Zeitoun, Final Questions

ZEITOUN
Part IV and Part V Questions
Due: Wednesday, November 10

Topics for Discussion (For this week’s Friday reading (due Friday, Nov. 12), you need to find an opinion article or editorial AND an editorial cartoon that conveys the same perspective. You only need to analyze the article, but you should also include an explanation of how the cartoon relates to the editorial).
• Please note that page numbers listed are from the hardcover edition.
1. Make a list of TEN rhetorical strategies Eggers uses in Parts IV and V. For each strategy, identify it by name, provide the definition, and analyze its effectiveness in conveying Eggers’ purpose. Your analysis should include what your perceive the purpose to be. Since you are analyzing throughout the last parts of the book, the purpose will not be the same for each strategy.
2. Part IV (203–90) tells the story of Zeitoun’s imprisonment. Here we learn in great detail how Zeitoun is denied the right to call Kathy, how his injured foot is not attended to, how the other men are beaten, stripped, and starved, how he prays constantly, yet loses hope. What is the impact, as you read, of this narrative?
3. “Zeitoun is a more powerful indictment of America’s dystopia in the Bush era than any number of well-written polemics” (Timothy Egan, New York Times, August 13, 2009). Would you agree with this statement? How does Zeitoun serve as a contribution to the history of hurricane Katrina and the failure of government to handle the disaster effectively?
4. Analyze Eggers’ presentation of Kathy’s situation, and her actions once she learns where Zeitoun is. The aftermath is more difficult, and she still suffers from physical and psychological problems that seem to be the result of post-traumatic stress. What was the most traumatic part of her experience, and why (319)?
5. Given that the other men who were imprisoned with Zeitoun were held much longer than he was, and that Nasser lost his life savings, is it surprising that these men were not compensated in any way for their time in prison (320–21)?
6. What is Zeitoun’s feeling now about what happened? How does he move forward into the future, as expressed in the book’s closing pages (322-25)?