Kite Runner Chapters 16-20 Marc, Tim, Steve

Chapter 16 Summary     After Rahim Khon hears of Baba's death, he drove to Hazarajat to search for Hassan. He asked him to move in with him. He learns that Hassan is now married and his wife is expecting a child. After talking Rahim hears that a land mind killed Ali two years earlier.     Hassan has many questions about Rahim's life in America. At first Hassan does not want to go with Rahim but after talking to his wife he agrees, however he does not want to live in the house so they move in Ali's old hut. After years of taking care of the house and Rahim in 1990 Hassan's wife is pregnat again. One day a woman arrives at the house. The woman was Hassan's mother, Hassan hears the news and leaves the house. He returned the next day and nurses his mother back to health. Hassan's mother later delivers Hassan's son "Sohrab"

Chapter 17 Summary     Amir asks Rahim Khan if Hasson is still in the house? Rahim shows Amir the Polaroid piture of Hasson and Sohrob. After Amir looked at the pitcure Rahim explains that the Kabul he grew up in is now gone. He talks about the Taliban and tells him about the attack of his wife for speaking too loudly to a vendor. Rahim received a phone call with news about Hasson. The next day Taliban officials arrived at the house. They had killed Hasson as wall as Farzana. Amir asks about Sohrab and fins out that he was put in an orphanage. Rahim asked Amir to go to Kabul and bring Sohrab to Pakistan. Rahim knew a christian couple who runs an organization for kids who have lost their parents. Rahim insists and tell Amir about the conversation he had with Baba about him not standing up for him self. Rahim also tells Amir that Baba was Hasson's biological Father.

Chapter 18 Summary After storming out of Rahim Khan's apartment, Amir had tea at a local cafe. He felt like a foreigner in his own life. Now that he knew Hassan was his half-brother, it seemed absurd that he had not realized it before. Baba had always treated Hassan like a son not just because he cared for him, but because Hassan was really his son. Amir wondered how Baba could have broken his own cardinal rule about not lying, how he could have lived with himself after shaming Ali. Suddenly, Baba did not seem like such a shining example of righteousness. Amir now understood that Rahim Khan had called him to Peshawar to pay not only for his betrayal of Hassan, but for Baba's betrayal of Ali. Amir wondered if he was to blame for Hassan and Ali's deaths because he was the one who drove them out of the house and split up the family. Finally, at thirty-eight years old, Amir was ready to take responsibility for his actions. He returned to Rahim Khan's apartment to find him praying and told him he would bring Sohrab to Peshawar.

Chapter 19 Summary A driver name Farid was driving Amir from Peshawar to Kabul. He was a Tajik man of twenty-nine, who looked much older because of all he had experienced, fighting against the Soviet forces. Farid had two wives and seven children, two of who had been killed by a landmine. Farid himself was missing toes and fingers from his years of combat. Farid was suspicious of Amir because he saw him as a defector; whereas Farid had stayed and fought for his homeland, Amir had fled to the privileges of America. He had abandoned his watan, his homeland. Amir felt awkward in his traditional Afghan clothing and long fake beard, both necessary for him to blend in to Taliban-controlled Kabul. Amir told Farid that he felt like a tourist in his own country, but farid told him that he had never been a true Afghani because he grew up with many privileges. At last, they arrived in Jalalabad, where they would spend the night with Farid's brother, Wahid.

Chapter 19 Continued Unlike Farid, Wahid received Amir warmly. When he found out Amir was a writer, he suggested Amir use his writing to tell the rest of the world what the Taliban are doing to Afghanistan. Amir explained that he was not quite that kind of a writer. When Wahid asked Amir why he had returned to Afghanistan, Farid interrupted. He ranted about how people returned their only to be greedy and milk money out of their old properties. Wahid scolded Farid for his rudeness. Then Amir explained why he was really in Afghanistan. At this Wahid said that he was a honorable man , and Farid felt bad what he said to Amir before they arrive, and he told ask for apology and told him that he was more right than he thought. One of Wahid's wives brought dinner to Amir and Farid, saying the family had eaten earlier. As he ate, Amir noticed that Wahid's three boys were staring at his watch. After asking for Wahid's permission, he gave it to them, but it did not impress them very much. Amir slept restlessly, dreaming about Hassan's death. He imagined that he himself was the Talib executing Hassan. When Amir woke up, he paced outside and pondered the fact that Afghanistan really was his homeland. His loyalty to the country surprised him, since he had built a new and full life in America. From inside Amir heard one of Wahid's wives scolding him for not leaving any food for the children; Amir realized that the boys had been staring not at his watch, but at his food. Before Amir and Farid left the next morning, Amir tucked a wad of money under a mattress for them to find it.

Chapter 20 Summary After receiving a call from Rahim Khan, "There is a way to be good again", Amir travels to Pakistan to learn the fates of Ali and Hassan.  Rahim tells Amir the true reason for the trip was to rescue Hassan's sun, Sohrab, from an orphanage. 

Chapter 20 continued Amir is told by Farid, his guide, that Kabul is very different from what he would have remembered.  Trees were cut down, many beggars crowd the streets, and Taliban trucks patrol the city.  Amir makes eye contact with one such patrol and his quickly scolded by Farid.  The two meet a beggar who quotes a line of poetry from Hafez.  It is then discovered that the beggar had known Amir's mother and had taught with her as a professor.  The beggar also provides new directions to the orphanage, Amir ends up giving him money. 

Chapter 20 continued After finding the new location of the orphanage from the beggar, Amir and Farid talk to Zaman, the caretaker of the children and ask him about Sohrab.  Initially, Zaman claims not to know Sohrab but later becomes more helpful when Amir describes Sohrab's previous life and admits that he is the boy's half uncle.  Amir and Farid are let inside by Zaman and learn about the Taliban official who arrives every 1-2 months with money yet also takes a child with him.  This revelation makes Farid become very angry and provokes him to assault Zaman.  Amir gets Farid to stop by telling him that the children are watching.  Finally, Zaman tells Amir where he can find this Taliban official describing his distinctive black sun glasses and asks the two to leave. 

Chapter 20 Analysis Amir's chance meeting with the beggar gives a more personal example of the Suffering caused by the Taliban.  The fact that the beggar had known Amir's mother is an unlikely coincidence.  Zaman's role at the orphanage symbolizes how many were forced to give up much in their life just to survive. 

Chapter 20 Vocab Roussi - Slang for a Russian soldier/officer Jalalabad - Afghani city 90 miles East of Kabul Kabul - Capital of Afghanistan Baksheesh - A term used to describe charitable giving Mujaheddin - Freedom fighter, or Afghan opposition groups Shorawi - Afghan term for Russians or Soviets Chapan - A coat worn over clothes usually for cold weather Ghazal - Arabic poetic form  Salaam Alaykum - Arabic greeting, Peace be upon you Lotfan - Please