Dave Eggers Zeitoun: A Monomyth - Admission/Application Essay Example

? Dave Egger’s Zeitoun: A Monomyth? Dave Egger’s novel Zeitoun is a non-fictional account of the trials and tribulations of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, an Islamic, Syrian-American owner of a painting-contracting company who survived the Hurricane Katrina without leaving his home in New Orleans. Despite his several acts of humanity in the face of a disaster, Zeitoun is arrested and made to undergo humiliating treatment at the hands of the National Guards and some local policemen. Egger uses a sparse but poignant voice to bring out the horrors of a natural disaster of this magnitude through the eyes of an ordinary man and his family. In Joseph Campbell’s classification of a Monomyth, Campbell describes the trajectory of the Hero as a movement in three stages. The first involves separation of the Hero from his community. In the case of Zeitoun, this occurs when Kathy and the children decide to heed the warnings about the upcoming storm and leave for her childhood home. Zeitoun decides to stay on to look after his business and property. He ignores all anxiety about the storm from his wife, his brother and is even described as being extremely stubborn: Kathy often poked fun at Zeitoun’s stubbornness, at his unwillingness to bow before any force, natural or otherwise (Eggers 25). It is mentioned in the text how, over the next few days, Zeitoun gradually begins to grow more afraid as Katrina draws closer and yet does not convey his apprehension to his wife. This growing apprehension, as well as the signs that Zeitoun begins to note around the house can be considered the ‘Call of Adventure’ stage. The barking of the dogs assumes a symbolic importance with respect to this stage of the monomythic structure: The darkness around him was complete, the night silent but for the dogs. First a few, then dozens. From all corners of the neighborhood he heard them howling. The neighborhood was full of dogs, so he was accustomed to their barking. On any given night, one would become excited by something and set off the rest, an arrhythmic call-and-response that could last hours until they calmed, one by one, into silence. But this night was different. These dogs had been left behind, and now they knew it. There was a bewilderment, an anger in their cries that cut the night into shards (Eggers 75). This almost eerie and supernatural description fits in with Campbell’s model. The storm itself functions as one of the natural calamities that harken the beginning of the hero’s journey: ‘The Call to Adventure.’ Zeitoun’s timely remembering of the canoe can also be taken as a sign of the protagonist preparing for his upcoming ‘adventure’. It is interesting to note that in Zeitoun, Kathy plays almost as central a role as Zeitoun and indeed it is in her case that the stage of ‘Refusal of the Call’ applies with greater significance. In one of the flashback sequences exploring Kathy Zeitoun’s consciousness, the author describes her spiritual turmoil on the question of religious faith. The pamphlets that Yuko hands over to Kathy on Islam are symbolic tokens of God’s call. Kathy momentarily dismisses them, taking the preacher of her erstwhile Church as the true messenger from God: When he left, Kathy already felt more certain about her faith. How could his visit not be a sign from God? Just at the moment she was having doubts about her church, a messenger from Jesus walked straight into her life (Eggers 55). This may serve as the ‘folly of the flight from the god’ (Campbell 28) as described in the monomythic structure. It would seem then, that the ‘hero’ of Egger’s novel - if it is to fit the Campbell monomythic structure - is a composite figure, made of equal halves of Zeitoun and his wife, Kathy. The stage of ‘Crossing the Threshold’ begins notably with Zeitoun starting out on his canoe with Frank and rescuing the elderly lady trapped in her house. His first major act of rescuing marks his entry into the special world of the hero. The following lines especially ring true of heroic or mythic narratives: Zeitoun thought it was very lucky to have found another craft so quickly, and he was filled with something like pride, knowing that he had promised help and could now deliver it (Eggers 80). The fortunate appearance of the fan boat in the same incident also functions as ‘Supernatural Aid; while the way in which the military personnel ignore Zeitoun and his cries for help are a prolepsis to the coming dark stage of ‘Belly of the Whale.’ The ‘Belly of the Whale’ stage occurs with Kathy Zeitoun as well as she begins to get dark signs of what may have happened to her husband. She is unable to reach him on the phone, as a stranger receives the phone at the Zeitoun household. The announcements on the car radio also serve as dark and threatening messages, leaving Kathy in a state of dread. Their shared experience of the heroic journey and the divine nature behind this adventure is brought out in the following lines: “I feel like I’m supposed to be here,” he said. Kathy was silent. “It’s God’s will,” he said. She had no answer to this (Eggers 96). The ‘Road of Trials’ aspect of the monomythic structure is also seen in the story of Zeitoun as the author describes the chronological onset of troubles on the Zeitoun family. Abdulrahman has to deal with the storm alone; Kathy has to deal with her insensitive family, also alone. It is as if the two of them, separated by calamity, are struggling against the same odds which manifest themselves in different forms. For Zeitoun, it is the physical strain of the storm which is the paramount obstacle; while for Kathy, it is the emotional turmoil that seems to drain her most cruelly. Throughout the chronicling of this ‘Road of Trials’ aspect, the author intersperses the incidents of hardship that Zeitoun faces with lines like these: ‘Again Zeitoun felt the presence of some divine hand (106)’ that repeatedly reaffirm the almost mythic quality of the story. The liberal quotations from the Qur’an also reinforce the presence of the divine in the narrative. The darkest point of the Zeitoun adventure begins from the point when Kathy cannot get in touch with him for longer than a day. As Eggers puts it: ‘There is nothing worse than this, Kathy thought. There can be nothing worse than this’ (142). The final stage of return of the hero happens towards the conclusion of Zeitoun. Indeed the writing of the novel itself serves as part of the mythic structure as Egger’s retelling of this unfortunate and heroic story is part of the life-enhancing powers described by Campbell in his theory. The new life that Dave Eggers gives to the Zeitoun family through this novel and its mass popularity is the modern-day equivalent of the life-giving boons that the hero can bestow on his fellow men once he has returned. In conclusion then, we note the many broad and minute similarities of Zeitoun to the structure prescribed by Joseph Campbell. However, there are some stages of the mythic structure that do not make themselves particularly visible in the Zeitoun story. For instance, ‘Woman as the Temptress’ is a motif that is barely noticeable. Also, as mentioned earlier, we must conceive of the hero as a composite figure made up of Zeitoun and his wife. Making these concessions, it is quite probable that Campbell would indeed classify Zeitoun as a heroic myth. Works Cited Eggers, Dave. Zeitoun. Vintage. Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Read More