Zeitoun (Persuasive Essay) free essay sample

The definition of a hero is a person who is admired for courage or noble qualities. Although Zeitoun’s actions can be seen as â€Å"heroic†, Zeitoun himself is anything but a hero. Seniors at Mills High School should not be reading Zeitoun because he was abusive, the book can bring up stereotypes about Muslims as terrorists and it glorifies him as a hero which is untrue. Although Dave Eggers did a lot of research into the lives of the Zeitouns, he never wrote about how Abdulrahman abused his wife. It is not known if Eggers knew of the abuse or not. In August of 2012, Zeitoun was charged for trying to have Kathy, her son, Zachary and an unknown man killed by a fellow inmate. Zeitoun was already in a New Orleans jail when he paid an inmate named Donald Pugh twenty thousand dollars to kill Kathy, her son from her previous marriage, Zachary and a friend of Kathy’s. We will write a custom essay sample on Zeitoun (Persuasive Essay) or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page However, although he Zeitoun provided the man with enough information to murder the three people, Pugh instead told police about the attack that was being planned. Since this situation has come to light, there is absolutely no telling what else Zeitoun could have been hiding when Eggers interviewed the family. Therefore, Zeitoun is not an appropriate book for high school seniors to be reading because it might not be exactly all of the truth. In the United States, Americans are always trying to find someone to blame for their problems and casting stereotypes at certain groups of people. In the novel, Zeitoun is wrongfully arrested and charged with being a terrorist. Although this book does highlight a lot of the problems that occurred with the police force during Hurricane Katrina, it fails to discuss how Muslims are often seen as terrorists in America. Since 9/11, more and more people are deliberately finding ways to pin their problems on Muslims since some of the terrorist attacks were performed by Muslim people. It is unfair of people to use stereotypes such as this one to explain their dislike for a certain ethnic group. Even Muslim people who are American citizens get the stereotype thrown at them and this should not be rationalized just because people are afraid of attacks that may or may not have been by Muslim people. Zeitouns actions in the novel are very unselfish and he definitely uses his skills wisely. However, since not very many people were actually present while Zeitoun was accomplishing these tasks, it is difficult to say whether or not all of the events are accurate or true. Some of Zeitouns actions in the novel seem as though they could have been stretched to make his story more dramatic as well as more entertaining for the audience. Most of the events that take place are heroic and it is possible that Zeitoun allowed people to think this way because he wanted to seem as though he did the correct thing by staying behind, even when he knew that it was a reckless idea. Although the novel, Zeitoun, written by Dave Eggers is an accurate representation of a lot of problems that occurred in New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, it is also not accurate enough to be read by high school seniors at Mills. The novel fails to discuss how Zeitoun was abusive towards his wife, how Muslim get even more of a stereotype from this description, and how no one actually knows if all of the events in this story took place or not because they were told by a single person with no actual proof.