Review Of Dave Egger's Zeitoun: In The Wake Of Hurricane Katrina

In the Wake of Hurricane Katrina Dave Eggers in his non-fiction book Zeitoun tells the story of Hurricane Katrina from the eyes of a Syrian-American family, the Zeitoun, who were living in New Orleans during the storm. Zeitoun, who is a father of four and a contractor, devoted his life for his hard work by serving the community of New Orleans. Zeitoun showed tremendous bravery during the Hurricane Katrina. He rescued many lives, including abandoned dogs at the time of the hurricane. The government response to the storm was very slow at that time and there was a lack of preparedness at all levels. This leads to a system breakdown in the whole city of New Orleans; human rights were violated and people were incarcerated without any charge. The

In the story of Eggers’ book for example, Zetoun and his friends were arrested from Zeitoun’s home and held more than three weeks in maximum prison without any charge (Eggers 205-215). No one was attempting to gather information or investigate any criminal charge against him. Eggers also presents the case of the 73 year old woman who was wrongly arrested for looting while she was trying to get food from her car (Eggers 259).When Zeitoun and his friends arrested, they were denied to make phone calls (Eggars 212). Zeitoun was also denied medical treatment when he was sick in prison (Eggars 250-256). Even when Zeitoun was finally charged with looting with $500, they set the bail at $75,000 which was higher than the normal amount of criminal charge (Eggars 278-279). The authorities also refused to inform Kathy where the public hearing would take place in the ground that the hearing was “private” (Eggars 280). These violations of rights are all inconsistent with the American court system which gives a certain right for the people when being detained, but this was not the case for Zeitoun and his