1) What do you think about the state of the world today? Do you keep yourself informed about the world? If not, why not?
2) Why is empathy/compassion important? For you? For our school? For the larger community?
3) How has 9/11 had an impact upon you? Do you remember those days? Has terrorism changed the way you live your life, or changed the way you see the world? Was it a loss of innocence for you?
4) How does the movie, "Slumdog Millionaire," relate to "The Ninny"? What themes, or main ideas, about life, do they share in common?
5) Characterize Baba and Amir's relationship. Why does "hate" enter into their father/son relationship? What quotations show us, the readers, the raw truths about their feelings towards one another?
6) Much of this novel is about discrimination and cultural divides across political/social/religious lines. Is it human nature to hate the "other"? Do we in Canada have our own stories of ugly discrimination? Or, what about right here in the hallways of Highland, what ugly divides and discriminations happen here? How can we deal with this sort of hatred?
7) Do you identify with Amir in any way? Most students see at least a glimmer of themselves in the complicated relationship he has with his father. In what ways are you like Amir?
8) Why can't Amir bring himself to do anything when he sees Hassan being raped? What happens to him in that terrifying moment? What can his example teach you about how to handle things differently if ever you witness a crime?
9) Ironies and symbolism abound in this novel. How do you feel about the irony that Kamal ends up raped himself (he was one of Assef's sidekicks)? How are these recurrent rapes symbolic? Who/what else is raped? Hint: this novel is a novel of Afghanistan - it is not just about Amir and Hassan, it is about the good and bad inside of a country.
10) Baba is a man's man. Afghani culture defines "real men" as tough, unemotional, successful, powerful, independent, etc... What do you think it takes to be a good man? What have we been taught in our own culture about what it takes to be a real man?
11) What does America stand for across cultures and nations? Is the American Dream a real thing or is it just a dream? Why do many nations/cultures hate America?
12) Baba transforms as he becomes an immigrant in a strange land. Why might it be hard to adjust to life in North America? What should immigrants do to adjust more easily? What should communities do to embrace their immigrants?
13) What are "the rules" for dating, or whatever you want to call it, for young people in North America? In Afghani culture, young men and women can barely look at each other, never mind speak. Is our way too loose? Is their way too strict? When you have been interested in someone, has it been easy or difficult, or something in between, to make y our relationship happen?
14) Should people keep secrets? Big secrets? Small secrets? Do secrets ultimately destroy you over time? Can we privately manage, inside of our own minds, the things we are not proud of? Why do we care so much about telling one another the truth, the whole truth?
15) If you found out your Mom or Dad, or someone else who takes care of you, was dying, would you have the strength to take care of them?
16)When Amir asks his dad "what am I going to do now?" Baba is furious and says that this is what he has been preparing him for... "so that you [Amir] would never have to ask this question." What does he mean by that?
17) Winter is described as the happiest of seasons in the lives of Afghan children. What is your favourite season? Write a descriptive paragraph that brings a time/place/memory of that season to life.
18) "People need stories to divert them at difficult times (139)." Do you agree? Does reading about someone else's life and troubles, make it easier to cope with your own? What do you read for pleasure/escapism? Why?
19) "Baba loved the idea of America" but living there was hard on him. What is your idea of America? What does the US stand for? Do you worship or loathe all that the USA represent? Have you travelled to the States? What was it like? What did you learn? Are the stereotypes true?
20) Did you win the life lottery? What are you going to do with your winning ticket?
21) Should we let bullies and jerks and liars rule our countries? Or do we? How do we make bullying stop? Do you even care about bullying? What do you do when you see someone being harrassed? Is non-action a form of bullying?
22) Why do we lie?
23) If you were to create a society with only 10 laws/rules, what would those rules be?
24) It is said, that human beings are a remarkably resilient creature, we bounce back from hardship and move forward. Do you agree?
25) Who are the Hazaras of Canada? Why are they? How do you feel about it? (Or: Who are the Hazaras of Highland? Why?) Why can't we just accept people who are different?
26) Are you genuine? Or, are you like and iceburg, with 90% hidden deep below the surface? Why are you like this? Do you want to change? How does this question relate to Amir?
27) "There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls." ~Howard Thurman What does this quote mean to you? How does it relate to the novel?
28) When Amir finds out that Hassan is his half brother, he is angry and shocked? Why is he so enraged? Can you relate to these feelings? Why?
29) The last quarter of the novel, The Kite Runner, is filled with gritty descriptions of the decay and dust of Taliban Afghanistan? Why are the descriptions so effective? Do you feel fear, as a reader, as a result?
30) Why does Amir laugh in Chapter 22? How is this related to Assef's own story of an epiphany? Is Amir really redeemed?
31) So many things in this novel come full-circle. Sohrab takes out Assef's eye. A watch is used to heal and not to hurt. These full-circles can seem a bit magical/coincidental in the novel... but what might Hosseini be suggesting about how life works? Does what goes around, come around, as the saying goes?
32) When we played our little role play game of Hazaras punished by the rules of the Taliban, what mostly came to mind about the experience? Is the horror and unfairness inflicted by the Taliban just one example of the inhumanity that has been and will continue to be inflicted by humans?
33) The novel is a bildungsroman, a story of experience. How has Amir finally come of age?
34) What would you say to someone who has lost all hope and only feels that life is pain? As much as we know that what a suicidal person really craves is someone who will listen and understand, what would you say to someone who wants to die? What can we do, as a school culture, to prevent suicide?
35) In some ways, this novel is a morality tale. The Kite Runner is teaching as some lessons. What are they? What are the morals of this tale?
36) The Kite Runner makes you feel. Some students have claimed that it has has made them feel something new, even. What are the emotions that you have experienced in the journey through Afghani culture?
37) The novel taps into the ways that the personal and political are connected. The horrible happenings of Afghanistan's history have a direct impact on the horrible events of Hassan's life... do you believe that your political context will effect your lived life in a significant way?
38) Remember the news story I shared with you about The Attawapiskat Nation that was in crisis and being ignored. A large number of people in the Comox Valley became enraged as I, and others, circulated the story on Facebook. A number of letters and emails were sent to the local MP, John Duncan, who has become Aboriginal Affairs Minister for Canada, and with that pressure, and more unpleasant media attention the government had finally responded. I like The Kite Runner because it motivates me to shout out and stop what is happening in the back alleys of the world when I can. Do you think you can make that pledge too. Can you start today? How?
39) What did you think of the film, "Skateistan"? What did you notice? Do you think that an organization like that can make a difference in the lives of Kabul children?
40) In the photographs of Afghanistan that a student's dad took of the Canadian Forces mixing with the people there is a sort of tension between the old Afghani culture and the new ways of Canadian peace-keepers. What do you think of Canada's presence in Afghanistan? Should we be there? Are all the lost soldiers worth it?
