Zainab's knowledge of the horrific events that occur in later years seems to inform the way that she describes scenes like the one above. In other words, she sees sinister and manipulative tendencies of her president clearly in retrospect, and is inclined to see those tendencies everywhere. Are you inclined to see despotism everywhere just as she does, or are there moments that she frames as examples of tyranny and despotism that might have seemed like something else at the time (such as the passage above)? How does this narrative of oppression and dictatorship shape the telling of Zainab's memoir thus far? Is she able to separate events from that narrative, or are the events simply evidence to support that narrative? Or is she unable to avoid the narrative of oppression because it genuinely dominates her daily life?
Please be sure to cite specific examples from any of the three chapters we've read thus far as you explain your answer to the above question.
Most of Zainab's memoir is devoted to Saddam Hussein and he is a central figure in most of the stories that she tells. Even when he is not the central figure he is usually involved on the periphery. This means that either her life is completely dominated by Hussein or she is coloring her perception of him because of her hindsight. I am inclined to think that it is the later for several reasons. First she acknowledges that she does not know much about politics when she is serving coffee to Hussein. Yet she still criticizes him in that moment. Secondly when Hussein intervenes and gets her family the exemption to deportation she is still critical of him. Hussein intervened to help her family and she is still able to fault him. To me she is not capable of knowing what Hussein is doing and that he is a tyrant and bad man and yet she is constantly critical of him. That shows that her impressions have been colored by Husseins later actions and her hindsight.
ReplyDeleteLike Nicholas, I also agree that there is no possible way that Zainab's memories of Saddam during her writing process were not at least tainted a little pit. These horrors effect who we are as people and shape our ideologies and beliefs, sometimes that means also changing the way we envisioned events from our past. This might be as small as believing Saddam was actually yelling at someone instead of having a strong tone or demeanor. This is why I believe her memories have been plagued by the actions Saddam did later in life. This goes back again to the whole idea of accepting this narrative as strictly fact or accepting its biases.
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ReplyDeleteZainab presents Saddam Hussein as a ruthless dictator, and she does this through a narrative of oppression and dictatorship. Zainab creates a pervading sense of fear while also foreshadowing the horrific forthcoming events, which her younger self could not have predicted. The voice of her current self is woven into the story, taking the naiveté out of the narrative. We get the voice of a young Zainab when she first meets Saddam Hussein. She describes him as having “soft cheeks” and “a beautiful smile”, both positive traits that make Saddam seem friendly and approachable. This seems to be a more accurate description of how she perceived him at the time. At this point, she is probably old enough to notice that something is off, but I don’t think she could have sensed the oppression and fear of which her mother was aware.
As Natalia said, I could see through the reading the contrast between the vision that Zainab had of Saddam Hussein when she was very young and the one that she has when she writes her book. No one really explained to her his actions when she was little so she had a naive perception of him. Now that she understands and knows, it is different. And of course I think that the oppression and dictatorship shapes the narrative. Because now that she knows the facts and what he did. I feel like she can't really not be affected by it.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Natalia that Zainab weaves her voice as a young girl into the narrative; however, it is clearly tainted with the knowledge of events to come. After explaining an event through her childlike eyes, it is common for the author to add something to the story that she learned at a later date. The tone of writing is affected by this hindsight bias as Zainab often writes in a sinister manner. We see this when she describes the marching parade at school and her first encounter with Saddam Hussein, displaying his readiness to arrest their young neighbor who returns after curfew. Although Zainab is inherently influenced by the events of Hussein's later presidency, the methods she uses to separate herself and her family from Hussein may also be a method of self assurance and protection. Although Hussein's rule was unremarkable at first and her family had no power to resist his influence, one is immediately alarmed by such a close connection to Hussein. Therefore, besides promoting her own views on the president through retrospect, Zainab may also be trying to protect herself and her family from judgement.
I think that when a person is part of a regime under a dictatorship it is difficult to accept the horrors that take place. No individual wants to believe that they are being controlled or that their leader is a brutal dictator, so therefor it can be easy to ignore despotism and continue believing you are leading somewhat of a normal life. Furthermore when a person’s family, friends and neighbors are following a certain path, it is only natural to do the same, whether or not they believe in it or not. I think through out history there are many examples of people being blindsided by oppressive regimes. Naturally Nazi Germany demonstrates this, where an entire nation falls under the spell of one man and is led to commit atrocities. Members of the Nazi party obviously had morals, yet were brainwashed to the point where they would follow any command, almost as Zainab describes her brain being on autopilot. Another smaller-scale example of this was the Jonestown Massacre, where a group of 1000 Americans followed their elected leader into the jungles of Guyana and committed mass suicide. Members the Nazi regime/former SS soldiers and followers of Jim Jones look back in retrospect and see the madness in their actions yet were unable to in the moment. These examples can be compared to Hussain’s Iraq because the people experienced the same control over their lives under a dictator, and chose to accept the horror that coexisted with them. Yet in hindsight Zainab realizes how oppressive Hussain had been and how everyone had been blind to his cruelty or failed to speak out against it.
ReplyDeleteZainab's bias is certainly justified in retrospect. I have to believe it's impossible to avoid such biases if you are remembering Saddam through the lens of his more recent actions. Even if Zainab had written from a more objective point of view, I would have filled in Saddam's despotism as a reader. We, too, are prone to this hindsight bias. With that said, Zainab's memories from such a young age are likely not detail-heavy, so she had to fill in some description anyway. And it's possible that the way in which she is able to remember the events accurately is tainted by the Saddam she knows now. Her storytelling style can also be attributed to by the adults in her life as a child. A great majority of the people Zainab looked up to revered Saddam highly. From where she stood, he was a well-respected leadership figure. Even if her mother and close relatives didn't want to socialize with Saddam closely, they hardly ever questioned his executive status.
ReplyDeleteI definately think that Zainab is using her current view of Saddam Hussein to distort the image of him that she had as a young girl. One passage where she does this that strikes me is on page seven, in chapter one. Here she talks about Saddam's reforms in the 70's. She says that "... Saddam's Socialist-based Baath party instigated a massive compulsory campaign to combat illiteracy (and spread his ideology) that taught so many people to read so fast that Iraq became a model for the developing world and won a unesco prize. Now, at the time, the whole world was praising Saddam Hussein for his efforts to improve his country, even the UN. However, Zainab, in this passage, denounces him for spreading his oppression and gaining more power by feeding propaganda to little children, even though that doesn't come to light until years later down in Saddam's reign. If the UN didnt know about this, then there is no way that Zainab, a little girl who's parents refuse to explain much about her country's president to her, could have known. Whether consciousely or subconciousely, Zainab is distorting her memories to match her current hatred of this man. Ultimately though, because Saddam DID do all the bad things that Zainab has said that he's done, and was as bad as she sais, it doesn't matter, just as long as we remember that what she is writing doesn't necessarily tell the truth about what she truly thought of him as a girl.
ReplyDeleteI believe that as readers, we are able to get very interesting and powerful insight into Saddam Hussein's rise to power because of Zainab’s age. Because Zainab is so young, I think her observations and feelings are all the more genuine. As readers, we are learning with her; when Zainab begins to learn the differences between the Shia and Sunni, in some ways we do, too. Because we are able to experience Zainab’s biases being formulated, the story, in my opinion, seems much more real. Because of Zainab’s age, I believe that the story is more credible because she has accumulated fewer biases than an older person would have. In some ways, it is as if she is a blank slate being thrown into the midst of chaos. In addition, because we experience the genesis of Zainab’s biases, we as readers can choose whether to agree with them or not.
ReplyDeleteZaniab’s knowledge of the horrid events that she witnessed are definitely taken into account when she talks about events that occurred earlier in her life. I think this is a natural thing. As time goes on, it becomes harder and harder to remember specific events and things perfectly. It is human nature. For example, when describing celebrating Saddam’s birthday Zaniab writes, “Mama already knew what I was coming to understand. Lighting those candles, chanting for Amo Saddam, and even eating that cake were shields we used to ward off danger, and those who were the most vulnerable needed them most.” (Pg.62) Maybe I am wrong, but I doubt that back during this time, Zaniab realized all of this. I believe looking back on it she wishes she realized that.
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