The Short And Concise Sentences In Dave Egger's Zeitoun

Zeitoun, published by Dave Eggers in 2009, depicts the countless hardships Muslims in the United States were forced to endure following the September eleventh terrorist attacks, as well as the harsh, yet beautiful impact of hurricane Katrina on the city of New Orleans. While numerous stylistic devices are incorporated into the novel, the three which create significant impact are sentence structure, point of view, and tone. Eggers utilizes short and concise sentences to create a lasting impact on the reader. Short, yet impactful sentences are evident towards the start of part five, where Zeitoun and Kathy continue to go through a burdensome process after Zeitoun was unjustly detained in a horrific makeshift jail. The narrator demonstrates

The detrimental effects caused by this cruel imprisonment of Zeitoun due to his religious beliefs create a lasting effect on the reader, all by using a three word sentence. While the book may encompass a multitude of shorter sentences, the author also includes longer, more descriptive sentences to elaborate on previously unknown aspects of the novel. Detailed sentences occur often at the end of the story, such as “And though the authors admitted that it was unlikely that terrorists would act during or after a hurricane, they nevertheless enumerated the many ways they might do so.”(Eggers, 308). While it is essential to add key explanations regarding the novel, the author does so in a repetitive manner, such that the reader is unable to stay engaged. In spite of that, Eggers is able to utilize point of view to create suspense within the story. Zeitoun takes place in a third person omniscient point of view, meaning the narrator often appears to speak with the voice of the author, as well as being in multiple places at once and knowing the thoughts of all characters. For instance, “Kathy’s mind spun as she read about the unprecedented concentration of armed men and women in the city.”(Eggers, 194). Kathy is attempting to figure out what happened to Zeitoun, all while he is being imprisoned