Settings and Locations
What is the name of the city Amir is from?
Kabul
What image did Amir conjure up when he thought of Afghanistan?
A boy with a thin-boned frame, a shaved head, and low-set ears, a boy with a Chinese doll face perpetually lit by a harelipped smile (Pg. 25)
or
Hassan
What is the Pomegranate tree meant to represent?
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden - the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
How did Ali come to live with Baba?
Ali's parents were killed by two brothers from a "wealthy and reputable" family. Baba's father took Ali in.
Where did Amir think John Wayne was from?
Iran.
What is the name of the neighborhood Amir grew up in?
Wazir Akbar Khan
What does Amir say he 'aspired' to after leaving Hassan in the alley?
Cowardice.
What might the gashes on the boys' hands represent?
Christ figure (bloody hands).
*DOUBLE JEOPARDY*
What happens to the Character Sohrab in the story Shahnamah?
His father Rostam kills him in battle.
What ONE word did Rahim Khan use that encouraged Amir to pursue writing more than any other compliment he's ever received?
Bravo.
What country represents a sanctuary for Hazaras?
Iran
When Amir revisits what happened in Hassan's dream, who does he say is the monster?
Amir himself.
Hassan's ability to know where the kite was going to be without even needing to look at the sky implies that he has ______ qualities (Literary Tradition Notes).
Mystical Qualities
What myth is Amir's short story reminiscent of?
The story of Mitus and the Golden Touch.
Assef earned his Ear Eater nickname by biting off a kids ear over a what?
Kite.
Where was King Zahir Shah at the time of the coup?
Italy
*DOUBLE JEOPARDY*
When Amir asks if Hassan really would eat dirt if he told him to he says there's something Fascinating about teasing Hassan. He says it's kind of like ______ torture.
Insect.
"Except now, he was the ant and I was holding the magnifying glass." (pg. 54)
Thinking of Kite Fighting as going to war... Amir likens the Kite to a _____ and the string to the _____.
Gun
Bullet in the chamber
"If the kite was the gun, then tar, the glass-coated cutting line, was the bullet in the chamber." (pg. 50).
What book did Assef gift to Amir for his birthday?
A biography of Hitler.
The day of the Tournament Amir describes the sky as a ________ blue.
Blameless.
Rahim Khan reveals he was almost married to a Hazara woman named Homaira. Where were her and her family sent too after Rahim Khan told his family about their relationship?
Hazarajat
As he's throwing Pomegranates at Hassan (Chapter 8) Amir feels that everything will be okay between Hassan and him if Hassan would just do what?
Hit him back. Give him the punishment he craved (pg. 92).
Amir say's the look on Hassan's face in the alley is "the look of the lamb." What does that look mean?
That the animal accepts and understands that its imminent demise is for a greater (or higher) purpose.
In chapter 7, Amir thinks back to the 10th day of Dhul-Hijjah, the last month of the Muslim calendar, and the first of three days of Eid-e-Qorban. What is that day a celebration of?
It's a day to celebrate how the prophet Ibrahim almost sacrificed his own son for God.
The night that Amir confesses what he'd done out loud to the room of sleeping men around him is the night he says he became an _________.
Insomniac.