Zeitoun by Dave Eggers

Zak Gudanick

Prof. Hayes

FYE 100

Sept 13, 2011

In Zeitoun, by Dave Eggers, the main character name is Abdulrahman Zeitoun (Eggers 13). Zeitoun was raised into a Muslim family from Jeblah, Syria. His father worked hard to make sure that his children learned a great deal of life skills, so that they could be successful on their own. His father owned and worked in a hardware store during the day and then he would go fishing but only on moonless nights. Being only thirteen and always wanting to learn as much as he could, he asked, "why only on moonless nights?" (Eggers 14). Ahmad, his older brother told him that nights with a moon, the plankton would be visible everywhere and the sardines would be able to eat the plankton with ease (Eggers 14). On nights without the moon, the fellow fishermen could make their own version of the plankton and use that to attract the sardines (Eggers 14). When Zeitoun's father dies, he and his brother, Ahmad, place the responsibility on themselves to take care of and provide for the family. Then he decided to settle down and chose to live in New Orleans with his wife, Kathy.

They live together with three children whose names are Nademah, Aisha, and Safiya. Zeitoun and Kathy own a successful painting and contracting company together. Kathy, while at their house, would answer the phone calls for Zeitoun Painting Contractors. Kathy would then relay the job to Zeitoun, who was usually going around the city working on other job sites. No matter how busy Zeitoun is, he always accepts a new site to work on. Zeitoun is a good community citizen because he always puts everyone else before himself. Zeitoun is so determined to get a job done that he will do just about anything to get to the site. When he didn't have a car available he rode his bicycle to the job sites (Eggers 36). One day, Zeitoun was pedaling as fast as he could on his bicycle because he was about to be late to a job site (Eggers 36). Then suddenly the bicycle tire became flat, he tried riding on the rim but that didn't work. He couldn't just leave the bike because the bicycle was his only mode of transportation. He needed to get four miles across the city in twenty minutes. Zeitoun cared a lot about his job and took it very seriously. He was worried that his well-deserved reputation would be ruined if he was late. Zeitoun decided to put the bicycle on his shoulders and run (Eggers 37).

Zeitoun would define a good citizen as a person who cares for the city and the people in it. He would say that a good citizen is also someone who puts their city's needs before theirs. An example of this is when after the hurricane hit; Zeitoun found a canoe and started to row around the city looking for people who needed help. He rowed around