Dave Eggers Zeitoun Sparknotes

Dave Eggers’ nonfiction publication, Zeitoun, narrates the experiences of Hurricane Katrina through the eyes of Abdulrahman and Kathy Zeitoun. Hurricane Katrina takes on a political aftermath, as Zeitoun, a well known Muslim painter in New Orleans, experiences prejudice from law enforcements after the events of 9/11. Zeitoun and his wife, Kathy, become victims of prejudice when their family is ripped apart due to Zeitoun’s jailment from the law enforcements. Zeitoun is perceived as a man who lives below his means, but yet taken advantage of due to his Muslim religion, Eggers demonstrates this through a sympathetic point of view. Eggers also uses an objective tone in the beginning of the book, later on escalating into an outraged tone after

Shortly after reading the Qur’an, Kathy Zeitoun found her inner peace. This resulted in the strong Christian and Baton Rouge native, to convert to Islam. The conversion of religion caused great tension and arguments between Kathy’s family and total strangers who faced Islamophobia, rooted mainly from the 9/11 terror attacks. Kathy’s mother had been brutal towards her when it came to Islam, especially with her hijab, “She’d come in, drop her bags, and the suggestion would come: ‘Now you can take that thing off.’ She’d (Kathy) been a Muslim for fifteen years and they still said this to her … This was actually the command her mother had given her last time Kathy had visited: ‘Take that thing off your head,’ she’d said. ‘Go out and have a good time’ (Eggers, 57). The evidence from the text indicates how Kathy had to struggle with expressing her religion (in the hijab), to someone of great importance in her life, her quarrelsome mother. Eggers uses Kathy’s experience with her mother as pathos so the reader can feel sympathy for Kathy’s struggle to stand for what religion she practiced. Not only did Kathy struggle with her religious identity in her immediate family, Kathy had to deal with strangers in