Zeitoun Responce

Charles Ekono

9/13/2011

Zeitoun Response

After reading Dave Eggers Zeitoun, I would say my view of what happened in New Orleans due to hurricane Katrina is the same. The only thing is that I gained a little bit more insight on what actually happened to the people in the city. I don’t live close to New Orleans, so all I really knew about the Hurricane was that it was one of the worst to hit New Orleans. Like Zeitoun’s family in the book all I really knew in detail was what was said on TV. A category 5 hurricane, looting, hundreds of dead bodies found, abandoned animals, shortened supplies. Zeitoun gave me an insight on some of the things never mentioned on TV.

I do not know if they ever mentioned this on TV or not, but I did not know how uncooperative the police and navy were following the flooding of the city. I know that there were more people trapped in houses then boats available, but the way that Eggers wrote it, it seemed that they were not going to listen to anybody but their bosses. When Zeitoun came to them asking for help to help the woman trapped in her house holding on to her dresser and the couple with the husband who could not walk, it seemed as if they were unwilling to help. We never find out what they did instead of help them, but they just come off as uncaring.

One thing that was really surprising was the prison conditions. First, the police officers didn’t really listen to anything Zeitoun, Nasser, or Todd said. From how it was written all of the officers were sort of reluctant when imprisoning these people. The had a good cause in trying to stop looting, but when your prisons are full of people and half the guards are second guessing the decisions to put these people in prison, something needs to change.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. Eggers was able to convey some really deep emotions in his descriptions of Zeitoun and his family. You could really tell just how much Kathy was worried about her husband. Zeitoun’s brother and his...