The Kite Runner Chapters 13 - 15

Chapter 13 Summary . “Maybe this was my punishment, and perhaps justly so.“ Baba‘s condition worsens but he Amir‘s wedding is the happiest day of his life. What do you notice about the sentence length in the description of the ceremony? Why do you think this technique has been used?p.150 Shortly after the wedding Amir discovers that Soraya and Baba were reading his notebook on Baba’s request. He dies a month later. Baba’s funeral is huge and Amir realizes he must carry on being just Amir. Amir grows very close to Soraya’s family, even her father, who gifts him a typewriter. Amir and Soraya discover they cannot have children.

WRITE THIS INTO YOUR NOTEBOOK! Commentary on 13 This chapter marks Amir‘s move from childhood to adulthood and is important because it comes in the middle of the book and narrative. It is ironic that Baba is physically at his weakest but regains the respect he once had. Green and blood are important motifs here. On this occasion Amir thinks of Hassan, but unlike his birthday and graduation, it is not a gulit-ridden thought. It is one of curiosity. What does this tell us? How does our view of the general change? Are our intial stereotypes dispelled? What is the symbolic nature of the general‘s pocket watch?

Chapter 14 Summary . “Come. There is a way to be good again. “ This is a short chapter as we have already had this seen before. Chapter 14 opens in June of 2001, when Amir received a call from Rahim Khan. He told Amir he was very sick and asked him to come visit him in Pakistan. Amir considered what Rahim Khan had said before hanging up, "Come. There is a way to be good again." Suddenly, he understood that Rahim Khan knew, and had always known, what he did to Hassan. Amir was comfortable leaving Soraya with her parents; her relationship with them had improved in the years since the wedding. The General no longer insisted that Soraya change her career path away from teaching; sometimes he sat in on the classes Soraya taught and even took notes. That night, Amir dreamt of Hassan as he had seen him right before the rape, shouting, "For you, a thousand times over!" A week later, he left for Peshawar, Pakistan.

WRITE THIS INTO YOUR NOTEBOOK! Commentary on 14 This chapter revisits the call from ch. 1. We now understand the magnitude of Rahim Khan‘s words. From this point on the reader no longer knows what is going to happen. Foreshadowing is suspended. Some readers have criticized Amir‘s view of marital sex as being concerned with procreation. This chapter hearlds the beginning of Amir‘s quest for atonement. It is quite interesting that we skip from Baba‘s death to 2001. Why? Dreams are important in this chapter too. The echoing of Hassan‘s words in his dream underpin his moral duty to repay Hassan for his loyalty and friendship.

Chapter 15 Summary . “Peace at last. But at what price?“ How is Rahim Khan described and what is wrong with him? Why did Afghanistan welcome the Taliban at first? How does Hosseini describe the impact of the Taliban on Kabul? ‘The truth was no. The lie was yes. I settled for something in between. “I don’t know”’. Does Amir’s honesty make us more sympathetic towards him?

WRITE THIS INTO YOUR NOTEBOOK! Commentary on 15 Amir‘s desire to take Rahim Khan home with him shows his new American optimism. The blood motif is seen here again. Hosseini uses Amir‘s arrival in Afghanistan as an excuse to fill the reader in on what has happened in the country. This chapter ends with one of the biggest “cliffhangers“ yet. Why?

Chapter 16 Summary . ‘God help the Hazaras now…’ Rahim Khan seeks Hassan ten years after Baba and Amir fled the country. He finds Hassan in a small, unnamed village, a grown man. There, Rahim khan meets Farzana, Hassan's wife, who is expecting. Militants killed Ali years prior. The first thing Hassan asks about is Amir. He asks, if he writes a letter, can Rahim Khan mail it for him. At first, Hassan refuses to move back to Kabul, but, after consideration with his wife, he changes his mind. Though Rahim Khan asks Hassan to move into the main house, Hassan refuses, moving, instead, into the same, old mud hut. Upon learning of Baba's death, he mourns for forty days in the traditional way. Soon after, Farzana delivers a stillborn baby girl.

Hassan's mother appears at the door, very beaten Hassan's mother appears at the door, very beaten. Hassan and Farzana nurse her back to health. When Farzana finally has a baby boy, it is Hassan's mother, Sanaubar, who delivers him. They name the boy Sohrab, after a character in the book of legends Amir used to read to Hassan. Sohrab grows up very close to his grandmother. When Sohrab is four years old, Sanaubar dies. Rahim Khan describes the way Hassan took his son to kite tournaments before the Taliban takes over.

WRITE THIS INTO YOUR NOTEBOOK! Commentary on 16 The plot takes a twist when Sanaubar reappears. Such a revelation once again reinforces Hassan's decent human nature. Hassan's mourning of Baba does this as well. Amir sees Hassan as a perfect child, where Amir fails in so many ways. The author never brings out a negative aspect of Hassan's personality. Is this unrealistic? Sohrab obviously symbolizes the end of Amir's guilt. Sohrab also represents a way for Amir to finally step in and save Hassan if only by proxy. Rahim Khan exploits Amir's guilt to save the child he grew so fond of, though Amir does not realize this yet.

WRITE THIS INTO YOUR NOTEBOOK! Commentary on 16 Hassan’s mother, ironically, sports the same scars for which she once rejected Hassan. After 1996, when the Taliban assumes control, Hazara people are no longer safe. Two weeks after taking the country, the Taliban outlaws many things, including kite fighting. Two years later they massacred the Hazara’s. (context)

Please read chapters 17 to 19 Homework Please read chapters 17 to 19

The notes from this PPT are, in part, taken from Gradesaver and Bookrags.