Key Quotations (DP IB English A: Language and Literature: HL): Revision Note
When you answer any question on The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, remember to support your points with clear references to the text. You can demonstrate your knowledge in two equally valid ways: through well-chosen references and through direct quotations. Overall, aim to build a secure and detailed understanding of the novel so you can select evidence with precision.
A useful revision strategy is to group key evidence or quotations by character or theme, allowing you to track the development of Hosseini’s ideas across the narrative.
Below you will find definitions and analysis of the best quotations, arranged by the following themes:
Betrayal
Redemption and forgiveness
Male relationships
Racism and ethnicity
Betrayal
The Kite Runner presents characters who are shaped by the betrayals they commit and the guilt they burden themselves with afterwards, holding onto these feelings for years and in ways that change who they are as people.
“I had one last chance to make a decision. One final opportunity to decide who I was going to be” – Amir, Chapter 7
Meaning and context
As Amir stands frozen in fear watching Hassan be attacked, assaulted and, eventually, raped, he sees one final moment where he can intervene
He sees this as a defining moment in who he will become, and that he has a chance to be good or a chance to do a selfish wrong
Analysis
This is an example of how Amir, as our narrator looking back into the past, is not always a reliable narrator:
He has retrospectively decided he had a moment where he could choose to be good or bad
It is likely this detail is described under the shadow of his guilt, and not fairly represented
It is unlikely that, in the exact moment, he stopped to tell himself he could make one decision and be a good person forever, or another and always be bad
Because he now looks at his betrayal with constant guilt, he has forced it to become a defining moment of his life
This shows how Amir forever punishes himself for a regretful decision he made as a child:
He offers himself no sympathy, ignoring that he was afraid and shocked, and only a child himself
“There was a monster in the lake. It had grabbed Hassan by the ankles, dragged him to the murky bottom. I was that monster” – Amir, Chapter 8
Meaning and context
After Hassan is raped, Amir is consumed by the guilt of not having stood up for him and stopped the assault
Amir remembers the dream that Hassan had had, and had told him about, before the kite-fighting tournament:
Hassan had assured Amir that there are not really monsters, but now Amir feels like one
Analysis
Amir reflects on how his friend had assured him there were no monsters to try and calm him, to look out for him, and how Amir had then allowed something monstrous to happen to Hassan:
He sees himself as the monster Hassan had said was not truly there in his dream
This reflects how Hassan was unaware of how Amir treated him differently:
Just as Hassan believed there was no monster in the lake, he was naive to the monster that Amir feels he was in letting Hassan be raped
His actions have changed how Amir sees himself:
He is now burdened by his guilt and constantly miserable because of this
His character is influenced by this guilt for the rest of the novel, showing how he has let one action define who he is
“You couldn’t trust anyone in Kabul any more” – Amir, Chapter 10
Meaning and context
As Baba and Amir flee Kabul for Pakistan, they do not tell the servant they have working for them, as they cannot trust that he won’t tell somebody, which would have them stopped
The Soviet invasion changed Afghanistan and Kabul, and many with the means were fleeing the country to escape violence
Analysis
This quote shows a different type of betrayal, less personal and driven by the fear instilled in many by the Russians:
Some may pay for information that can help, and with many now struggling in poverty, the money was desperately needed:
People had the choice to sacrifice others to ensure their and their family’s survival
There was also the chance that information could be beaten out of people:
Baba and Amir may not necessarily be blaming their servant for sharing information, as they understand he could be tortured for it
It shows how the country changed, how Kabul went from somewhere welcoming for them, to somewhere where they could trust nobody:
Children in schools were taught to spy on their parents, an example of how the invasion was making life miserable in Kabul
Redemption and forgiveness
With these betrayals casting a shadow over their lives, characters like Amir and Baba long to find ways to absolve themselves of guilt. Many of the decisions they make, before and throughout the narrative, are made to find this redemption, and it is once Amir feels he has found it that the novel reaches its denouement.
“There is a way to be good again” – Rahim Khan, Chapter 1
Meaning and context
Amir is called to visit Rahim in Pakistan, and Rahim promises him a chance to be good again:
Amir is full of guilt, and clearly Rahim knows what happened, so is desperate for a chance to be free of it and feels he must do something, rather than forgive himself
When this call is revisited again later in the novel, the chance to be good again is in going back to Afghanistan and finding an orphaned Sohrab, Hassan’s son
Analysis
Amir has lived with the guilt of his actions around the rape of Hassan all his life, and never been able to forgive himself:
This shows the cycle of this mindset that Baba has fed into Amir, who feels he is only worthy of happiness if he does something major to atone:
This is not a healthy attitude, and Amir struggles with his mental health over the years because of his guilt
The chance to save Sohrab is a chance to have Hassan’s forgiveness, even though Hassan forgave him as a child:
If Amir had a healthier mindset, rather than living with the same attitude his father had, he would have allowed Hassan’s forgiveness, but felt he must punish himself instead
The author may actually be showing us that forgiving yourself, and not defining yourself by mistakes, is actually better for all, as Hassan and Ali suffered due to Amir’s need to punish himself
“All I saw was the blue kite. All I smelled was victory. Salvation. Redemption” – Amir, Chapter 7
Meaning and context
During the kite-fighting tournament, Amir focuses on an opposing kite, the one he will need to defeat to win
Amir is desperate to win the competition to impress his father:
Baba won in the past and spoke the day before about feeling Amir would win, which motivates him, as he sees it as a victory that would bring his father’s approval
Analysis
Amir has felt for many years that he is fighting to get his father’s forgiveness for killing his mother, Baba’s wife, in childbirth:
He cannot enjoy it for himself; he is only craving the approval of his father
It shows how Amir is already weighed down by expectation and a desire for redemption, because Baba has made him feel guilty for his mother’s death
Their relationship improves for a while, but eventually goes back to being distant, proving that chasing redemption is naive and fruitless
Amir’s life has already become about guilt and redemption, trapping himself in a system where he feels he is to blame and must atone:
This leads to how he feels about the betrayal of Hassan, as he is used to feeling guilt and thinking he cannot be a good person until he does something to prove it
He never gets forgiveness, but has also been taught by the behaviour of his father, by his emotional neglect, that you are defined by your actions, and should carry the guilt
“And with that came this realisation: that Rahim Khan had summoned me here to atone not just for my sins but for Baba’s too” – Amir, Chapter 18
Meaning and context
The novel starts with the same call in Chapter 1 that is then revisited here in Chapter 18:
Rahim calls from Pakistan, and asks Amir to come see him
In this moment, Rahim has just told Amir that Baba is in fact Hassan’s father, too, not just his:
Amir is furious, and starts to think that the task to find Sohrab that Rahim has given him is to make up for what Baba did to Ali, as well as what Amir did to Hassan
Analysis
Amir comes back to Pakistan because the lure of being good again, and what he believes is his shot at redemption, is too much to resist:
He has been looking for a way to be rid of the guilt that has dogged him, and the words “good again” entice him, playing on that guilt
It shows how Baba’s guilt has fed into Amir:
In a more direct sense, Hassan is tied to Amir more than he realises because they are actually brothers, so Sohrab is actually family
Equally, we see how Baba living in guilt and allowing it to consume him has fed into Amir, who lived with guilt from a young age, even before the incident with Hassan, as he feels guilt for the death of his mother
Examiner Tips and Tricks
Examiners prioritise analytical skill. They reward responses that move beyond simple narrative summary and instead use relevant evidence to explore how a character or theme is presented. This means that listing quotations without clearly linking them to the question is ineffective.
Male relationships
The bonds between the central male characters are what drive the story, whether for the betterment of each of them or not. The dynamics between Amir and Hassan, Amir and Baba, and Baba and Rahim are all shaped by social and cultural rules, some of which are specific to Afghanistan, and some of which are shaped by how male relationships, in any setting, are formed and maintained.
“Hassan and I fed from the same breasts. We took our first steps on the same lawn in the same yard” – Amir, Chapter 2
Meaning and context
Early in the novel, Amir describes how Hassan and he have a close bond:
This is part of him listing their similarities
Ali, Hassan’s father, tells them that there is a brotherhood they have because of this, a kinship “that not even time could break”:
Their friendship is incredibly close, and this is reinforced by their history and by these stories from their parents
Analysis
Male friendships are often not as emotionally open as female friendships, due to stereotypes and expectations around men:
These early tales underline their bond
They also show a tenderness, which is not often part of male relationships
These anecdotes are used to reinforce their bond:
They are as close as brothers, and we find out later that they actually are brothers
“Because the truth of it was, I always felt like Baba hated me a little” – Amir, Chapter 3
Meaning and context
This comes just after Amir and Baba have had a conversation about being honest and Baba’s feelings about religion:
Amir then wonders when they will talk like this again, showing that they do not often have meaningful conversations
Amir feels his father hates him, and then justifies this by saying that he killed his mother:
Baba has made Amir feel guilty about something he could not control, as she died in childbirth
Analysis
It is somewhat acceptable, or at least it certainly was in decades past, for fathers to be cold and distant to their sons:
While not a universal truth, there seems to have been an accepted truth that fathers do not need to show affection to their sons
It is this attitude and their fractured relationship that leads to Amir’s “betrayal” of Hassan:
He sees the blue kite as his shot at redeeming himself in the eyes of his father
His lifelong desire to feel his father’s love makes the trade-off worthwhile in his young and impulsive mind
Arguably, this could be exactly why Amir internalises his guilt and never allows himself forgiveness:
The damage to his self-esteem is clear, even as a young child believing that his own father hates him
Not only does he believe it, but he also thinks it is justified, as he has taken on the guilt for his mother’s death
Racism and ethnicity
The Kite Runner presents the complex dynamics of ethnicity within Afghan society. Khaled Hosseini illustrates how racial tensions have shaped modern Afghanistan, revealing that racism operates both in explicit, visible forms and in more implicit, subtle ways.
“The answer floated to my conscious mind before I could thwart it: He was just a Hazara, wasn’t he?” – Amir, Chapter 7
Meaning and context
As Amir decides to run away, instead of helping Hassan as he is raped by Assef, he reflects on something Assef said about Amir not seeing Hassan as a friend due to their different ethnicities:
He does not like it, but suddenly the idea comes to his mind that Hassan is “just” a Hazara
While Amir is not a vile and unashamed racist like Assef, who believes in ethnic cleansing and shows an admiration for Hitler, the systematic racism in the country informs Amir’s thinking and actions
Analysis
It is an example of how children pick up on how adults talk to and treat other people:
There is no reason for Amir to actually think lesser of Hassan
He is clearly best friends with Hassan, but he has learned that people see a difference, and he has taken on board that he is somehow better because he is Pashtun
When he needs to justify his actions, he remembers that he is considered of a higher status than Hassan, in race and social standing, and allows himself to wonder whether it means his actions are justified:
It is also worth noting that he hates the thought and rejects it, which he does not give himself credit for
“In the end, I was a Pashtun and he was a Hazara, I was Sunni and he was Shi’a, and nothing was ever going to change that” – Amir, Chapter 4
Meaning and context
Amir talks of how he sees Hassan
Yet he notices that Baba never calls Ali his friend:
He realises he never thinks of Hassan as his friend, either
He thinks that their ethnic differences are too big to overcome, and that nothing could change that
Analysis
Even as a young man, he recognises that there is something different and untypical about his friendship with Hassan:
It is interesting that he does not think of the power imbalance in Hassan and Ali’s roles as his father’s servants, but rather that it is their ethnic and religious differences that must be the cause
By referencing how Baba never calls Ali a friend, even though they clearly have that bond, it shows Amir is learning from his father
This is a clear example of the irrationality of racism:
There is no reason not to be friends, and they are very clearly the closest of friends
Yet even though they do everything that any other friends do, the labels they have are enough to mean, to Amir, that what they have isn’t a friendship
“And two years later, in 1998, they massacred the Hazaras in Mazar-i-Sharif” – Amir, Chapter 16
Meaning and context
Rahim explains to Amir how he felt that peace would come when the Taliban came in, but Hassan was less sure:
His immediate reaction was worry about the Hazaras, but Rahim thought there would be no more killing
Two years later, the Taliban started to massacre Hazaras
Hassan was more aware of the trouble this would bring than Rahim, who was Pashtun and had none of the fears of racist violence
Analysis
This shows how racism can pass by those who are unaffected:
Rahim was an intelligent and sensitive man, but his position of high social status and the fact he was Pashtun means he is ultimately shielded from it:
While he will have seen it, he is not keenly aware because it is not something that threatens him personally
By including this historical fact in the novel, the author is reminding us of the horrors of the Taliban:
By citing a historical reality, it also grounds the reader in realism, as this is something that happened, not something invented for the purposes of a book
The verb “massacred” emphasises the scale and brutality of this discrimination, showing it as state-enabled ethnic cleansing rather than isolated acts of hostility
This moment reinforces the entrenched hierarchy between Pashtuns and Hazaras, where Hazaras are consistently marginalised and dehumanised
Sources
Hosseini, K. (2003), The Kite Runner, Riverhead Books
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