Important Chapters in The Kite Runner – #1

The first chapter I will look at is the opening chapter. Chapter one begins with the narrator of the story  stating, “I became what I am today at the age of twelve.” He describes a crumbling mud wall and an alley beside a frozen creek in 1975. He affirms that he has been “peeking into that deserted alley for the last twenty-six years.”

The narrator then tells us that he had received a telephone call from his friend, Rahim Khan, in Pakistan. To him, it isn’t just Rahim Khan on the line; it is his past which is filled with sins for which he never atoned. After he hangs up on the call, he goes for a walk along Spreckels Lake on the edge of Golden Gate Park where he sees a pair of kites soaring in the sky. They remind him of Hassan, the hare lipped kite runner who had once told the narrator, “For you a thousand times over.” He replays the last words of the telephone conversation from Rahim Khan, “There is a way to be good again.” All the names of that time in 1975 flood back into his mind, the time when everything changed and he became who he is today.

We do not yet know our narrator’s name, but we do know some significant things about him: he lives in San Francisco and is of a Middle Eastern background. We learn that 1975, when he was twelve years old, was a pivotal time in his life; and there was a young man called Hassan who was an important part of his life. This young man Hassan seems to have been devoted to our narrator. The purpose of this chapter is to prepare us for the extraordinary story about to unfold.