The Kite Runner quiz

• Narrator

  Amir, who tells his story in the first person
• The period is December 2001
• Amir recalls an event that occurred in 1975, when he was twelve years old and growing up in Afghanistan
• Amir received a call last summer from a friend in Pakistan named Rahim Khan, asking Amir to come to Pakistan to see him
• Amir lives in San Francisco now
• Hassan

  Amir's friend, a boy with a cleft lip, who Amir calls a kite runner
• As children, Amir and Hassan would climb trees, use mirrors to reflect sunlight, and shoot walnuts at a neighbor's dog
• Amir lived with his father, Baba, in a lavish home in Kabul, while Hassan and his father, Ali, lived in a small mud hut on the grounds of Baba's estate
• Neither Amir nor Hassan had a mother
• A soldier tells Hassan that he once had sex with Hassan's mother, Sanaubar
• Hazara

  A persecuted ethnic group in Afghanistan, with more Asian features than Arabic
• Amir and Baba are Pashtun, while Hassan's parents were Hazara</b>
• Baba

  Amir's father, a large, successful, and morally upright man
• Baba tells Amir that the only sin is theft, and that every other sin is a variation of theft
• Amir tries to please Baba by being more like him, but rarely feels successful
• Amir is good at poetry and reading, but worries Baba does not see these as manly pursuits
• Baba worries that if Amir can't stand up for himself as a child, he will not be able to do so as an adult
• In 1933, Baba is born and Zahir Shah becomes king of Afghanistan
• Around the same time, two young men hit and kill Ali's parents, and Amir's grandfather takes the young Ali in
• Amir says as a child he never thought of Hassan as a friend, despite their long stretches of playing together
• Amir writes his first short story, about a man whose tears turn to pearls
• Rahim Khan tells Amir he has a great talent
• In 1975, there is a coup in which Daoud Khan takes over the government, marking the beginning of the end of the Afghanistan Amir and Hassan knew
• Assef, a notorious bully, confronts Amir and Hassan, calling Hassan a "flat-nose" and saying the Hazaras are polluting Afghanistan
• Hassan uses his slingshot to scare Assef away, allowing Amir and Hassan to get away
• The following winter, Baba arranges for Hassan to have plastic surgery to fix his cleft lip
• In Kabul, winter is the best time of year for boys, with schools closed and kite-flying tournaments
• Hassan is the best kite runner in Kabul, seeming to know where kites will land before they come down
• In the winter of 1975, Amir wins the annual kite-fighting tournament, and Hassan sets off to retrieve the last fallen kite
• After the kite-fighting tournament, Amir and Hassan spend less time together, and Amir becomes distant from Hassan
• At Amir's 13th birthday party, Assef gives Amir a biography of Hitler as a gift
• Rahim Khan tells Amir he was almost married to a Hazara girl, but his father sent her and her family away
• Amir frames Hassan for stealing Amir's birthday money and a watch, causing Ali and Hassan to leave Baba's estate
• In 1981, Amir and Baba flee Afghanistan, escaping in the back of a truck with other refugees
• During the journey, they witness the death of Kamal, a young refugee who was sexually assaulted
• Baba and Amir have lived in Fremont, California for nearly two years after fleeing Afghanistan
• Baba has had difficulty adjusting to life in the U.S.
• Amir is dressed in an Afghan hat called a pakol and wears a fake beard that reaches down to his chest
• Amir feels like a tourist in his own country
• Farid guesses that Amir grew up in a large house with servants, that his father drove an American car, and that Amir had never worn a pakol before