Timeline

1975

The beginning of the book begins with a flashback. “I became what I am today at the age of twelve, on a frigid overcast day in the winter of 1975.” (1) This was the night of the kite fights, when Amir chose not to help Hassan. Chapter 8 continues, “For a week, I barely saw Hassan.” (80). “And for the first time in my life, I couldn’t wait for spring. (87).This is also when Amir and Hassan’s friendship begins to fall apart.

1976

“I turned thirteen that summer of 1976, Afghanistan’s next to last summer of peace and anonymity.” (93).This was the year in which Ali and Hassan quit working for Baba and left his house.

March 1981

This was the year that Baba and Amir escape Kabul, Afghanistan. They left to Jalalabad, which is about 170km southeast of Kabul. From there they would be taken to Peshawar, Pakistan. Here are a couple examples of what year it was. “As is you weren’t supposed to get sick when you were eighteen.” (111).The last reference to time was Amir’s thirteenth birthday. Now he is eighteen. Another is, “In the morning, Jalauddin – our seventh servant in five years – would probably think we’d gone out for a stroll or a drive.” (112).This reference is another example that the story is five years in the future.

Fremont, California. 1980s.

Baba and Amir are now living in Fremont, California.

“In 1980, when we were still in Kabul, the U.S. announced it would be boycotting the Olympic Games in Moscow.” (126). “For two years, I tried to get Baba to enroll in ESL classes to improve his broken English. But he scoffed at the idea.” (126).

“That summer of 1983, I graduated from high school at the age of twenty, by far the oldest senior tossing his mortarboard on the football field that day.” (131).

“The following summer, the summer of 1984 – the summer I turned twenty-one – Baba sold his Buick and bought a dilapidated ’71 Volkswagen bus for $550 from an old Afghan acquaintance who’d been a high-school science teacher in Kabul.” (137).This was the year Baba and Amir began going to the flea market.

May 1985

Amir speaks to Soraya for the first time without her father present at the flea market.  Soraya and Amir small talk is about Amir and his writings.  "Would you like to read one of my stories?" (147) "I would like that" (147)  Amir knew he should not be speaking to her but he goes over to their booth anyway.  Instead of making it seem he is going to visit with her, he asks for her father.  "Will you tell him I stopped by to pay my respects?" (146)  This way, Amir can speak to her but make it seem like he was there only to talk to her father.  This continues on for a few weeks.  Finally her father sees what is going on with the frequent conversations and sternly but politely explains to Amir that he is not handling the situation as he should.  "So it's my duty to remind you that you are among peers in this flea market." (152)  Amir is not allowed in their tradition to casually make conversations without doing it in their traditional manner.

Summer 1985

Baba is told he has cancer.  After Baba goes to the doctor, he finds out that he has cancer.  "Oat Cell Carcinoma." (156)  There is no cure for his cancer but the doctor suggests that Baba could always do chemotherapy.  Baba refuses because it will not cure him.  It will only hold off the enevitable.  "It means it wouldn't change the outcome, just prolong it." (156)  Baba does not want the treatments and Amir challenges his father about trying the chemotherapy.  Instead, Baba gets angry at Amir.  "Don't you challenge me in public, Amir.  Ever.  Who do you think you are?"  (156)  Baba has made up his mind and demands the respect from Amir of his wishes.

Shortly after the first of the next year, 1986, Amir asks Baba to ask Soraya's father if he could marry his daughter.  "I want you to go khastegari.  I want you to ask Gerneral Taheri for his daughter's hand." (161)  Baba goes to their house and asks Gerneral Taheri for Amir.  After he says yes, Baba tells Amir that Soraya would like to speak to him.  She tells him of her past but it does not change they way Amir feels toward her.  "Nothing you said changes anything.  I was us to marry." (165)  Amir is happy and they marry within a few months due to the heath of Baba.

After Amir and Soraya's wedding, Baba soon passes away.  Amir  and Soraya moved into an apartment close to her parents house in Fremont.  "Shortly after Baba's death, Soraya and I moved into a one-bedroom apartment in Fremont, just a few blocks away from the gerneral and Khala Jamila's house." (180)  There they begin their lives together as husband and wife. 

Summer 1988

Amir finishes his first book.  The excitement comes 6 weeks later when Amir gets a phone call from a publisher.  "Six weeks later, a man named Martin Greenwalt called from New York and offered to represent me."  (183)   His books gets published in 1989 which is the first of his many book accomplishements.  It is at this time that Amir really feels good about his life.  "There was so much goodness in my life.  So much happiness.  I wondered whether I deserved any of it."  (183)  All of these great things are happening to Amir and Soraya but he is still feeling all the guilt he has been carrying around all these years and wonders if he is worthy of his sucess.

March 1991

Soraya and Amir have been trying to concieve a baby.  They began trying to concieve since 1989 but by 1991 they were unsucessful.  Soraya is very disappointed that they have not concieved and brings the news to her parents.  "God knows best, bachem.  Maybe it wasn't meant to be." (186) These are the words Soraya's mother can find to help in comforting her daughter.  They have a final option to concider which is adoption.  Soraya does not want to adopt for fear that the child would one day look for his/her real parents.  "For one thing, they grow up and want to know who their natural parents are." (187)  This is not an option she would like to explore mostly because the the blood lines that are so important in their culture.  "Blood is a powerful thing, bachem, and when you adopt, you don't know whose blood you're bringing into your house." (188)  They both know their culture lies heavily on the blood line and this is why they are having so many doubts.

June 2001

Amir gets a phone call from Rahim Khan who says that he wants Amir to go to Pakistan to see him.  "Rahim Khan is very sick." (191) Amir explains to Soraya that he needs to go but does not know how long he will be gone.  Within a week of his phone call, Amir is on his way to Pakistan.  All of Amir's past has kept him awake the night before the flight as he awaits the unknown.  "I rested my head against the window.  Waited, in vain, for sleep." (194) Amir is off to be reunited with his past.

June 2001 

Amir is being reminded (20 years later) of his friend Hassan through the letters he has written to Amir and facing his past of the way he treated Hassan.  Hassan goes on to tell Amir in his letter that he hopes to see him again someday.  "And I dream that someday you will return to Kabul to revisit the land our childhood.  If you do, you will find an old faithful friend waiting for you" (218)  In these lines, Amir finds that Hassan has not forgotten Amir and how high Hassan holds Amir on a pedestal.  It is through Rahim Kahn that he finds out the truth of his relationship to Hassan.  "All of you, you bunch of lying goddamn bastards!" (222)  Amir found out that his father is also a father to Hassan in which makes them brothers.  "I'm thirty-eight years old and I've just found out my whole life is on big fucking lie!" (223)  This is a significant part of the book in which Amir knows what is meant by "there is a way to be good again" (192)  Amir knows that he must now go in search of his nephew and do what is right, for Hassan. 

Different physcial settings are when Amir reads about Kabul after he and Baba left through Hassan's letter.  "Kindness is gone from the land and you cannot escape the killings" (216)  This is significant in understanding what the people of Amir's past had endured and gives us, the reader, some empathy of why things turned out the way they did for Hassan and his family.  Another physical setting that has changed is significant to the reader is when Hassan describes the pomegranate tree we have read so much about.  "The droughts have dried the hill and the tree hasn't borne fruit in years, but Sohrab and I still sit under its shade and I read to him from the Shahnamah" (217)  Although the landscape has changed in Kabul, the memories of a childhood have not been forgotten.  Hassan finds comfort in the area of a past he once had shared with Amir listening to him read stories, but now he is reading the stories to his son.

The geographical setting changed when Rahim Kahn tells Amir about the life in Kabul after Amir and Baba left.  He went in search of Hassan and asked him and his wife to come and help him take care of the house.  "In the morning, Hassan told me he and Farzana had decided to move to Kabul with me" (207)  This is significant because this is where they all left eachother.  Ali and Hassan left the house before Amir and Baba left for America.  Now they are back in the same place but many things have changed.