Chapters Twenty and Twenty-One Study Guide Questions

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The Kite Runner

Chapters Twenty and Twenty-One Study Guide Questions

Directions: Read chaptersTwenty and Twenty-One and answer the questions below.

KNOWLEDGE

1.What does Amir notice about the children sitting with the burqa-clad mothers who are begging in the streets?

2.List two reasons there are not a lot of trees:

1.

2.

3.What is the smell that makes Amir’s eyes water?

4.When Amir first sees the Taliban, why is Farid upset with him?

5.Who does the old beggar used to know?

6.List everything that Amir learns about his mother (page 250-251)

7.What does Amir see hanging near a restaurant?

8.What horrific display happens at the soccer game?

APPLICATION

9.Farid tells Amir that the “only people in Kabul who get to eat lamb now are the Taliban.” What is implied about the Taliban from this statement?

10.The old beggar that talks to Amir quotes poetry. We learn that he used to teach at the University. What does his situation suggest about the educators who live in Afghanistan during the Taliban rule?

11.There are about two hundred and fifty orphans. What are some of the reasons that Zaman gives why there are so many children in the orphanage? And, how does the Taliban contribute to the problem?

12.Summarize what Zaman tells Amir about where he can find Sohrab (pages 255-256):

ANALYSIS/SYNTHESIS

Characterization and The Hero Cycle

13.Hero Cycle and Amir:Review Amir’s journey since he left Afghanistan with his father. Describe three struggles and/or obstacles that Amir must overcome. List them in order of importance-1 being the most difficult and 3 being the least difficult.

1. ______
2. ______
3. ______

Characterization and Theme

14.On page 263 Farid tells Amir that it is “Best to forget.” Amir responds that he does not “want to forget anymore.” How is this statement significantly different than how Amir felt since the beginning of the novel?

Characterization and Devil Archetype

15.Page 271 Describe the Taliban man that Amir is looking for at the soccer game. This man is the Devil Archetype of the novel. The Devil Archetype is the villain, who represents the forces of evil, chaos, and darkness. He or she is almost as strong as the hero. Sometimes he or she will take a monstrous form,but other times the appearance is more subtle. These subtle differences are usually presented with contrasts. For example, he or she will have dark hair with light eyes. How does this Taliban man’s dress/appearance represent the devil archetype?

UNIVERSAL THEME

16.Page 261 Amir visits his childhood home in Kabul: “Gingerly, I walked up the driveway where tufts of weed now grew between the sun-faded bricks. I stood outside the gates of my father’s house, feeling like a stranger. I set my hands on the rusty bars, remembering how I’d run through these same gates thousands of times as a child, for things that mattered not at all now and yet had seemed so important then. I peered in.” What is the significance of his feeling like a “stranger.” And what does he mean by caring for “things that mattered not at all”?