Cutting the Strings Trivia Quiz

Answer: kite fighting

Every winter the boys, Amir and Hassan, look forward to the kite fighting competitions that happen in every neighbourhood of Kabul, Afghanistan. The object of the tournament is to remain the last kite still aloft, and Amir manages to win one year in 1975, much to his father's joy.

However the boys try, they are not good at making the kites and go to Saifo, a local kite maker to purchase their kites. Amir is the better kite fighter and Hassan serves as his assistant, feeding him rope and reeling it in. Hassan is magical as a kite runner, one who chases after the cut kites and finds where they fall to the ground.

Answer: He is a Hazara

Hazaras in Afghan society were considered lower than the more common Pashtun Afghans. Hazaras are mostly Shi'a Muslims whereas the Pashtuns are by and large Sunni. Hazaras are treated as the lower class of Afghan society and it is not surprising to see them as servants or in menial jobs.

Assef, whose mother was a German and from whom he inherited his blond hair and blue eyes, was brought up on the doctrines taught by Adolph Hitler. He believes in the ethnic superiority of the Pashtuns. Thus, he persecutes Hassan for being a Hazara, and persecutes Amir for being Hassan's friend.

Answer: rape

When Hassan is out running the last kite flying, the blue kite, for Amir, he encounters Assef and his cronies in an alley. Amir, wondering what is taking Hassan so long to return, gets to the alley and hides out of sight of the gang so as to not get assaulted by them.

Hassan had run down the kite, and Assef initially demands the kite in return for Hassan's safe passage. Hassan is unwilling to relinquish control of the kite as he would do anything for Amir, and he knew how much the kite meant to Amir. Assef then pushes Hassan to the ground and has Wali and Kamal hold him down while Assef rapes him. Amir doesn't utter a word in all this, something that might have saved Hassan from this fate.

Answer: A black bear

Many stories about people may grow in the telling, but Baba's strength was great enough so that people never doubted for a moment that he had beaten a black bear in a wrestling match. Baba is much like a bear himself, dark, tall and hairy and muscular. He loves throwing parties and commands respect from the people around him.

Baba is a well-to-do businessman who built a grand house in the Wazir Akbar Khan district of Kabul, Afghanistan. He is a man with many ideals, and he tries to live up to them and instill them in his son, Amir. He is a pillar of the community in Kabul, having founded an orphanage and always having money for the beggars.

Answer: In the tank of a fuel truck

The first leg of Amir and Baba's exodus from Afghanistan is done in the back of the truck of a man called Karim. Karim is supposed to ferry the cargo of fleeing people to Jalalabad and from there his brother is supposed to take them the rest of the way across the border to Pakistan. However, Karim's brother's truck is broken, and has been that way for a while, much to the anger of the passengers.

In Jalalabad, the refugees are forced to hide out in a basement before a solution is reached. Karim's cousin was the owner of a fuel truck, and the refugees were lowered into the tank itself. In complete darkness and gas fumes they drove across the border and eventually found themselves in Pakistan, away from the troubles of Afghanistan... or so thought Amir.

Answer: a teacher

Much to her father's chagrin, Soraya wants to become a teacher, and enrolls in San Jose State in that program. General Taheri wants Soraya to be a lawyer or a political scientist, but Soraya realizes that this is merely an attempt to further himself through her achievements.

Soraya started teaching when she was but in the fourth grade. A maid hired at her father's house, Ziba, was illiterate and had requested Soraya's help in writing letters to her sister in Iran. Soraya offered to help Ziba learn to read and write, and within a year Ziba was already reading children's books. That's when Soraya realized that she wanted to become a teacher.

Answer: Rahim Khan

Out of the blue, Rahim Khan calls up Amir and tells him that "there is a way to be good again". Rahim Khan doesn't explicitly say that he knows what secret Amir has been hiding all of these years, but he certainly alludes to it. Amir's need for redemption and Rahim Khan's unasked question make Amir get on a plane to Pakistan to meet his old friend and mentor.

Rahim Khan had been Baba's business partner. He always encouraged Amir, especially his writing. Amir's most treasured gift was a leather-bound notebook given to him by Rahim Khan. In it, Amir started his career as a writer.

Answer: Adultery

At the halftime of a soccer game in the Ghazi Stadium, two people were brought out of dusty red pickup trucks, a man and a woman. They were buried up to their chest in the ground behind the goal on the south side of the stadium, and a man wearing John Lennon sunglasses came out of a third truck. When the cleric finished reciting his prayer, the man in the sunglasses hurled rock after rock at the two until they were pronounced dead by the doctor at hand.

Afterward, Farid arranged for a meeting between the man in the sunglasses and Amir, and the meeting was surprisingly easy for Farid to arrange.

Answer: Named for a hero in a Persian epic

The tragedy of Rostam and Sohrab is one of Hassan's favourite stories. Hassan is illiterate and Amir reads to him often, and one of the books that Hassan likes is the "Shahnamah" in which the tragedy is found.

Sohrab and Rostam are warring, and Rostam fatally wounds Sohrab in a duel. Sohrab reveals that he is Rostam's long-lost son and all he ever wanted was his father's love. The story always brought tears to Hassan's eyes, however Amir felt that the irony was lost on him because of his bad relationship with his own father.

Answer: concussion

Amir gets beaten badly by Assef who was wielding his brass knuckles. Amir suffered seven broken ribs, one of which gave him a pneumothorax (punctured lung). Assef also broke Amir's jaw and several teeth, and Amir's jaw had to be wired to heal it. Amir sustained abdominal bleeding and a ruptured spleen, various cuts all over his body. One of the cuts was a split lip, and Amir would now have a scar like Hassan did after his surgery to repair his harelip.

The only reason that Amir was able to get away from the fight alive was because Sohrab saved him. Fulfilling his father's prophecy that Assef would one day be called 'One-eyed Assef', Sohrab pleaded with Assef to stop. When Assef refused, Sohrab shot a brass ball into Assef's eye, rendering him incapacitated.