Guantanamo boy Anna Perera Fiction 6/2/19

1)Guantanamo Boy is a fiction book about a young boy who is kidnapped and taken where no teenager should ever be. Khalid the main character who lives in England six months after 9/11, takes a family trip to Pakistan only to be kidnapped during his stay. For the next two years, Khalid is imprisoned in Guantanamo Bay suffering interrogations for unknown reasons to him.

2) The character I found interesting was Khalid. Khalid was an interesting character to me because he was an ordinary boy in a very laid back lifestyle living in Rochdale, England. khalid would help his cousin Tariq on building their own computer game while playing other games as well. He also plays in a local football team with his friends even though they aren’t very good. He seems like a good friend and also a good brother as he has a strong relationship with his sisters. When Khalid is imprisoned his ability to continue to ask questions about where he is or what year it shows me that he does not understand why he is being held in prison and that he is innocent. relating to Khalid as a young teenager you can become inpatient sometimes and this occurs in the prison when Khalid is suffering he begins to yell and scream. “WHAT’S THE BLEEDIN DATE” is a quote from Khalid when asking a guard for the date who is not responding. I can relate to Khalid as I also play computer games and play football also so I know what type of life he is living. When Khalid goes out to find his dad in Karachi by himself where bad things can happen relates to me once when I was little my family was in a big mall and I went to find my dad and I got lost. Since being so young you don’t really understand what could really happen when you’re wandering out alone at such a young age without a clue where you are. I began to worry and get impatient being away from my family as I could not find them and this relates to Khalid when being kidnapped after looking for his dad. In prison, Khalid became inpatient causing himself to do unusual things.

3) The main message I got from this text was that the tides can change so quickly in terrible places, one minute your playing computer games with your friends then you’re suddenly kidnapped and being taken to prison for nothing. When in a dangerous place such as Karachi you always have to be aware. When Khalid is roaming the streets looking for his dad US soldiers are asking people to suggest any suspicious looking people for money. It seems as though someone spotted Khalid on the streets and told US soldiers he may be a terrorist when he is only innocent leading to the kidnapping. The people in Karachi are not very wealthy and when US soldiers are asking residents to do something for a large amount of money they will do anything for it.

4) While reading the book I found that Khalid struggles to keep a grip the longer he is in prison. The loss of sleep drains the emotion out of him and causes himself to imagine things that were not really there. Being in innocent 15 year old boy khalid faces questions he has no clue about. Classified as terrorist by the CIA Khalid suffers waterboarding, isolation, abuse and more reasons causing him to become weak and act differently. ‘HOW DARE YOU DROWN ME’ is another quote from Khalid after waterboarding. While being isolated for the start of his time being kidnapped Khalid must adapt to the feeling of being alone and not having anyone around him. This must be hard for Khalid when he goes back to Rochdale, as he is not used to people being around 24/7 after two years in prison.

5) The title of the text ‘Guantanamo boy’ is appropriate at it sums up a young boy being kidnapped and having to live in Guantanamo prison for 2 years.

6) In my opinion, I do not recommend this book as it drags on a lot. when Khalid was released from prison there was not a clear explanation to why he was set free. during the time in prison, Khalid had many flashbacks which dragged on a couple of pages making it hard for me to understand what was going on. in the time reading this book it was a little bit too long for me to complete before the deadline. Although I can relate to the main character with similarities the book was boring to me and the storyline was not as good as I expected. I do not believe that there must be a line where torture stops. Innocent people are being waterboarded just because they are thought to be terrorists and this should be stopped. Guantanamo Bay was free for all massacre involving innocent humans and it needs to stop. even though there aren’t many terrorists in New Zealand this affects me and everyone else because when we (innocent humans) go to airports we have to get our bags scanned and we can only carry certain amounts of liquid because previously terrorists in foreign countries had bombed airports or smuggled items. This affects everyone else in the world because every airport has to scan bags and have certain rules to keep the world safe from terrorists.