Ch. 4
- How did Ali come to be taken in to Baba's family? Why is this important?
- Respond to one of the following quotes:
"Never mind any of those things. Because history isn't easy to overcome. Either is religion. In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara."
- "Amir and Hassan: the Sultans of Kabul. These words made it formal, the world was ours."
- How do you think the divergent reactions of Rahim and Hassan to Amir's story affect Amir? What do their reactions reveal about them all?
- Amir's story is dark. This novel is dark. Why is so much literature about the unhappy parts of life?
Ch. 5
- What is it that Hassan sees for the first time on his father's face? Why is this significant? What might it mean to Amir?
- Amir tells us that Assef is a sociopath. Modern psychology tells us that as many as 5 in 100 human beings are to some degree sociopathic. Without using names, have you ever met someone who cared not at all for how other people feel? How did you react to that person?
- Hassan is remarkably brave in this chapter. Describe the scene and imagine how Amir must feel by comparison. Afterall, he just wanted his dad to show up and save the day. Is Hassan a role model for us all or a fool?
Ch. 6
- Respond to any of the following quotes:
"If I was going to toy with him and challenge his loyalty, then he'd toy with me, and challenge my integrity." p58
"That was the thing with Hassan he was always so goddam pure, you always felt like a phony around him." (this is an allusion to a classic bildungsroman, Catcher in the Rye)
