Chapter 1-5

On the first page of the introduction Hosseini tells us that he has become the person he is today by what has happened 26 years ago. This suggests several flashbacks are to come and may hint something about its theme how the past will keep haunting you until you deal with it.
Amir's friend Rahim Khan called from Pakistan and he mentioned that " I knew it wasn't just Rahim Khan on the line." This suggests that someone else was listening? We aslo know that Amir now lives in San Francisco. Rahim Khan's words "There is a way to be good again" suggests that what happened 26 years ago was something very bad and traumatic.

In the second chapter there is already a falshback to when Amir and Hassan (his childhood friend) play in the streets of Kabul. Hosseini also explains that Hassan is a Hazara by describing his asian features. It is clear that Amir is in command when he says "Hassan never denied me anything"

It is also stated that Amir's father is a very rich man and they seem to live an opulent lifestyle. However, his Baba seems to be a very busy man with little time for Amir. Hassan and Ali are the servants and live in a modest mud hut next to the great mansion. Ali and Hassan seem religious since the tapestry with the words Allah-u-akbar is hangong on the wall, and is the only thing hanging on the wall. Both children are without mothers since Amir's died just after he was born and Hassan's mother ran away, which seems to be far worse than death.

Ali seem to be extremelu religious infact, when it is stated that he has memorized the Koran! And because this is such an honorable thing to do, it was strange that he married Sanaubar since she had such a dishonorable reputation.

Amir and Hassan have fed from the same woman when they were infants which created a brotherhood between them.

We get to know some more of Baba, that he is certainly successful, but it seems like all he is doing is trying to impress the community or the people around him. Baba is clearly not a religious man and quite liberal actually. Amir says he did not turn out as his father, not at all.
Instead he reads a lot of books and memorizes poems. Baba is not too impressed and wants Amir to play soccer. He turns out to be an ultimate failure. Baba wants him to be like he was growing up but they are complete opposites. When Amir overhears this conversation he gets heartbroken, which is of course a natural response, but the last words are quite alarming "Rahim Khan had been wrong about the mean streak thing." This foreshadows that maybe the incident in 1975 was Amir doing something very mean.

In the fourth chapter it is explained that Ali and Baba grew up together just like Amir and Hassan. When Amir is talking about his childhood, there are several western influences like the movies they watch and the car that Baba drives, and the things from America is looked upon as high status.

As Amir is reading to Hassan, sometimes Amir starts teasing Hassan about words he doesn't know and such which is certainly a mean streak. Also, Hassan seem much smarter than Amir since he can solve riddles much faster and better than Amir, but he still cannot read. The fact that Amir doesn't teach Hassan to read indicates that Amir wants to be better than Hassan and he is rather egocentric. However, Amir finds out that he is a great story teller and starts writing stories.Rahm Khan discovers this too and tells him that he has a gift from God.

Suddenly Afghanistan changes and gunshots are heard, but Ali protects the children by saying there are just people hunting ducks. Both Amir and Hassan are terrified but only Hassan has a father there to comfort him. Later Baba comes home and embraces them, and Amir is glad for whatever happened that night, because he got a hug from his dad.

What really happened was that the Russian invasion of Afghanistan had begun.

Later Amir and Hassan meet the notorious Assef who is an evil kid with a worship of Hitler. Assef is about to hurt Amir when Hassan takes out his slingshot and aims at Assef's eye, which leads him to retreat.

Later on Hassan's birthday he gets a surgery from Baba to remove his harelip and Amir says it is ironic because the same winter, Hassan stopped smiling. This means that someting terrible is about to happen to both of them.

I like that Housseini has kept a lot of the arabic words so that we as readers get to research some of the words and get a fuller understanding of the muslim culture which is so alien to many of us.