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In Firdaus’s narration, a person’s eyes reflect her perception of them and the way she judges their character. Although Firdaus barely remembers her mother, Firdaus does recall that her eyes looked like two rings of bright white surrounding two circles of deep black, and the white glows as if light flows through them from some magical place. The flowing light suggests that Firdaus remembers her mother as a life-giving source of comfort. This description is repeated almost verbatim for both Miss Iqbal and Ibrahim’s eyes (before Ibrahim betrays Firdaus), suggesting that Firdaus sees these individuals similarly, as people whom she loves that give life rather than take it. Contrarily, when Bayoumi starts to beat Firdaus, his once-kind eyes reveal themselves to be “jet black,” suggesting that they have no light and that he is not a source of compassion as Firdaus once believed. Similarly, Firdaus’s stepmother’s eyes are dull and unreflective, suggesting that although she is not cruel, she is unfeeling and does not bring life, hope, or love to Firdaus’s world.
Eyes Quotes in Woman at Point Zero
The Woman at Point Zero quotes below all refer to the symbol of Eyes. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 2
Quotes
All I can remember are two rings of intense white surrounded by two circles of intense black. I only had to look into them for the white to become whiter and the black even blacker, as though sunlight was pouring into them from some magical source neither on earth, nor in the sky.
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All I know is that anything I would have to face in the world had become less frightening than the vision of those two eyes, which sent a cold shiver running through my spine whenever I remembered them.
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It was though I was seeing the eyes that now confronted me for the first time. Two jet black surfaces that stared into my eyes, travelled with an infinitely slow movement over my face, and my neck, and then dropped downwards gradually over my breast, and my belly, to settle somewhere just below it, between my thighs.
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I realized this was the first time in my life I was eating without being watched by two eyes gazing into my plate to see how much food I took. Ever since I was born those two eyes had always been there, wide open, staring, unflinching, following every morsel of food on my plate.
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I was prepared to do anything to put a stop to the insults that my ears had grown used to hearing, to keep the brazen eyes from running all over my body.
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Why was it that I had never stabbed a man before? I realized that I had been afraid, and that the fear had been with me all the time, until the fleeting moment when I read fear in [Marzouk’s] eyes.
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Eyes Symbol Timeline in Woman at Point Zero
The timeline below shows where the symbol Eyes appears in Woman at Point Zero. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 1
...love with a man. Saadawi’s thoughts run quickly until the moment she looks into Firdaus’s eyes. Her eyes are sharp, and Saadawi thinks, “I died the moment her eyes looked into...
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Part 2
...than Mohammadain, but Firdaus no longer feels the “sensation of pleasure,” though she closes her eyes and tries to remember where it came from.
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Firdaus thinks about her mother’s eyes, about the first time she sees them. She feels as if those eyes always watch...
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...her that such acts are sinful, but she cannot even bear to look into his eyes. When they get home, Firdaus hides beneath a blanket, trembling, waiting for her uncle to...
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...Iqbal finds her and sits with her, trying to console her. Firdaus looks into her eyes and sees white rings around black centers, as if light pours through them from some...
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...is not present and Firdaus feels paralyzed in her chair, unable to move. Miss Iqbal’s eyes reach her through the darkness, and the teacher takes her by the hand and leads...
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...place to sleep and her stomach aches with hunger. From the darkness, Firdaus senses two eyes watching her, waiting, roving up and down her body. Terror rises within her and she...
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...in a spare room, until she gets back on her feet. Firdaus thinks that Bayoumi’s eyes seem kind and that his hands are “quiet,” “almost submissive.” On the way back to...
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...becomes enraged and slaps her in the face. His hands seem large and strong. His eyes are jet black, and Firdaus realizes she is truly seeing them for the first time...
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...Firdaus looks at the woman and is startled by how powerfully green she is: green eyes, green eye shadow, green shawl, like the powerful green of trees growing along the Nile....
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...her, and Firdaus puts her arms around her and “abandons” herself to Sharifa’s powerful green eyes. Sharifa tells Firdaus that to survive, one must be “harder than life,” and that though...
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...events of her past and re-envision herself in the present. Firdaus realizes that her own eyes are dark and alluring, her nose proud and sultry, her body slender and her thighs...
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...past the man, he gives her 10 pounds. Firdaus feels a “veil” lift from her eyes. The money recalls the times she asked her father for money as a child, though...
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...day on, Firdaus walks with her head high. She looks every man directly in the eye. If he handles money, she does not avoid looking at it, but openly gazes at...
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...approaches. He sits next to Firdaus and asks why she sits alone. Firdaus thinks his eyes see straight into her. She inexplicably starts crying, and Ibrahim tries to console her but...
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...it from her childhood. She thinks back upon the night with Ibrahim, staring into his eyes. In Firdaus’s mind, images of Fatheya, Wafeya, Miss Iqbal, and Ibrahim overlap and blur into...
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...Firdaus sees Ibrahim across the courtyard. A crowd of people gather around him, and his eyes seem different to her, “estranged.” Ibrahim does not see Firdaus, but someone in the crowd...
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...him unblinking, filled with hate. For a brief moment, she sees real fear in Marzouk’s eyes.
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...of him. As she tears the money, she tears the final veil off of her eyes, and feels that she is ripping apart all the money she ever received from men,...
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