Boy Overboard

The son had loved his father dearly but does not favor his way of life. His interest in school greatly outweighed his interest or desire to work on ‘The Boat’. He still had a love for the sea and in some way felt like he should carry out his family’s tradition. After his uncle had accepted a new job he took his position on the boat and promised his father that we would continue to sail with him for as long as he lived, and when his father passed despite the desires of his mother he followed his dreams and pursued education and all of its wonders. After living his life he finds himself longing for the sea again and isn’t so satisfied with his life.

The text chosen for this unit id the book Refuge by prominent Australian writer Jackie French (2013). Refuge follows the story of Faris, a young refugee feeling from his homeland with his grandmother to Australia. On the dangerous boat journey from Indonesia to Australia, they encounter a terrible storm where Faris falls unconscious and wakes up living his dream life in Australia. However, he has no recollection of how he got there. Whilst on the beach, he meets a strange group of children all from different times and places. Faris soon discovers that each child is like him, a migrant who travelled to Australia searching for a better place. Each child is living in their own ‘dream’ Australia and the beach provides a sort of ‘refuge’ from reality for them. Eventually, Faris has to make the decision to either continue living in this dream land or face his reality. This book is interesting as unlike other refugee texts, this novel serves to tell the multicultural history of Australian immigration. French relays the more than 60 000 year old history of people travelling to Australia by boat and makes the statement that all immigrants and refugees need to be treated with empathy and understanding.

The short story “The Boat” by Alistair MacLeod is narrated by a man who comes from a fishing family. His mother’s side of the family has forever lived and worked by the sea and continues this tradition. The narrator’s father always wanted to be an academic, but worked on the boat to support his family. Through this passage it is evident that the parents’ characters clash in many aspects of their lives and are in constant conflict. MacLeod demonstrates this through the use of repetition, the contrast in other unrelated ideas, and through information that is withheld.

Since many people who saw how hard he had worked to finish this project were there listening to his speech, Amir’s father gains this feeling of pride that all Afghans strive to attain, one which comes publicly and through the strong approval of peers. Since the “people stood up and cheered”, “clapped for a long time”, and “shook his [Baba’s] hand”, it is clear that they recognize the hard work that Baba has put into making the orphanage. Even though Baba may have partially wanted to build the orphanage to provide a safe haven for children who needed help and shelter, he also wanted to do it to show how well-rounded he was. After all, Baba wasn’t a proficient architect, or even a normal architect; he wanted to show to his peers that he could accomplish whatever he set his mind to. Baba makes a big deal out of the grand opening so everyone can see this great deed that he’s done while showcasing his talents and ability to succeed in things that are new and unfamiliar to him. He achieves this spectacularly, evident through all of the people who sat in chairs and even a “lot of people [who] had to stand to watch the opening ceremony” (14). After the speech, his whole audience congratulates him, boosting his self esteem and sense of pride. Another example of Afghan pride can be seen when Baba is being doubted by those surrounding him. When the “...people were always

In addition, equality is difficult to find in the novel through gender discrimination. Women have very different roles in Afghanistan society and are treated unlike those in America. In Afghanistan, there are arranged marriages, which are forced marriages usually done upon the father of the bride. Women are unable to marry who they truly love, unless they get lucky. Unfortunately, that isn’t the case for Sanaubar, Ali’s wife. Ali and Sanaubar are, “First cousin[s] and therefore [he is] a natural choice for a spouse” (8). This reveals that Sanaubar, nineteen, was forced into a relationship with Ali and that women’s roles are different from those of men. Women don’t get the firsthand choice on who they marry. Therefore, It wouldn’t be fair for women to marry the person they didn’t

In his critically acclaimed first novel, The Kite Runner, author Khaled Hosseini tells the story of a 12-year-old Afghan boy named Amir, who seeks his father’s love but is hindered by his own cowardice. Both Amir’s cowardice and his father’s lack of attention are compounded by the people and events surrounding Amir, until they feed into each other in a vicious, never-ending cycle.

Morris Gleitzman's Boy Overboard shows the vitality of desire, sending Jamal and Bibi to Australia and out of Afghanistan, and concern driving them to survival, and how crucial it is to have both.

He even finds himself wanting to laugh at his situation. After this, he goes into a reminiscing and even happy tone about what he thought life in Canada would be like. He states he used to dream of Canada and of the opportunities of a new life outside of his homeland. He recalled how he planned to get married, have children, begin a family with a house, maybe even a cottage on the edge of the city. Middle class was his goal, he’d provide for his family, a stark difference from the “hard-to-mouth” life he was used to. But then, all too quickly, this daydream is ripped from him as his feet pressed to asphalt, continuing his never ending search for a job. With each step, he finds his sense of revulsion increasing, and thus begins his doubts. He wonders if he was really happy on the island, happier than he even realized before reaching Canada. Again, reality tears him from his regrets and hopes and he knew he needed to find a job or he will starve. His tone quickly takes a sharp turn into humorous denial, perhaps another past thought of what he thought life in Canada would be like; “No one starved in Canada; that only happened in such places as India or Africa. But definitely not Canada!” For a third time, the reality of his starving, growling stomach brings him back to his current, unfortunate situation, in which he becomes slightly panicked at the prospect of actually not getting a meal that night. He suddenly feels out of place,

Ultimately, Mariam and Laila attempt to escape, but fail, which in turn infuriates Rasheed even more. These two women then work together and protect each other, and in due course, kill Rasheed during one of his “ritual” beatings. In the end, Mariam is killed for murdering her husband, and Laila, with her children, Aziza and Zalmai, finds Tariq and marries him; then, together they start their own family. Throughout the course of the story, not only was a passionate, well-written story presented, but also a clear picture of what Afghan culture and its aspects are really like.

First, Amir’s relationship with his father, Baba, helped create Amir’s identity. Their intricate relationship often left Amir feeling worthless as if he could not live up to the standards of a Pashtun. This negatively impacted Amir growing up; his values constantly changed as he tried to form a close bond with his father. Baba raised Amir to believe that everyone in Afghanistan had a certain role to play in life, but they should all be treated with respect. Baba’s values made Amir think he had disappointed his father. The high expectations that Baba had for Amir showed that he cared about their reputation. Being the child Amir was, he translated Baba’s hardness as though his father were unhappy to have a child such as Amir. Amir recounts the emotion displayed on his father’s face after an afternoon together; he laments, “Mostly I will never forget Baba’s valiant efforts to conceal the disgusted

In the novel, A Thousand Splendid Suns, and the movie, The Kite Runner, the setting is similarly in Kabul, Afghanistan. A Thousand Splendid Suns centers on life in Kabul, being seen through the eyes of two Afghani women, Mariam and Laila, whose lives are thrown together through tragedy. In Afghanistan, the city in which people can experience change in a woman’s status the most is in Kabul. When communists rule Afghanistan, there is an attempt to more gender equality in education. However, when the Taliban came into power, women were imprisoned into their homes and their basic human rights were violated. When the Taliban falls and the union comes to power, women were given back their legal human rights, but it still remains a slow move to equality. The Kite Runner displays the issue of ethnic discrimination in Afghanistan, more in depth, the relationship between Pashtuns and Hazaras. Baba’s father sets an example for him of being kind to Hazara people, even though they are disgraced and mistreated in reality. He could have easily sent Ali to an orphanage after the death of his parents, but rather, chose to raise him in his household. Baba does the same with Hassan, although this is complicated by the fact that Hassan is actually his son. Ali refers to Baba as family, but

Alistair Macleod, a Canadian author, enjoys writing about the Canadian culture in Nova Scotia. He is the author of the novel No Great Mischief and many short stories including The Boat. Both creations of his have a common subject: Culture in Nova Scotia. It is also noted that “Macleod’s short stories are pervasively somber in that they depict a culture that is an gradual loss or erosion of value” (Riegal 133) In his short story, The Boat, the reader senses this mourning of the decline of this culture that comes with the newer generations. The message received in this short story is to never let anyone stop you from doing something you love and the importance of doing what you want to do. This message is important because it allows the reader to realize that if they are not happy they might not have enough time to do anything about it. Through out the story, the reader senses the struggle the narrator has which is to pick between the traditional life of a fisherman and the new life of education. After he was a fisherman along side his father’s he then followed his father’s dream of having an education and became a professor. However, the short story’s narration is nostalgic as if regretting his final decision. The narrator’s lack of connection with a loved one, a loss of culture and his reminiscing of his past experiences with the sea demonstrate this nostalgia.

"The Kite Runner" tells the story of two children growing up in the 1970s in Afghanistan. Amir-the protagonist is a young son of a wealthy businessman in Kabul. Hassan, son of his poor servant Ali, is his partner. The two boys are inseparable, even in an ethnically divided Afghanistan,

Jamal: The journey was the worst part of being a refugee, but I’m glad I had Bibi there with me.

The main character, uprooted and orphaned, Jadine Childs, who has been educated with the financial support by Valerian Street, a wealthy white American owner of the estate, is staying on the island in between her modelling work in Paris and New York. As an orphan, Jadine had been brought up by Sydney and Ondine Childs, hard-working proud “Philadelphian Negroes” (Morrison 130) whose jobs – butler and housekeeper are their essential responsibilities in the estate. Their niece, Jadine, the Street’s protégée, was taken under the wing of the confectionery entrepreneur Valerian Street, who financed her education in Paris, which undoubtedly enabled her