Bangkok Prison Rape Chapter Summaries

To sum up the book in 5 sentences, it was a book about this guy who got caught smuggling Heroin from Thailand to Australia. He got caught in Thailand after they suspected this drug activity at the airport one of the previous times, and the Thailand police contacted the Australian police about it and wanted them to keep a close eye on him, so they did and then put him and his accomplice in a Bangkok prison, at first he got “life”.He spent most of his time in Bang Kwang, but anywhere he went the guards beat the prisoners, sometimes to death, and they had to wear chains around their ankles. There was a riot one time when this person in Building Four (one of the worst places) stabbed a guard and everyone in that building followed, him and Paul stayed in their cell fearing about what the guards would do, which was making them crawl through human feces. Heroin is a tremendous deal in the prisons as well and guards sold it to
the prisoners and Warren needed it especially after his brother and father died. Near the end of the book, he talks about rape compared to what they have in Western culture (the U.S.).
Prison rape is very common gay or not, however, in Thailand prisons, it’s different and they aren’t very tolerant of homosexuality. The author didn’t participate in this, but it was known about, there was a pig farm inside the prison. “For a pack of cigarettes, a Bang Kwang pig would “love you long time.” Many Thais partook of this service, but many foreigners found it naturally repulsive.” (Fellows 164). One connection to this could be the rape of this woman in “That Was All” by Wakako Yamauchi. “I hated the feel of his hands” and “I suspected something sinister about their caresses.” (Yamauchi 1) The first quote was referring to this man named Suzuki-San one of the many bachelor friends of her father’s, she thought about him and that's why she told us this. In the second quote, “they” was referring to all of her dad’s bachelor friends. Rape is common, and can happen in all different forms, whether it’s with the opposite sex, same sex, or
animal. There may have been a part in the book where the guards made the slaves fight each other, but there was a particular fight that was highlighted. Paul, Warren’s accomplice and best friend, was faced with a challenge and he accepted. This Black American prisoner had asked him if he wanted to “break concrete” Paul, who was a boxer replied “‘I don’t want to break concrete. But I’ll be happy to put your head through that cage over there.’ The American wasn’t surprised by Paul’s retort. It appeared he knew something about Paul’s history.” (Fellows 122). Relating this to what we learned in class, “Invisible Man” by Ralph Ellison is the perfect piece. If we recall “Invisible Man” it’s about white men making young, knowledgeable black men fight other black people and many white people watching. “I could hear the bleary voices yelling insistently for the battle royal to begin.” (Ellison 3). Men in prison need to show dominance and that is why they fight, being forced to fight for entertainment is a different story, but is fighting nonetheless. In Bang Kwang there were “Blueboys” and these were prisoners who were respected by the guards because they told on other prisoners, and in turn were not beaten and trusted by the guards, however hated by other prisoners. “These prisoners were often murderers or guilty of crimes of violence, who had simply been cunning enough to secure themselves in the prison system.” (Fellows 133). This sort of betrayal is connected to when Mandy betrayed Cindy by stealing her boyfriend in “Ms. Pac-Man Ruined my Gang Life” by Ka Vang. “Mandy stole my boyfriend, Tiny….But when you live the life of a gangsta girl, a woman stealing your man, particularly if she was from a rival gang was major DISRESPECT, and therefore a serious justification for war.” (Vang 1-2). Mandy still betrayed and disrespected Cindy just like how the blueboys betrayed their fellow prisoners by tattle-tailing on them to the guards. As for the thorough analysis of the author Warren Fellows, this was a biography, he was from Australia and worked in a simple bar, and got into this other business because a man who went to the bar asked Warren if he wanted in on it. When he was younger, he grew up with his father being a champion horse jockey, and had a two-year sister who died when she was two. He went to a catholic school, but was expelled for running a horse bet. He also was given an internship to be a hairdresser, but decided it wasn’t for him. This was an insane book and truly opened my eyes toward different prison systems rather than our own. I feel like I also learned about Thai culture with their love of Buddha, their superstitions of ghosts “Chima” and their beliefs like how their head is the most respected part of the body and how the feet are the least respected because we use them to walk on dirt. I view all of this was interesting and the reasoning toward it was very philosophical. I want to learn more about Buddhism now. There were many reasons that I can’t ever imagine doing these brutal acts, and he did them, I can’t believe he’s still alive after all of this and I have a deep respect for him. This novel was a brutal piece, and it was extremely hard to not think that it actually happened. Bangkok prisons are harder to be in, with the odd desires by other inmates to rape pigs, many fights, and lots of betrayal. The connection between this and other pieces in our class studies is hard to find because it is such a specific theme. I would also add that Heroin got him into this, but it also got him through it as well, as it did with many other inmates. Prison is supposed to rehabilitate you, as well as punish you, but it just pushed him to do it more.