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Part 4: Wednesday September 14
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Zeitoun, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family, Community, and Home
Crime, Justice, and Injustice
Faith, Perseverance, and Dignity
Human vs. Natural Tragedy
Islam and Islamophobia
Summary
Analysis
Again, Zeitoun flags down the nurse, who doesn’t remember Zeitoun’s earlier request. She says the doctor probably didn’t get the form, so Zeitoun fills it out again. He doesn’t see her for the next few days.
This is another example of the indifference shown to Zeitoun’s well-being, even when it’s not outright hostility.
Themes
Zeitoun begins to feel faint from not eating enough, given that so many meals have pork, and he’s often too distressed to eat anyway. That afternoon Zeitoun is handcuffed and taken into another, empty cell, where it is even grimmer to be without Nasser.
Zeitoun’s physical and emotional states have grown even more intertwined. This will only be exacerbated by solitary confinement, which is known to be agonizing.
Themes
Zeitoun tries to remember what the life insurance policy he had taken out would amount to, and wishes he had taken out a larger one. He’s sure that by now Kathy would have checked the value.
As Zeitoun thinks back to his family, he understands that they must have no other choice than to begin imagining life without him—as indeed we know they are.
Themes
Thinking this through, Zeitoun grows enraged at the police, the jailors, and even Ronnie, who was more of a stranger to him than the others. Even if he were to get out of prison immediately, his daughters, he realizes, will be scarred knowing that their father had been imprisoned, and subjected to shameful treatment.
Zeitoun’s guilt and shame now turn to anger, as he rails against the unfairness of his situation. This anger is coupled with helplessness, in that there’s no way he can get out of his wrongful imprisonment on his own.
Themes
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