A Reflection on the Recurring Themes of 3 of Dave Eggers Works
A wide range of personal experiences to look back on, a curiosity to understand and reveal social injustices; this along with Eggers sophisticated and entertaining writing style has justly made Dave Eggers a national best seller. Through reading three of his many works, I have discovered recurring themes of loss and loss through death, faults with the social justice system and racial profiling, and a misconception of individuality. Eggers words take us through the journey of weathering out Hurricane Katrina with Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian American who goes through great terror and loss at the expense of the disappointing emergency justice system put in place after the devastation …show more content…
There are various parts of the novel where it seems that Zeitoun's thoughts are so grim and bleak that we suspect he may never get out of prison at all. The loss of Zeitoun's own fortunate life is too much for him to bear and we find that he starts to lose all hope, “He did not want it to be true that he was now and might always be a man in a cage”(Zeitoun, pg.266). The loss that Kathy undergoes is also traumatizing. The fear that her husband might be dead, along with the hopelessness and frustration she felt when trying to go through the justice system and get Zeitoun out of prison gave Kathy mental and physical problems post Katrina. Eggers describes her new found problems as, “Kathy’s problems with memory gave way to other difficulties...she began to have stomach problems...she grew clumsier...overall the tests pointed to post-traumatic stress syndrome”(Zeitoun, pg.311). The loss these two have faced has traveled over to more recent times as well. Kathy has since divorced Zeitoun for domestic abuse. Zeitoun was taken under arrest when authorities discovered that Zeitoun was planning on having Kathy, her son, and another man murdered. Eggers does lead into a bit of a change in character of Zeitoun when he describes that Zeitoun works an even busier work schedule now, only home for meals and bedtimes. He became more religious
A wide range of personal experiences to look back on, a curiosity to understand and reveal social injustices; this along with Eggers sophisticated and entertaining writing style has justly made Dave Eggers a national best seller. Through reading three of his many works, I have discovered recurring themes of loss and loss through death, faults with the social justice system and racial profiling, and a misconception of individuality. Eggers words take us through the journey of weathering out Hurricane Katrina with Abdulrahman Zeitoun, a Syrian American who goes through great terror and loss at the expense of the disappointing emergency justice system put in place after the devastation …show more content…
There are various parts of the novel where it seems that Zeitoun's thoughts are so grim and bleak that we suspect he may never get out of prison at all. The loss of Zeitoun's own fortunate life is too much for him to bear and we find that he starts to lose all hope, “He did not want it to be true that he was now and might always be a man in a cage”(Zeitoun, pg.266). The loss that Kathy undergoes is also traumatizing. The fear that her husband might be dead, along with the hopelessness and frustration she felt when trying to go through the justice system and get Zeitoun out of prison gave Kathy mental and physical problems post Katrina. Eggers describes her new found problems as, “Kathy’s problems with memory gave way to other difficulties...she began to have stomach problems...she grew clumsier...overall the tests pointed to post-traumatic stress syndrome”(Zeitoun, pg.311). The loss these two have faced has traveled over to more recent times as well. Kathy has since divorced Zeitoun for domestic abuse. Zeitoun was taken under arrest when authorities discovered that Zeitoun was planning on having Kathy, her son, and another man murdered. Eggers does lead into a bit of a change in character of Zeitoun when he describes that Zeitoun works an even busier work schedule now, only home for meals and bedtimes. He became more religious