Breakdown of ChapterSix We learn that winter is Amir’s favourite time of year because of the snow, Flying Kites and no school. It is also a time when his relationship with Baba “thawed a little” . “Winter to me was the end of long division …and the start of three months of playing cards by the stove with Hassan… and kites.” Baba and Amir shared a love of kite flying and kite fighting. As a result they had something in common for a short time each year. ‘Kites were the one paper-thin slice of intersection between [us]” Hassan and Amir were better Kite fighters than many who took part in the kite-fighting tournaments in Kabul. We see how Baba treated Hassan and Amir equally – as if they were siblings. “Baba would buy us each three identical kites and spools of glass string. If I changed my mind and asked for a bigger and fancier kite, Baba would buy it for me – but then he’d buy it for Hassan too. Sometimes I wished he wouldn’t do that. Wished he’d let me be the favourite.” So there are definite clues and evidence for Baba’s actions of kindness, fatherliness and guilt. Hassan is an uncanny kite runner. “Over the years, I had seen a lot of guys run kites. But Hassan was by far the greatest kite runner I’d ever seen. It was downright eerie the way he always got to the spot the kite would land before the kite did, as if he had some sort of inner compass….i was a year older than him, but Hassan ran faster than I did…I’d always envied his natural athleticism.” Amir tests Hassan’s loyalty and devotion and it ends up with Hassan testing Amir’s integrity! Hassan asks if Amir would ever lie to him and Amir sees it as an opportunity to “toy” with him when Hassan tells him that he “would sooner eat dirt” than ever lie to Amir. “But I wonder,” he added. “Would you ever ask me to do such a thing, Amir agha?” and, just like that, he had thrown at me his own little test. If I was going to toy with him and challenge his loyalty, then he’d toy with me, test my integrity”. Hassan ends up showing the most trust and integrity out of the two of the boys: “Don’t be stupid, Hassan. You know I wouldn’t.” Hassan returned the smile. Except his didn’t look forced. “I know,” he said. And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.” This is foreshadowing of a potential weakness to appear in Amir’s character. Lying and lack of sincerity. At the end of this chapter we also see this. Hassan said “Inshallah” or God willing, that Amir would win the kite tournament. “Inshallah,” I echoed, though the “God willing” qualifier didn’t sound as sincere coming from my lips. That was the thing with Hassan. He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him.” There is also foreshadowing of the fact that Hassan will know that Amir knows he got raped by Assef. Because we learn that Hassan can always “read Amir’s mind.” He assures Amir that he likes living where he does, in a mud hut. “Amir agha?” “What?” “You know …I like where I live.” He was always doing that, reading my mind….” There is also another hint as to who Hassan really was – Amir’s brother. When Amir notices Hassan’s facial expressions and notes:” That’s when it happened again: Hassan’s face changed…I had the feeling I was looking at two faces, the one I knew, …and another second face, this one lurking just beneath the surface. I’d seen it happen before – it always shook me up a little…it just appeared, this other face, for a fraction of a moment, long enough to leave me with the unsettling feeling that maybe I’d seen it someplace before.” Amir is “slipped a key” to Baba’s heart and acceptance. This speech is also a fabulous example of Amir’s desperate need to be accepted, loved and forgiven by Baba. If he wins the kite-fighting tournament this year. Baba says ‘I think maybe you’ll win the tournament this year. What do you think?” I didn’t know what to think. Or what to say. Was that what it would take? Had he just slipped me a key? I was a good kite fighter. Actually, a very good one. …Baba was used to winning, winning at everything he set his mind to. Didn’t he have a right to expect the same from his son? And just imagine. If I did win…Baba’s casual little comment had planted a seed in my head: the resolution that I would win that winter’s tournament. I’d bring it [the second to last kite flying] home and show it to Baba. Show him once and for all that his son was worthy. Then maybe my life as a ghost in this house would finally be over. I let myself dream: I imagined conversation and laughter over dinner instead of silence broken only by the clinking of silverware and the occasional grunt. …Maybe Baba would even read one of my stories. I’d write him a hundred if I thought he’d read one. Maybe he’d call me Amir jan like Rahim Khan did. And maybe, just maybe, I would finally be pardoned for killing my mother….i wasn’t going to fail Baba. Not this time.” Hassan knows how important winning the kite is to Amir. “You know, I think you’re going to make Agha sahib very proud tomorrow.”
We learn that winter is Amir’s favourite time of year because of the snow, Flying Kites and no school. It is also a time when his relationship with Baba “thawed a little” .
“Winter to me was the end of long division …and the start of three months of playing cards by the stove with Hassan… and kites.”
Baba and Amir shared a love of kite flying and kite fighting. As a result they had something in common for a short time each year. ‘Kites were the one paper-thin slice of intersection between [us]”
Hassan and Amir were better Kite fighters than many who took part in the kite-fighting tournaments in Kabul.
We see how Baba treated Hassan and Amir equally – as if they were siblings.
“Baba would buy us each three identical kites and spools of glass string. If I changed my mind and asked for a bigger and fancier kite, Baba would buy it for me – but then he’d buy it for Hassan too. Sometimes I wished he wouldn’t do that. Wished he’d let me be the favourite.”
So there are definite clues and evidence for Baba’s actions of kindness, fatherliness and guilt.
Hassan is an uncanny kite runner. “Over the years, I had seen a lot of guys run kites. But Hassan was by far the greatest kite runner I’d ever seen. It was downright eerie the way he always got to the spot the kite would land before the kite did, as if he had some sort of inner compass….i was a year older than him, but Hassan ran faster than I did…I’d always envied his natural athleticism.”
Amir tests Hassan’s loyalty and devotion and it ends up with Hassan testing Amir’s integrity!
Hassan asks if Amir would ever lie to him and Amir sees it as an opportunity to “toy” with him when Hassan tells him that he “would sooner eat dirt” than ever lie to Amir.
“But I wonder,” he added. “Would you ever ask me to do such a thing, Amir agha?” and, just like that, he had thrown at me his own little test. If I was going to toy with him and challenge his loyalty, then he’d toy with me, test my integrity”.
Hassan ends up showing the most trust and integrity out of the two of the boys:
“Don’t be stupid, Hassan. You know I wouldn’t.” Hassan returned the smile. Except his didn’t look forced.
“I know,” he said. And that’s the thing about people who mean everything they say. They think everyone else does too.” This is foreshadowing of a potential weakness to appear in Amir’s character. Lying and lack of sincerity. At the end of this chapter we also see this. Hassan said “Inshallah” or God willing, that Amir would win the kite tournament. “Inshallah,” I echoed, though the “God willing” qualifier didn’t sound as sincere coming from my lips. That was the thing with Hassan. He was so goddamn pure, you always felt like a phony around him.”
There is also foreshadowing of the fact that Hassan will know that Amir knows he got raped by Assef. Because we learn that Hassan can always “read Amir’s mind.” He assures Amir that he likes living where he does, in a mud hut. “Amir agha?”
“What?”
“You know …I like where I live.” He was always doing that, reading my mind….”
There is also another hint as to who Hassan really was – Amir’s brother. When Amir notices Hassan’s facial expressions and notes:” That’s when it happened again: Hassan’s face changed…I had the feeling I was looking at two faces, the one I knew, …and another second face, this one lurking just beneath the surface. I’d seen it happen before – it always shook me up a little…it just appeared, this other face, for a fraction of a moment, long enough to leave me with the unsettling feeling that maybe I’d seen it someplace before.”
Amir is “slipped a key” to Baba’s heart and acceptance. This speech is also a fabulous example of Amir’s desperate need to be accepted, loved and forgiven by Baba.
If he wins the kite-fighting tournament this year. Baba says ‘I think maybe you’ll win the tournament this year. What do you think?”
I didn’t know what to think. Or what to say. Was that what it would take? Had he just slipped me a key? I was a good kite fighter. Actually, a very good one. …Baba was used to winning, winning at everything he set his mind to. Didn’t he have a right to expect the same from his son? And just imagine. If I did win…Baba’s casual little comment had planted a seed in my head: the resolution that I would win that winter’s tournament. I’d bring it [the second to last kite flying] home and show it to Baba. Show him once and for all that his son was worthy. Then maybe my life as a ghost in this house would finally be over. I let myself dream: I imagined conversation and laughter over dinner instead of silence broken only by the clinking of silverware and the occasional grunt. …Maybe Baba would even read one of my stories. I’d write him a hundred if I thought he’d read one. Maybe he’d call me Amir jan like Rahim Khan did. And maybe, just maybe, I would finally be pardoned for killing my mother….i wasn’t going to fail Baba. Not this time.”
Hassan knows how important winning the kite is to Amir. “You know, I think you’re going to make Agha sahib very proud tomorrow.”