Character Analysis: Zeitoun

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I am a junior currently enrolled in the AP Language and Composition class. For our summer reading assignment, incoming juniors were required to read the famed novel, Zeitoun, written by Dave Eggers. Zeitoun is a non-fictional story about a Muslim-American named Abdulrahman Zeitoun who resides in New Orleans during the events of Hurricane Katrina. Throughout the story, the audience learns to sympathize, while also builds up an instantaneous affection towards Zeitoun. Although, initially I had sympathized for Zeitoun before, the profuse amount of controversy surrounding the truth makes me reconsider why I have ever evoked a strong sense of sympathy for this man. Others argue that Zeitoun should be continued to be read because of the main intention …show more content…

Patterson expressed, “When he (Eggers) finished chapters, he’d send them to Zeitoun for accuracy, and they went over the manuscripts ‘six or seven’ times”. This statement raised an important question, “If you had editorial privilege over your own story, would you whitewash?” How would I know if Zeitoun was the man who everybody adored or if he was the man who everybody saw as a liar? Knowing that Zeitoun was authorized for constructing the final edits of Zeitoun, I drove myself to believe the worst due to the allegations set upon him, it made me speculate whether Eggers’ depiction of Zeitoun was actually true or if Zeitoun himself altered the story to make him seem more heroic to appeal to the audience. Prior to Zeitoun’s recriminations, Zeitoun instantly captivated our hearts with his impressive humanitarian actions. I was emotionally connected to the idea of a heroic man who is kind to everybody and I was blinded by his heartwarming actions to believe that he, a savior, would be involved in felonious …show more content…

Zeitoun contains flaws which would be detrimental to students’ trust and behavior. The imperfections of Zeitoun undermine the true intention of the book and should be banned. We would be idolizing a criminal who was thought to have done good and deceived by everything that we read and see in the real world. Education is taught with the intent to leave students with an understanding of valuable life lessons, but that goal can not be succeeded if the material students are learning weaken the main intention with the amount of deceit, much like

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