean when he says, “There is a way to be good again.”?(2)
3. Are Amir and Hassan friends? How would you describe their relationship in this section?
4. Comment on the significance of the final paragraph of Chapter two.
5. How has Baba been introduced to the reader?
6. Discuss Amir’s relationship with his father.
7. Parallel father/son relationships begin to appear between Baba and Amir, and Ali and Hassan.
How closely do they reflect each other?
8. a) Comment on the element of irony in Amir’s first story he writes.
b) How is Hassan’s reaction to this story – his comment that all the man had to
do to cry was to ‘smell an onion’ – a reflection of his own life?
c) How does this illustrate the fundamental difference between Amir and
Hassan?
Section Two: Victory and Sacrifice
Chapter 6 to the end of Chapter 9 (pg. 115)
1. The kite is an important image in this novel. Comment on its symbolic features in this section.
Include in your discussion the relevancy of this quote “[…] Afghans are an independent people.
Afghans cherish custom but abhor rules. And so it is with kite fighting. The rules were simple:
No rules. Fly your kite. Cut the opponents. Good luck.” (55)
2. Comment on the boys’ relationship before the kite contest.
3. What are the qualities of a kite runner and what makes Hassan such a good one? How does this
correspond to his character? Does it fit Amir?
4. Amir witnesses what happens to Hassan and sees “the look of the lamb” (81) in his eyes. How
do you explain Hassan’s refusal to struggle, to fight back? Is he thus contributing to his own fate?
Does he have any choice, or is he scripted to be the sacrificial lamb?
5. Discuss the significance of Amir’s comment, “We actually deceived ourselves into thinking that
a toy made of tissue paper, glue, and bamboo could close the chasm between us.” (92-93)
6. We see the final parting of Ali and Hassan through Amir’s eyes. How does he describe this
event? How do you think he feels? How do you explain Amir’s actions?
Section Three: Escape to – or in – America?
Chapter 10 to the end of Chapter 13 (pg. 199)
1. How is Baba’s bravery and sense of decency revealed in the flight from Kabul?
2. “Baba loved the idea of America. It was living in America that gave him an ulcer.” (132).
a) What is the ‘idea’ of America referred to in this quote?
b) Is there any discrepancy between the way immigrants may view America and the ‘real’
America?
3. a) Amir ‘embraces’ America because it is “someplace with no ghosts, no memories, and no sins.”
(144) Is Amir right to feel he can leave his past behind?
b) Do you feel this idea of “beginning over” is part of the immigrant’s view of life?
4. Compare and contrast the relationships of Soraya and Amir and their fathers. How have their
upbringings contributed to these relationships?
5. Soraya’s ‘past’ does disturb Amir somewhat, but ultimately he admires her and is able to accept
her ‘sin’ and love her. Why?
6. How are women presented in this section? Comment on the role of women in the novel.
Section Four: “A way to be good again”
Chapter 14 to the end of Chapter 19
1. Comment on the narrative structure of the story. How does the writer bring us back to the
beginning?
2. a) Reread Hassan’s letter to Amir. How do you account for the incredible loyalty and generosity
of the spirit he shows to Amir.
b) What is the significance of the images of flowers, music, and kites that Hassan includes in this
letter?
3. What does Amir say about clichés? Why does Amir use the cliché about ‘an elephant in the
room” to describe his meeting with Rahim Khan? There are several other clichés in the ensuing
chapters. Find the section where he says ‘like father, like son” and discuss. Why does the author
choose to use this literary device?
4. What is Rahim’s request of Amir? Do you think Rahim’s dying wish is unfair? Why or why
not?
5. “Ali was sterile.” (234). Discuss the significance of this quote. Include in your discussion
references to Ali, Baba, Hassan, and Amir.
6. Amir learns that Baba is a thief. Explain the sacred things that Amir feels he stole.
7. (237/225) Amir asks himself a number of questions about the shocking news Rahim Khan has
just told him. Identify what he’s learned, and discuss each of the questions that nag at him
regarding the nature of Baba’s thefts. In other words, why do you think the adults in Amir’s
childhood kept secrets, and were they right to do so? As well, what motivated them to keep
secrets, and how might one justify their actions?
8. “Baba and I were more alike than I’d ever know. We both betrayed the people who would have
given their loves for us.” (238).
a) If they are alike, in what ways are they different?
b) What choices does Amir make that distinguished his from Baba and what are the
implications?
9. What is Frid’s initial attitude toward Amir, his countryman? Farid says, “You’ve always been a
tourist here, you just didn’t know it,” (232). What does he mean? What is Farid’s impression of
emigrant Afghans who return to visit Afghanistan?
10. In chapter 20, the director of the orphanage, Zaman, tells Amire that Sohrab was taken by a
Taliban official, who takes children, usually girls, about once a month for his ‘sexual pleasure’.
The official gives Zaman a great deal of cash. How does Zaman defend his actions? What is
your response?
11. Again, the story’s structure is circular. How? Why is this moment (the final paragraph) so
important in Amir’s journey?
Section Five: Kabul – The Devil has a Face
Chapter 20 to the end of Chapter 23 (pg. 325)
1. How does the description of Amir’s journey from Jalalabad to Kabul make an effective backdrop
to this section? Include Amir’s encounter with the old beggar.
2. What information foes Amir learn about Sohrab? What does his reaction to this news reveal
about his character?
3. The director of the Kabul orphanage tires to defend his actions – or lack thereof- on page 268
where he explains that the Talib officer takes a child away every one or two months. Can his
explanation be morally justified if his action results in the other children being fed when they
perhaps would have otherwise starved?
4. Amir visits his childhood home, and then the cemetery and finally the pomegranate tree. What
does he discover at these places? How does he feel?
5. The scene at the stadium is one of unspeakable horror. What is the effect of Amir’s reference to
the Talib official as John Lennon?
6. a) Amir's confrontation with Assef marks an important turning point in the novel.
Why does the author have Amir, Assef, and Sohrab all come together in this way?
b) What is the significance of the scar that Amir develops as a result of the confrontation?
c) Why might this be considered Amir’s journey toward forgiveness and acceptance?
7. “My body was broken – just how badly I wouldn’t find out until later – but I felt healed. Healed
at last. I laughed.” (303). Explain the fact that Amir needed to be broken in order to be healed –
and that ironically, Assef had a similar experience with he was in jail.
8. While in the hospital recovering from his terrible injuries, Amir has a dream of wrestling a bear.
Why is this dream so important at this point in the story? What does the dream finally help Amir
realise?
9. a) Rahim’s letter talks of forgiveness and defines redemption.
Is Amir ready to forgive himself to be ‘redeemed’ at this point?
b) Is Rahim’s definition of redemption – “when guilt leads to good” (316) an accurate one?
c) What is and/or is not redeemed in the novel
Section Six: A new Kite Runner
Chapter 24 to the end of Chapter 25 (pg. 391)
1. What does Amir mean when he tells Sohrab that Baba, “was ashamed of himself.” (338)
2. Why does the author include the mention of Raymond Andrew’s daughter’s suicide?
3. What drove Sohrab to attempt suicide? What were the clues that this might happen?
4. Amir’s wait at the hospital is described in a series of similes and metaphors. Identify three of
these and discuss their effectiveness.
5. While the doctors desperately work to save Sohrab, Amir experiences an epiphany. What is it?
Why does it happen now, at this point in the story?
6. Amir read Hassan’s favourite story about Rostam and Sohrab to Hassan’s son, Sohrab. Does this
story have the same meaning to both men? Why does Hassan name his son after one of the
characters in the story?
7. Rahim’s letter said that Baba was man “torn between two halves,” (378) and that maybe Hassan
was “The half who had inherited what had been pure and noble in Baba.” (378).
a) What makes a true father? Who are the fathers in the novel, both literally and figuratively?
What makes them either good or bad fathers?
b) Who are the true sons? Is Amir? When does he become a ‘true son’ to Baba?
8. Comment on Sohrab’s ‘silence’ once in America.
9. To what or to whom does this title refer? Who is the kite runner, and what does that suggest?