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Part 3: Saturday September 17
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Zeitoun, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family, Community, and Home
Crime, Justice, and Injustice
Faith, Perseverance, and Dignity
Human vs. Natural Tragedy
Islam and Islamophobia
Summary
Analysis
Kathy wakes up determined to go back to New Orleans and hunt down her husband. She is sure that thieves have come to their house and killed him, and she plans to hire a boat. But midday, Hurricane Rita is approaching New Orleans, and Mayor Nagin cancels the plans to reopen the city.
Even Kathy’s new decision—one that seems able to equip her with more agency, and thus enable her to escape from her sense of desperation and helplessness—is thwarted by changes on the ground and more forces of nature.
Themes
Nademah suggests that they all pray together in the living room. Just then, Kathy’s cell phone rings, and a man asks if this is Mrs. Zeitoun. He says he saw her husband. Kathy has to sit down. The man is a missionary—he says Zeitoun is at Hunt, a prison in St. Gabriel. The man can’t tell her anything else, and he hangs up.
Just when it seems that Kathy has nowhere left to turn, a stranger gives her the information that she’s been waiting for—and yet this is still excruciatingly limited information. Finally, after seeing the psychological toll of Zeitoun’s disappearance in this section, we will next get to see what happened from his perspective.
Themes
