English essay
The play considers both large and small events in life
The play ‘Boy Overboard’ by Patricia Cornelius addresses the large and small events that take
place in a child or adult’s life living in Afghanistan DURING THE TALIBAN ERA. IT EXPLORES
THE POOR LIVING CONDITIONS AND THE VIOLATION OF HUMAN LIBERTIES OF ALL
CITIZENS AND PARTICULARLY WOMEN AND GIRLS. In the grand scheme of things, the
smaller events seem to turn into or foreshadow bigger events in the future. This play
discusses highly important ideas like being hopeful and positive in a war torn country and the
ideas of sexism. This play shows the importance of hope and positivity through showing an
audience the juxtaposition between a child’s thought’s in a 3rd world country and thoughts of
a person living a normal life. This play also highlights the DAMAGE sexism CAUSES towards
women and girls. In this play the audience will see that women and girls are found to not be
able to have freedom or an education. They are also found to be powerless and voiceless for
their beliefs.
This play introduces many small events about how the lives of women and girls in Afghanistan
have changed since the Taliban took over in the years of 1996 to 2001 and introduced the
Sharia Law. The lives of women and girls were changed for the worst. Young girls would no
longer be able to go to school, their freedom and right were reduced. They had to cover up,
were voiceless and powerless. This has been shown in a stage direction in scene 5 : ‘Fatima
picks up a book and begins to tear it up.’ This suggests AND IS SYMBOLIC OF the
oppressive government WHO DISCOVERED AND STOPPED the school that Fatima (Jamal
and Bibi’s mother) has created. Fatima IS A STRONG CHARACTER WHO CHALLENGES THE
STEREOTYPE THAT ISLAMIC WOMEN ARE PASSIVE AND COMPLIANT is a woman that fights
for what she wants and throughout the play has been shown to have a strong will to
overpower the system full of sexism and stereotypes. Fatima then later states ‘we have never
not been at war, and it has devastated us.’ This means that the women have always found it
hard to be accepted by the government and men. They are tired of not being treated equally
to the men and are tired of being pushed to the side. Women and girls want to be able to
have their freedom to do what’s right for them and their country and they want to have the
privilege to be able to have a say on what they think is right or wrong in their country.
INCLUDE QUOTESThey are fed up with not getting the education that they think and know
they deserve. For a while now, women and children have been restricted to learn and have an
education in their country. Education is a large component in any person’s life and we need it
to understand the reality of our world. This idea shown in the stage direction reflects a sense
of social conflict. WRITE ABOUT THE ILLUSORY IMAGE OF THE GIRLS IN THE BACKGROUND
In addition, a girl named Rashida was introdu...
