Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Response to Zeitoun



I first want to start off by saying this is one the best books I've read in a while. I love true stories but this one was very intense. The story is just plain amazing and impossible to put down. For my response I chose to answer the question about Kathy.

“ Discuss Kathy’s situation, and her actions once she learns where Zeitoun is. The aftermath is more difficult, and she still suffers from physical and psychological problems that seem to be the result of post-traumatic stress. What was the most traumatic part of her experience, and why?”

When the story starts off, if goes through a little bit of history of the couple then gets right into a couple days before Katrina made landfall. A lot of people didn’t anticiate the severity of the storm. Kathy kept hearing news reports and how the storm was getting worse. A story that caught her eye was the family who was lost at sea. She worried about them every time she heard the story. Meanwhile, more and more people were packing up and heading out. Kathy wanted to and couldn’t get Zeitoun to commit to leaving. He had stayed before and didn’t see this as any different. So finally Kathy packed up the kids and the dog and headed out to her family. Zeitoun is able to keep contact with her before and right after the storm using his cell phone until it finally dies. While out exploring his properties he discovers a landline that still works and immediately contacts Kathy and does this every day at noon. Until one day he doesn’t call Kathy. Immediately she knows something must be wrong, she is under a lot of pressure from Zeitoun’s brother and family to find him get him back home. Everyday they call her asking where he is. One day someone calls and in a short manner tells Kathy he saw her husband and told her the prison he was in.

Once she finds out where he is Kathy is so excited because she knows for sure he is alive and she can let her kids and Zeitoun’s brother know he is alive and hopefully well. She could do nothing while she had no idea where he was but soon after finding out where he is, it doesn’t really change. She makes calls to a lawyer friend, they find out of a court date, together they make plans to help get Zeitoun out. But Kathy soon finds out they won’t let her do anything. She can’t even find out where the court date is because it is “private information”. Kathy described this as the part where she broke, the moment when the woman said it’s private information I cannot tell you. This was because Kathy could do nothing and could think of nothing else to do. Her husband was locked up, she did not know why and she could not help. That would be a breaking point for many people.

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