By the end of the novel, Firdaus loses her fear and is at peace with herself and her place in the world. These moments raise her above point zero and drop her below it. As we follow her story in the novel, we see moments of triumph and moments of suffering. When Firdaus was born, she began at this point zero, but her family’s circumstances impacted her negatively. It is a “neutral point” or starting point, and from there, things can go either positively or negatively. “Point zero,” or the “zero point,” is defined as the point on a numerical scale from which positive and negative readings can be made. GradeSaver, 12 June 2019 Web.Explain the novel’s title. Next Section Woman at Point Zero Summary Buy Study Guide How To Cite in MLA Format Stewart, Amber.

Though it has yet to receive any official awards or accolades, Woman at Point Zero is a dire yet triumphant tale that continues to resonate with readers around the world. This break with mainstream feminist theory further distinguishes Saadawi and Woman at Point Zero from other authors and works of feminist thought. Woman at Point Zero troubles this idea, arguing that the mere fact of a woman choosing something doesn’t make that choice feminist. The novel also offers a different take on the feminist topic of “choice.” In mainstream feminist thought, any decision can be viewed as feminist as long as it’s a woman’s choice. While the book does have aspects specific to Arab society, one of its core themes, feminist awakening, is pertinent across countries and cultures.

Some critics argue that this was because Saadawi is an Arab woman writing about the lives of non-white, non-western women. She performed numerous in-depth case studies, and 21 of them were published in her 1976 work Women and Neurosis in Egypt, but Firdaus’s story was particularly poignant to Saadawi-so much so that Saadawi was determined to immortalize Firdaus and her story in the form of an exclusive novel.Īlthough it is considered a classic piece of Egyptian feminist fiction, until recently, Woman at Point Zero was left out of the feminist literary canon. Saadawi visited Firdaus and other female prisoners while conducting research on neurosis in Egyptian women. Woman at Point Zero tells the story of Firdaus, a notorious inmate at Qanatir. It was then translated from Arabic and published in English in 1983. After Egyptian publishers rejected the book because of its radical content, Saadawi had it published in Lebanon in 1975.

Based on the true story of a female prisoner at the Qanatir Prison in Egypt, Woman at Point Zerois one of Nawal El Saadawi’s most celebrated works.

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