The first turning point in this novel is when Amir witnessed Hassan’s rape and makes the decision to do nothing, he just wanted to get the kite to please Baba.

Hosseini has built up to this event by foreshadowing that something will happen later in the novel that will change there lives forever, In a negative way.

Hosseini writes to show this:

Page 20.

Baba: “There is something missing in that boy.”….

“And where is he headed?” Baba said. “A boy who won’t stand up for himself becomes a man who can’t stand up to anything.

Page 25

‘I would always feel guilty about it later. So I’d try to make up for it by giving him one of my old shirts or a broken toy. I would tell myself that was amends enough for a harmless prank.’

Page 10

‘Looking back on it now- I think the foundation of what happened in the winter of 1975 – and all that followed – was already laid in those first words’

Page 51

‘ He was always doing that, reading my mind ‘