Discussion Questions for "The Kite Runner" Chapters 1-10

Below are some questions I came up with as I prepared this curriculum unit. You can use these questions in any number of ways with your students. I print them out and give them to the students so they can answer them as they read. We usually discuss them in class after we've read the section. My students answer the questions in their journals. I usually take up their journals once a week to make sure the students are completing their daily work.

Some of the below questions are meant more as discussion topics and are written to remind me of various passages I want to discuss with the students. For those items I listed the chapter and page number, all page numbers coinciding with Riverhead trade paperback edition. http://www.amazon.com/Kite-Runner-Illustrated-Khaled-Hosseini/dp/1594489602/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1241543572&sr=8-1

Chapter 1-3 Study Guide Questions

1. How old did the narrator say he was when he became “what [he] is today”?
2. Identify Amir, Baba, Hassan, Ali, and Rahim Kahan.
3. Who worked for whom?
4. What happened to Amir’s mother?
5. What happened to Hassan’s mother?
6. Define Hazara, Shi’a Muslin, Sunni Muslim, Pashtuns, and Farsi.
7. Discuss textbooks and objectivity. (see page 9)
8. What does the narrator seem to foreshadow at the end of chapter 2? What is the tone?
9. In Chapter 3, on page 22, what do you think Baba is talking about when he states that there is “something missing” with Amir?

Chapter 4-7 Study Guide Questions

1. Why do you think Amir states that he never though of Hassan as his friend?
2. Why couldn’t Hassan read?
3. What does “jan” mean? Is there an English word that is similar?
4. When did the bombing/fighting begin in Afghanistan, according to Amir?
5. Identify Assef.
6. Discuss similarities between oppressed peoples (pages 40-1)
7. What did Baba give Hassan for his birthday?
8. Explain kite running.
9. Why did Amir feel he must win the tournament?
10. What parallel is the narrator illustrating on page 76? Why?
11. What happened to Hassan?
12. What would you have done if you were Amir?

Chapter 8-10 Study Guide Questions

1. Why do you think Amir no longer wanted to play with Hassan?
2. Which character’s character seems to be more emotionally mature? Explain.
3. Why did Amir throw pomegranates at Hassan?
4. What is the significance behind Assef’s birthday present for Amir?
5. What story did Rahim Kahn tell Amir on his birthday? Why?
6. What gift did he give him?
7. Why didn’t anyone tell the truth?
8. What did Amir hide under Hassan’s bed? Why?
9. Why did Hassan lie?
10. Why did Hassan and Ali leave?
11. Where did Amir and Baba flee to?
12. Why could people no longer be trusted in Afghanistan?