Nawal El Saadawi Woman At Point Zero Analysis

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Recommended: What are the themes in woman at point zero by nawal el saadawi

Written Assignment
Cheyenne Jade Ishana Cosman
Ms.Arbuckle
English III
21 May 2014

Written Assignment
„Woman at Point Zero“

In Nawal El Saadawi’s work “Woman at Point Zero”, the author uses symbolism of the perfections and imperfections of people’s and Firdaus’ own physical appearance to convey emotions and the impact of the protagonist’s experiences on her daily daily life. Henceforth, the use of eyes as a figment of symbolism is crucial for the understanding of the work by Nawal El Saadawi. Furthermore, by contrasting clean and dirty, El Saadawi incorporated the ideals of beauty, which draws importance to the development of the protagonist’s self-esteem in the work, “Woman at Point Zero”.

Firstly, El Saadawi introduces symbolism in the second chapter of her work when she describes the eyes of the protagonist’s mother saying, “I can remember two eyes. I can remember her eyes in particular. I cannot describe their colour, or their shape. They were eyes that I watched. They were eyes that watched me.” (p.15)
This quotation depicts Firdaus’ feelings and thoughts on eyes, in particular her mother’s, for the first time in the work. However, in this quote, El Saadawi does not incorporate the observable traits and rather concentrates on Firdaus’ mother’s eyes to draw importance to her controlling but yet caring nature rather than on the beauty or colour of her eyes. The use of language conveys Firdaus’ love for her mother since she was the only person who truly stood up for Firdaus. An additional example of the use of the integral symbol of eyes can be seen in the following quotation, “My face turned towards her, and my eyes looked into her eyes two rings of pure white, surrounding two circles of intense black ...

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... rather free and clean. With this in mind, the use of contrasting clean and dirty purposely represents Firdaus’ state of freedom.

In conclusion, Nawal El Saadawi uses symbolism in relationship to the physical appearance of the protagonist, Firdaus and who she encounters throughout the work to convey emotions. Moreover, by concentrating on the eyes as a symbol of love and trust but also fear is coupled with strong elements of language to convey to the readers how Firdaus felt and what went through her mind. Significantly, the author contrasts clean and dirty to show the intentions of the various characters of “Woman at Point Zero”, which makes the work more understandable and relatable. Lastly, the growth and development of Firdaus’ self-esteem is also depicted in the contrasting of clean and dirty but also with the power Firdaus gained when she was independent.

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