5 Years of My Life

In the assigned reading that we had from the memoir Five Years of My Life, there was a lot of detail of the abuse that was suffered by a young man who spent five years of his life under the suspicion on the American government that he was a terrorist. I believe three of those years he spent at the U.S. Naval Guantanamo camp where he was put through the most brutal abuse. Just from the small section of the memoir that we read for class, I was appalled of the harsh treatment that this young man was put through.

"I didn't recognize the man. He was hanging as I was from the
ceiling I couldn't tell whether he was dead or alive. His body
was mostly swollen and blue, although in some places it was pale and
white. I could see a lot of blood in his face, dark streams of it

I have read little bits and pieces about Guantanamo, but never researched on the tourture methods till now. I am disgusted about the brutality and it makes me sick hear about it. Many of these men are innocent and do not present any danger to our country. I understand detaining suspicious individuals, but I do not understand why there would be a need to torture them. It makes me sad that the US is in an economic downfall, yet we still continue to spend money on things like Guantanamo Bay. Even with Obamas's promise to shut it down, they just received more funding to upgrade the security there. Which makes you ask yourself why would they need to upgrade the security if the plan is to shut it down? Obviously the shut down of Guantanamo Bay is not going to happen anytime in the near future.

Waltz with Bashir

I thought the movie, Waltz with Bashir, was the best film that we have viewed so far. It had the most powerful message and was very interesting to watch. I enjoyed that it was a graphic film and not an actual documentary because I think it would have been way to hard to sit through it and watch if it was real. The last 2-3 minutes of the film was the most powerful part of the film, which made the rest of it seem real. I did not even know about this massacre until this film.

One powerful message of the film was the songs that were played in it. They all talked about the war almost as if they were making fun of it or they were turning killing into a lighter topic. This is because the film was anti-war and the songs were designed to show how pointless war actually is.

I loved the main character of the film, when he was younger he reminded me of a graphic version of Edward Norton(who is one of my favorite actors). How he did not remember what happened to him during the war and went and interviewed all of these people to figure out what was occuring in his nightmares. It seemed that everyone who he went and talked to had there own struggles with the war and recalling things that happened. This did not surprise me because that is common for someone suffering from PTSD. They block images from their brain because they do not wish to remember them happening. They commonly relive these tragic events through nightmares and hallucinations. This was demonstrated in the main character and also the character at the beginning who was having recurring thoughts about the 26 dogs that he shot during the massacre.

Overall I thought that this movie was one of the best movies I have seen in a long time and would not mind watching it again to get an even better understanding of the message that it was trying to portray.

Does my head look big in this?

The story Does My Head Look Big in This? is a young adult novel that takes place in Austrailia. The main character in the novel addresses many issues that we have talked about in class already. To wear the hijab or not to wear the hijab? After taking a long four days to think about whether or not to wear it she finally decides to wear it. The main character Amal seems to hold a high level of respect for her religion for being such a young age. She wants to follow it closely and respect it. After her crush tries to kiss her she pulls away and gets in a fight with him, which shows how strongly she believes in her faith, because most girls her age would be dying for a kiss from their crush.

I feel like her friends in the novel were particularly written that way just for the purpose of the novel. She has the one friend who is Asian and has to deal with racial issues. She has another who is constantly dieting and is very insecure about her weight. She also has another friend whose parents are strict and constantly pressuring her to do school work; they are always trying to find a suitor to set her up with. Each of these girls is very interesting, but it seems unlikely that they would be friends in a typical high school setting. However not all high schools are cliché like people think that they are.

I enjoyed reading this novel because it was very easy to read and predict. It told a story of a girl in high school struggling with her religion. I would recommend this story to young adults in high school, it gave a good message overall.