Woman at Point Zero. Repetition. Rhythm.

Woman at Point Zero.

Repetition. Rhythm.

The repeating images, language and scenes establish the cadence and rhythm of the book.

Repetition of the eyes:

“All I can remember are two rings of intense white around two circles of intense black. I only had to look into them for the white to become whiter and the black to become even blacker, as though sunlight was pouring through them from some magical source neither on earth, nor in the sky, for the earth was pitch black, and the sky dark as night, with no sun and no moon” (16).

The repetition of the eyes creates a rhythm throughout the book that navigates us in a cyclical (or circular, for the purpose of this example) in a self-reflective tone. The eyes are the means by which people communicate without language. A stare can say more than a thousand words. The eyes are “the windows of the soul.” They are especially important in this text because the women are veiled—if body language and facial expressions say more than verbal language does, the women’s eyes are the means by which they communicate. Firdaus learns over time that a confident gaze says a lot more than a downward cast one.

“From that day onwards I ceased to bend my head or to look away. I walked through the streets with my head held high, and my eyes looking straight ahead. I looked people in the eyes, and if I saw someone count his money, I fixed it with an unwinking gaze. I continued to walk the streets” (73).

The repetition of the symbol of the eyes also serves to unveil of the women, to see the truth with uncovered eyes. Firdaus explains at the end of the book:

“The movement of my hands as I tore the money to pieces, tore off the veil, the last, remaining veil from before my eyes, to reveal the whole enigma which had puzzled me throughout, the true enigma of my life” (107).

Repetition of the figure in the shadows:

“Often, the night would be dark, without a moon shedding its light from above, the last bell would have pealed out its light from above, the last bell would have pealed out its last note a long while ago, leaving deep silence behind. Around me the windows would be shut, and all the lights would be out, yet I would continue to sit in the dark alone, and wonder about many things. What will become of me in the coming years? Will I go to the university? Would my uncle agree to send me there for my studies?

One night a teacher saw me as I sat there. For a moment she was frightened by the sight of a mass that did not move, yet looked like a human shape sitting in the dark. Before coming nearer to me she called out:

‘Who is sitting there?’

In a weak, scared voice I replied, ‘It’s me, Firdaus’” (28).

When Firdaus sits in the garden outside her office building Ibrahim has a similar reaction to her and the scene is almost identical. The result of these sections is that they reveal the pensive, deep and thoughtful sides of Firdaus. She wonders what will happen to her. She is a woman whose thoughts are so deep she must sit up in the moonless nights and ponder her fate. The depth of her soul is revealed. The moments are juxtaposed by all of the things that men say about her and how they treat her. We see the true Firdaus: a brave, thoughtful woman fearful of her vulnerable existence and the treatment she receives from the men in her life.

The repetitious aspects of the book are dream-like. The character is so inhabited that one forgets that the doctor leads the story. The voices of Firdaus, the doctor and Saadawi seem as one throughout the text.

Repetition of the feelings of pleasure:

“My body pulsed with an obscure pleasure, or with a pain that was not really pain but pleasure, with a pleasure I had never known before, had lived in another life that was not my life, or in another body that was not my body” (51).

Throughout her life Firdaus’ father, uncle, first husband and the men she encounters after she runs away from home and becomes a prostitute exploit her sexuality. The repetition of the feeling of pleasure starts when she is a child and goes all the way into adulthood. This theme serves to remind the reader that Firdaus has been abused starting at a very young age. It supports her point of view that “All women are prostitutes of one kind or another. Because I was intelligent I preferred to be a free prostitute, rather than an enslaved wife” (99).

And her beliefs in another excerpt: “‘I am saying that you are criminals, all of you: the fathers, the uncles, the husbands, the pimps, the lawyers, the doctors, the journalists, and all men of all professions.’

They said, ‘You are a savage and dangerous woman.’

‘I am speaking the truth. And the truth is savage and dangerous’” (110).

This book explores the circuitous cycle of hypocrisy of the world, specifically towards women, specifically in this culture. “I spit on their lying faces and words, on their lying newspapers” (112).

The doctor ends with: “I felt ashamed of myself, of my life, of my fears, and my lies… The streets were full of people bustling around, of newspapers hanging on wooden stalls, their headlines crying out. At every step, wherever I went, I could see the lies, could follow the hypocrisy bustling around… And at that moment I realized that Firdaus had more courage than I” (114).

**Check out the BBC World Book Club interview with Saadawi: http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/arts/2009/05/090505_saadawi_wbc.shtml