The Kite Runner Chapters 1 - 6

In 2001, Amir’s phone conversation with his old friend Rahim Khan forces him to think back on the days of his childhood. Rahim Khan is in Pakistan, and he’s urging Amir to come to him so that they can figure out a means to correct past sins. Amir goes to walk around a lake in San Francisco and his thoughts turn to Hassan.

Amir had spent all of his childhood in a large mansion that was located in the best section of Kabul. Amir only had his father in his family, since his mother had passed away while giving birth to him. They had a servant named Ali, who was a devout man, that was affected by polio and facial paralysis. Ali had married his cousin, Sanaubar, a beautiful woman who could not stand being married to someone like Ali. She had eloped with a dancing troupe a week after delivering Hassan and remarking at his ugliness due to a cleft lip. Amir and Hassan were fed by the same wet nurse, and Amir often heard people remark that the two of them shared a special relationship because of that fact. Amir felt like Hassan understood who he was, more than anyone else. They spent countless hours together, and Hassan obeyed Amir without qualms, no matter if it landed him in trouble or not.

Hassan and Ali were Hazaras, a minority group of Afghanistan, who were discriminated against by the majority of Pashtuns. The children in the neighborhood would often make fun of both Hassan and Ali, by calling them donkeys or making fun of their flat noses. Amir discovered the history of the Hazaras through a book from his mother’s library. The book described a Hazara uprising in the 19th century, that had been brutally quelled by the Pashtuns and led to terrible suppression of the Hazaras. Amir spent several hours going through his mother’s library, who had been a Farsi professor, and the daughter of a noble Afghani family. He spent so long in the library because he seemed unable to get along with his father. Amir’s father was a powerful man of Kabul, who had been the son of an even more powerful father, Amir’s grandfather. Amir’s father had started multiple successful businesses with his close friend, Rahim Khan, and disproven all of his detractors. However, he was visibly disappointed in Amir’s character who had no talent for sport and seemed incapable of standing up for himself. Amir overheard his father talking to Rahim Khan after they had returned from a traditional Afghan game that had ended up causing a man’s death. Amir had cried all the way home, and his father was surprised that Amir was truly his son. He remarked that Amir was unable to stand up for himself, and he would end up becoming a man who could not stand up for himself.

Amir explains that his grandfather had taken in Ali’s parents after they had been killed in a car accident, and Ali had practically grown up with his father. It was interesting for Amir to observe that despite their shared history, his father had never once referred to Ali as his friend. Similarly, Amir never really thought of Hassan as his friend, but more as his servant. The two of them would often camp out under trees together, and Hassan would press him to read to him since he was literate. Hassan enjoyed an ancient tale about a father and son in which the father unknowingly kills his son. Amir recalls the day he had made up a story rather than read one from a book for Hassan. Amir was deeply surprised by Hassan’s reaction as he claimed that it was the best story that Amir had told him. This motivates Amir to write a story on his own. He writes a story about a man who is suddenly granted the ability to turn his tears into pearls, and it ends with the man sitting on a hill of pearls after he has killed his wife. Amir’s father is completely uninterested in the story, but Rahim Khan commends Amir for his use of irony even though Amir doesn’t yet fully grasp the concept.

Amir excitedly tells the story to Hassan, who enjoys it but asks him why the man had killed his wife for some tears when he could have just smelled an onion. Amir is dumbstruck but before he can say anything, the night is shattered by the sound of gunfire. They later learn that the monarchic government had been overthrown in a coup d’etat led by the king’s cousin.

After Afghanistan becomes a republic, Amir and Hassan run into Assef while going through their neighborhood. Assef is a star athlete, the son of a rich Pashtun man and a German woman. He has a reputation for being violent, and Amir now understands that Assef had been a sociopath. Assef bullies Amir for hanging out with a Hazara like Hassan. He claims that Amir disgraces their community, and makes as if to hurt Amir, but Hassan prevents the fight. He aims a slingshot at Assef’s eye and threatens to shoot him if he hurts Amir. Assef relents but he promises them that he will pay them back for this insult. That year, Baba’s birthday gift to Hassan was surgery for his cleft lip, which soon healed and became a small scar. Amir then describes the popularity of the Kite fighting tournaments in the winter, something that interested his father just as much as he and Hassan. Amir was a good kit fighter, while Hassan was one of the best kite runners in the neighborhood. Kite running was a deeply traditional practice and running the last cut kite of the tournament was said to be a great honor. A few days before the Kite Tournament in 1974, Baba told Amir that he thought Amir could win the tournament.

Analysis

The Kite Runner begins in Medias Res, with Amir receiving a call from Rahim Khan, his father’s friend, urging Amir to return to Pakistan. This novel can be viewed as a bildungsroman, a coming-of-age novel, that follows Amir as he strives to rid himself of the guilt that has been haunting him. The call from Pakistan serves as a “call to adventure,” in Amir’s Hero’s journey. As the narrative progresses, Amir begins to look back on his life in Afghanistan and the reader is introduced to the moral center of the novel, the very point that Amir will now journey to reach, that is Hassan. Amir and Hassan are inextricably linked from the very beginning of their life, although readers only gain a true understanding of the depth of their connection near the conclusion of the novel.

Amir’s reflection on his old life reveals two great conflicts that both Amir and Hassan had to contend with in their childhood. Hassan was Amir’s servant, and a Hazara, both of which led to him facing severe discrimination and even abuse. Amir’s struggle was that of a difficult relationship with his father, who seemed utterly unable to connect with Amir. This distance between the two of them became the central focus of Amir’s life for a great long while. Amir’s recurring dream of his father wrestling a bear communicates how largely Amir’s father looms in his mind.