The Kite Runner: A brief Study Guide

*role of women-
*betrayal- Amir shows big betrayal to his friend Hassan when he does not act to save Hassan when he was being raped and because he did not save him, Amir loses his friendship and makes his father loses his servants/friends and those memories haunt him for the rest of his life. It shows how betrayal is a horrible thing and that people should stand up.
*Brothers- Amir finds out that Hassan is actually his half-brother and it hurts him to know that he betraded his brother. Brotherhood is important in this book.
*Guilt- All through his life Amir feels guilty. His feels guilty for killing his mother during birth and now feels like Baba does not love him because of it and he feels guilty of his past when he does not save Hassan and how he made them leave him and Baba. It eats Amir inside and out and makes him feel like he is never good enough because of his past and he does not deserve a lot. Guilt is an ugly thing in the book
*Redemption
*Journey- Life is a big journey and the choices we make can either make our journey easy or hard.
*Father and Sons- Amir tried his whole life to get the attention from Baba and he only got it when he did something important like win the kite tourament. IN society it is important to have a father and son relationship
*Class distinction- when you go up in a high class like Amir it is hard to see how life really was and because of his father, Amir got out of a lot of trouble like in the class room or with bullies

*Parallelism-
*Character foils- Amir/Hassan, Hassan is a foil of Amir and it shows how Amir is a coward and not loyal when it comes to life and standing up for himself. Hassan alwasy did nice things for Amir and helped him and stood up for him and his self, down to his last breathe. Ali/Baba, Ali is a foil of Baba because we see how a real father should be to his son. Ali loves Hassan like a father should love a son and Baba never really treated Amir like a father should treat a son and Amir had to always fight to get the attention of Baba, Hassan always had the attention of Ali
*Foreshadowing- During the beginning of the book, at the end of the chapters, Amir always foreshadowed something bad was going to happen. Like the end of life in homeland like he knew it. It opened up when Hassan was about to get raped and how Amir never saved him and that ended his childhood is a bad way.
*Flashback-the beginning of the book opens up when Amir is in the United States and and then it flashs back to his childhood. The first half of the book is a big flashback.. PLus all through the book Amir always flashed back to when he watched Hassan get raped.

Setting- 1. It took place when Hitler was in town and he was trying to kill off a lot of people. 2. the culture of Pashtun is very important to everyone and they had to always pray at a certain time. 3. Hazara vs. Pashtun was a lot like Jews vs. Germans and how the germans hated the jews and how they wanted to get rid of them. 4. They lived during a time of poverty and how most people lived days without food and servants, most did anyways 5. There was a big war in Afgan. and it effected a lot of people

5 Minor characters- 1. Farid he is the texi driver who at first does not like Amir and his returnal but once he finds out why Amir really returns he ends up helping him out. 2. Kaka Sharif- Soraya's uncle, who has connections in the INS and helps Amir get Sohrab a visa into the United States. 3. Raymond Andrews- The official at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan who makes Amir realize the difficulties he will encounter if he attempts to adopt Sohrab. 4. Assef- he bullied Hassan and also Amir and ends up really beating Amir. 5. Soraya- Amir's wife and she had a lot was with Amir and helped him a lot and cared for Amir

5 Symbols- 1. The two kite fights is a symbol of Amir and Hassan. 2. The Pomegranate Tree is a symbol of Amir and Hassan's realtionship. 3. Amir's scar after he gets beaten by Assef. It reminds him of Hassan and shows is brotherhood. 4. The slingshots is a symbol of standing up for yourself. 5.