- Now that you know what kite fighting is and that Amir and Hassan used a blue kite, explain why Hosseini included a reference in the opening chapter to blue and red kites flying in the sky as Amir reflected on the past. What do you suppose the kite symbolizes at this point?
The past and the present fighting for what dominates Amir’s mind. Or maybe good and evil, for what is to come later in the chapter and the story that is being related back to the reader.
- Explain what Amir means when he says ‘I opened my mouth and almost said something…The rest of my life might have turned out differently if I had.”
If he had said something then he could have saved Hassan from what was going to happen to him, but still, get hurt in the process, but he would have had the knowledge that he saved Hassan and then their friendship wouldn’t have crumbled and Ari and Hassan might not have moved away from their house. The rest of his life would not have been alone with his father, and then he wouldn’t have insomnia or immense guilt following him all the rest of his life. And then he would have been a better person in his mind for the rest of his life.
- Hassan describes the dream of ‘the monster in the lake’. This is significant. Go back and read the dream portion of the novel again. Identify the connection between Amir and the monster Hassan describes?
Hassan sees Amir in an unrealistic light like he is better; a shiny hero. He idolizes him to the extreme, the dream tells of that idolization, how Amir goes into the lake even though everyone else says that the monster was there, and Hassan follows him in, trusting him. This foreshadows that Amir ignores the monster that is Assef later in the chapter, as Hassan then gets raped and Amir does nothing to stop it from happening and ran away, contradicting what Hassan thinks of him. This contributes to the breaking friendship and starts breaking Amir from the inside out when he realizes that Hassan knew that he knew that he got raped by Assef.
- Make a note of what is inscribed in the pomegranate tree in the back yard. Explain why it is significant that Amir picks a fight with Hassan in front of that tree.
‘Amir and Hassan: The Sultans of Kabul’. This is where they would always go to have a good time, that was their tree, their place of friendship, it is only fitting for their friendship to end where it began and was built over many years.
- What are your thoughts on Amir by the end of this section of the novel? Consider if they have changed from the opening section or not.
Amir is self-centered and troubled, he just doesn’t get that other people come into the equation when he does something bad. I know he has ‘daddy issues’, but he takes the wanting to get attention too far and ends up hurting others in the process, he does bad things even though he knows they are bad and then feels guilty about them. He can’t see past his own want that he doesn’t bother to look and understand the consequences of what he does. My view of him has changed from the first few chapters, as he now chooses to do the evil act and goes directly against what his father told him, that theft is the worst type of sin, and that lying was a theft of the other person’s right to truth. As I felt sympathy towards Amir as his situation wasn’t the best and he only wanted his father to feel proud of him, now I think he’s (Informal: just a little shit.) acting like he can get away with anything as a result of his overriding guilt of letting Hassan get raped. And everything goes downhill from there.
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