Diminishing American Pride Essay - 1840 Words

Diminishing American Pride The book Zeitoun basically talks about a Syrian American family’s experience in the time of Hurricane Katrina. It was mainly divided into two story lines, one of Abdulrahman Zeitoun, the main character, a Syrian American contractor; and one of Kathy, his wife, a white woman converted Muslim. Zeitoun had an extraordinary life, also an extraordinary experience in the time of Hurricane Katrina. He was a successful well-known businessman in local area. When everyone else was fleeing their hometown before Katrina came, Zeitoun chose to stay to protect his house and business. Later then when the city was flooded, he travelled around with his small canoe, delivering help and resources. However, he was wrong†¦show more content†¦Muslim people like Zeitoun, hard working and honest people, are forced to live under the fear of being prosecuted for his race someday, taken away from his family, locked up in somewhere nobody would know he’s died or not. Those fears have made them coward under a lowly skin, live like second-class citizens. â€Å"In the weeks after the attacks on the Twin Towers, Kathy saw very few Muslim women in public. She was certain they were hiding, leaving home only when necessary. In Late September, she was in Walgreens when she finally saw a woman in a hijab. She ran to her. ‘Salaam alaikum!’ she said, taking the woman’s hands. The woman, a doctor studying at Tulane, had been feeling the same way, like an exile in her own country, and they laughed at how delirious they were to see each other.† (Zeitoun page 46) Indeed, as part of international society, American allowed people to be exiled from their own country. In Edward Said’s essay, â€Å"States†, he described how they, Palestinian people was exiled from their own country and forced to scatter around the world, be denied of personal identity everywhere.†Some Israeli settlers on the West Bank say: †˜The Palestinians can stay here, with no rights, as resident aliens.’ Other Israelis are less kind.† (Said pg 546) â€Å"The fact is that today I can neither return to the places of my youth, nor voyage freely in the countries and placesShow MoreRelatedThe Glass Escalator By Adia Wingfield926 Words   |  4 PagesDoctors are considered to be a more suitable career path for a man; therefore male nurses are mistaken for doctors. African American professionals both men and women are more often assumed to be less qualified than their white colleagues. For example a if a customer walked into a lawyer’s office and saw a white man and a black man they would more likely assume the African American male is the secretary and the Caucasian male is the lawyer. 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