Character study essay

The novel Boy-overboard is a book that was made by Morris gleitzman. In this
novel an 11-year-old boy named Jamal from Afghanistan is the main character,
and he is also narrating the book. This novel is about Jamal chasing his dreams of
becoming a soccer player for Manchester united. Jamal is very caring about his
family and helps them in tough times, Jamal has a little sister named Bibi that also
plays soccer. Let us find out if Jamal can fulfil his dreams of being a soccer player
for Manchester united.

Jamal has a big passion for soccer, he often plays with his friends and sister Bibi.
Jamals friends consists mainly of Yousef, Zoltan and Aziz. In chapter 2 we find out
that the soccer ball gets stuck under a war tank, and there seemed to be someone
in the tank, he loved the ball so much and was thinking what he should do. Finally,
Jamal builds up the courage to approach the tank and drag the ball out. This
proves that Jamal is a brave person.

In the novel Boy-Overboard Jamal takes pride in his ancestors. Jamal takes pride
in his ancestors because he is always referring to them in challenging times. Such
as in chapter 3 when Jamal was scared the get the soccer ball from under the
tank, but he thought about his ancestors that were warriors, this motivated him
to get the ball. This shows us that Jamal looks up to his ancestors and takes pride
in them.

In boy-Overboard my key scene that best describes Jamal is the landmine incident
in chapter 2. In chapter 2, the soccer ball goes to the other side of the rocket
crater, when this happened Jamals little sister Bibi goes running after it. She gets
stuck on a land-mine, everyone was worried, but Jamal was guiding them on what
to do which shows his leadership. He also sticks up for everyone and gets the ball
which shows he is brave. This is my key scene because it gives us a better
understanding of Jamal's personality and character traits early in the book.

Jamals top 2-character values in boy-overboard are his kindness and leadership.
An example of Jamals kindness and leadership is in chapter 15 in the refugee
camp. In the refugee camp Jamal was lost and was chasing a boy that stole his
ball. Since Jamal is kind, he kindly asked the boy to give it back and the boy
thought he was so kind that he gave the ball and even led Jamal to his family. This
shows Jamal's bravery and kindness.

Jamals relationships with other characters in boy-overboard is always good. His

relationship with other people is good because he can control his anger. Since
Jamal can control his anger instead of fighting with people, he is calm and settles
things down. In chapter 5 Jamal and Yousef were arguing with each other, but
Jamal realizes that this could end his friendship, so he apologizes to Yousef. Jamal
is also easy to get along with because he is kind and always stays out of trouble.
This is evidence that Jamal has a good relationship with other characters in boy-
overboard.

4 Adjectives about Jamal in boy-overboard are he is brave, because he was not

scared to ask strangers to lead him to his family in the refugee camp, he is kind,
because he stopped arguing with Yousef and said sorry in the landmine incident,
he is caring because he stayed with Bibi when she was stuck even though
everyone ran away in chapter 5, and he is also helpful, because his mum was
scared to go on the airplane but he helped her calm down. These are 4 adjectives
about Jamal that describe him in the best way.

Throughout out boy-overboard Jamal changes his mind set several times. one
example is at the start of the novel Jamal is exited to go to Australia. he thinks
there is nothing bad in the country, he also thought that when he gets to Australia
it is easy to make it into the world cup team, but when he got there, he had to live
on Christmas Island, and he thought that Australia was not that much better than
Afghanistan. This is why Jamal changed throughout the novel.

I predicted that in boy-overboard Jamals family gets out of Christmas Island and
live the rest of their life in Australia. Since Jamal wanted to play for the Australian
team. I predict that he will join a club and get very good at soccer and eventually
make it into the national team. This is my prediction for boys overboard.