Zeitoun Character Analysis

“Every time a crime was committed by a Muslim, that person's faith was mentioned, regardless of its relevance. When a crime is committed by a Christian, do they mention his religion?”(Eggers 37). Dave Egger states in his novel Zeitoun. Zeitoun is a nonfiction book written by Dave Eggers about the main character named Abdulrahman Zeitoun and his Muslim family that lives in New Orleans. During this time, Hurricane Katrina is about to run its course through New Orleans. Zeitoun decides to ride the hurricane out and tell his family to leave without him. Throughout the rest of the book, the Zeitouns will face many struggles that they may or may not be able to overcome. Although he has good intentions, Zeitoun makes the wrong decision by staying
Sadly, Zeitoun's choice to stay back affected his children’s lives for the worse. When Zeitoun insisted he would stay back and he says that Kathy should take the kids and go somewhere without him he did not realize how he hurt his children's feelings. According to the book, Nademah states,”What happened to our house, mama? Where’s Daddy?” (Eggers 119). Instead of feeling safe, the kids are worrying about how their house is holding up and if their dad is doing fine. They had no idea where Zeitoun was and if they would ever see him again. Plus, when Kathy and the children left they were aware that the house was not ready for the hurricane. It is difficult to imagine how terrifying that would have been to leave Zeitoun in an unprepared house. Unfortunately, Zeitoun negatively affected his children’s lives even though he did it all in good intentions. Even worse than Zeitoun leaving a negative impact on his children's lives, he also influenced Kathy´s long term health problems. After the book, Kathy was diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder due to all the worrying about Zeitoun. The author states, “Kathy has lost her memory. Its shredded, unreliable. The