Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, is a book about the Zeitoun family, a family “caught between America’s two biggest policy disasters: the war on terror and the response to Hurricane Katrina.” Zeitoun decided to stay behind during the storm to hold down their business and make sure their properties were safe, while his wife Kathy and their children went to go stay with her sister and her family until the storm passes. While help rescuing people, Zeitoun was arrested for being stereotyped as a terrorist. Kathy shows change in identity from the start of the book to the end of the book; she is more independent by the end of the book and is not reliable on her husband. Throughout this essay examples of how Kathy is more independent by the end of the book will be discussed, starting with how Kathy converts to Islam then moving towards how Kathy is not like other Muslim women.
Kathy had to overcome not only being looked down upon because she is a woman but also because she is Muslim. In her early twenties, Kathy decided to convert to Islam; even after 15 years of being Muslim, her family would tell her, “now you can take that thing off” (57) Although being Muslim was looked down upon, Kathy stood by her religion and did not back down. By Kathy challenging herself to convert to other religion after going up with one religion shows her independence and willingness to try something new instead of sticking to what is seen by others as “normal”. Even though Kathy was harassed for wearing the hijab and her family did not respond to her being Islamic very well, she stood by it and did not give up. One day when she was shopping with Asma trying to find where she parked, “a girl about 15 was crouched behind Kathy trying to grab her hijab; Kathy cocked her hand, ‘you got a problem?’ she barked” (46). The teenagers called her names and made fun of her thinking that she will not do anything about it, but she was not like other Muslim women and spoke up and talked back to the teenagers. This shows that Kathy is not going to let other people affect her identity and chooses to be independent and strong on her own. She does not need to rely on her husband or anyone else to speak up for her or her beliefs. Before “in middle school she was the one being picked on, pushed around and gawked at” (59); Kathy then started to grow to be “quick to fight, quick to argue”(59). This shows that Kathy started to change how she viewed herself and knew she had to stick up for herself otherwise she was just going to be bullied for the rest of her life. Kathy did not let anyone get away with treating her with disrespect. Even though she was a Muslim woman in the United States after the September 11th attack, she did not let those stereotypes or comments get to her and affect her identity. Kathy only allowed herself to change her identity.
Kathy is not like typical Muslim women; she does not relied on her husband and is not suppressed. Kathy wants to do what is best for her and her children whether it is with or without her husband. An example is when Kathy wants to leave their home before the storm hits New Orleans. “’Honey’, Kathy says [to Zeitoun], ‘I think we should go’ Zeitoun’s reply is ‘you go, I’ll stay;’”(50) Kathy then leaves their home with some belongings and their 4 children to go stay at a family members house for a couple of days. Kathy can make her own decisions and will do what is right and smart even if it means to leave her husband behind. Although they are coming back in a couple days, it takes strength to leave him behind because the worst could happen and he could pass away while they are gone. By Kathy being able to leave it shows that she is independent from her husband and does not need to rely on him like other women in her society have to. She knows that she is capable of doing fine without her husband if it came to that because otherwise she would not have left him behind. Her society or the authorities do not suppress Kathy, when her husband is arrested she did not give up fighting until he was out of jail. Kathy did everything she could to get her husband out of jail, such as find a lawyer and find out exactly where Zeitoun was so she could get him out of jail. Although it was tough on Kathy, she stayed strong and prevailed. She set out to accomplish something and she was able to accomplish it. Kathy is a good role model for young women and women today because she was an underdog, both a woman and a Muslim, but was able to be strong and was not suppressed by her society or men.
Although Kathy is not the main character of Zeitoun, she plays a key role in this book because without her the story would not be as strong or intriguing; Kathy is a heroine herself, by overcoming all the obstacles in her life and having to work in the shadows of her husband even though she is doing hard work as much as he is. She tries to make this world better by making phone calls about mistreatment of others to protest against it. Kathy’s identity changes throughout the course of the book; she goes from the girl being bullied in middle school to the woman who does not let others put her down for being Muslim and a woman who speaks up. Kathy does not let how others view Muslim women affect her identity; she stays true to herself and does the best she can in day to day life.
No comments:
Post a Comment