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Part 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Woman at Point Zero, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Pervasive Sexism and Oppression
Prostitution and Transactional Relationships
Fear and Survival
Religious Hypocrisy
Summary
Analysis
Saadawi narrates: Firdaus finishes speaking and silence fills the room. The story and Firdaus’s powerful voice overwhelm Saadawi. Police come in, surround Firdaus, and take her away. Saadawi never sees her again, but Firdaus’s voice remains in her head, spreading truth and fear. As Saadawi gets in her car and drives away, she perceives the world as full of fear and hypocrisy and predatory behavior. She feels small and insignificant, ashamed of her own fears. Saadawi slams her foot on the accelerator, racing to obliterate the world, but then slams her foot on the brake and screeches to a stop. Saadawi concludes, “At that moment, I realized that Firdaus had more courage than I.”
Saadawi’s brief slam on the accelerator in her car suggests that Firdaus’s reckless fight against oppression and corruption has invigorate Saadawi. However, her slamming the brake suggests that she is not yet ready to follow through and accept the possibly lethal consequences of challenging men’s power. This suggests that Saadawi, unlike Firdaus, is still held down by her fears. Saadawi’s book thus ends on a dark note, without any particular sense of hope. However, it vividly and powerfully reflects the plight of Egyptian women in the 1970s and their desperate need for feminist revolution.
Themes
