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Eyes
Money represents control, as it allows a person to have agency over their circumstances, their body, and their life. However, Firdaus ultimately comes to realize that money represents men’s control over women, as it allows them to buy access to women’s bodies and to keep women more easily controlled and socially dependent on them. Firdaus never has access to money—nor is she even allowed to be around it—for the first two decades of her life, since the people who want to control Firdaus understand that with money would facilitate her independence. The first time that a man pays Firdaus for sex and she holds money in her hand, she realizes that she can go anywhere, eat anything, and make her own choices in life—money allows her more control and agency than she’s ever had before. However, after Firdaus kills Marzouk, lets go of fear, and decides that she will act against men when they oppress her, the Arab prince still buys her by paying a massive amount of money. While they are having sex, Firdaus realizes that money ultimately belongs to men in a male-dominated world, and they use it to buy women’s bodies. Firdaus takes the 3,000 pounds that the prince pays her and tears it to pieces in front of him, feeling as though she is tearing apart every single man she has ever known in her life, each of whom used money to control her.
Money Quotes in Woman at Point Zero
The Woman at Point Zero quotes below all refer to the symbol of Money. 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
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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How many were the years of my life that went by before my body, and my self really became mine, to do with them as I wished? How many were the years I lost before I tore my body and my self away from the people who held me in their grasp from the very first day?
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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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One day, when I donated some money to a charitable association, the newspapers published pictures of me and sang my praises as the model of a citizen with a sense of civic responsibility. And from then on, whenever I needed a dose of honor and fame, I had only to draw some money from the bank.
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“I am not a prostitute. But right from my early days my father, my uncle, my husband, all of them, taught me to grow up as a prostitute.”
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Money Symbol Timeline in Woman at Point Zero
The timeline below shows where the symbol Money appears in Woman at Point Zero. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2
...Eastern kingdoms and the succession of kings. Every one of them seems evil, obsessed with money, sex, and power. They hide their deeds during their lifetimes so that each makes the...
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...works, nor has any friends or goes out to eat, because that would require spending money and he is miserly to the core. He spends all day closely watching Firdaus and...
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...what Sharifa’s is. When Firdaus says that she cannot ask a man to give her money, Sharifa assures her that she will do it herself—Firdaus does not need to worry about...
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...work, not feel. Feeling leads to pain. Their pleasure is in the material comforts that money buys.
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...arms, and she does. Fawzy tells Firdaus that Sharifa is taking advantage of her, making money off her body and pain. He says that he’ll deal with Sharifa. Outside her bedroom,...
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...dirty black fingernails into her skin. When he finishes, he tells her he has no money tonight; he’ll pay her next time.
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...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 he only...
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...her meal. She realizes that her father, her uncle, Sheikh Mahmoud, and Sharifa all handled money with a nearly religious observance. All of these people (except Firdaus’s uncle when she was...
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...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 it. When men approach...
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...to. Another “veil” is torn away from Firdaus’s vision and she sees that, despite her money, she will never be a “respected woman” as a prostitute.
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...life. As a prostitute, she protected her innermost self and only offered her body for money. As a lover, she laid herself bare, let down all of her defenses and received...
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...men like Ibrahim use their cleverness and virtue to get “what other men buy with money.” She sees Ibrahim several times, years later. On the last time he convinces Firdaus to...
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...sends his officers to Firdaus over and over, and she always rejects him. They offer money, threaten her with prison, and even try to convince her that having sex with a...
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...is “enslaved.” Firdaus realizes that just like servants or housekeepers, she can buy honor with money. She donates large sums to charities and the local papers publish her picture and praise...
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...“protection,” though he is the only one to threaten her. Firdaus tries to use her money and connections to get the police to protect her, but she discovers that Marzouk is...
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Suddenly, Firdaus shouts, “No!” When the prince hands her 3,000 pounds, she takes the money and furiously shreds it in front of him. As she tears the money, she tears...
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