Insects (Metaphor)
“My normal attitude towards myself (an attitude which rarely deserts me) gradually returned. I turned the ignition key and pressed my foot down on the accelerator, firmly stamping out the sudden feeling (which occasionally haunts me in moments of failure) of merely being an insignificant insect, crawling on the earth amidst myriads of other similar insects” (Saadawi 22).
After Firdaus refuses to speak with her, the psychologist returns to her car dejected and defeated. In this quote, she uses a metaphor to compare herself to a lowly, insignificant insect. This shows how highly the psychologist regards Firdaus, and how impactful it is that Firdaus refuses to meet her.
Children (Simile)
“For, like most people, I had many brothers and sisters. They were like chicks that multiply in spring, shiver in winter and lose their feathers, and then in summer are stricken with diarrhoea, waste away quickly and one by one creep into a corner and die” (Saadawi 35).
In this quote, Firdaus uses a simile to describe her siblings and how they succumbed to sickness and died. She compares them to chickens, which have many offspring, most of which don’t make it to adulthood. Although Firdaus is speaking about her own personal experience, this quote also alludes to the high infant mortality rates plaguing Egypt during the time Woman at Point Zero was published.
Pebble (Metaphor)
“There I was, just a pebble which someone had tossed into its waters, rolling along with the crowds that rode in buses and cars, or walked the streets, with unseeing eyes, incapable of noticing anything or anyone” (Saadawi 65).
After running from her uncle’s house, Firdaus walks the streets of Cairo by herself. Like many people who find themselves alone in a big, bustling city, Firdaus is overwhelmed and feels small, insignificant, and invisible. She compares herself to an insignificant pebble in a river that gets pulled and pushed by the current, unnoticed by anything or anyone.
The Veil (Simile)
“It was as if he had lifted a veil from my eyes, and I was seeing for the first time” (Saadawi 95).
The first time Firdaus gets paid for sex is also the first time in her adult life that she has her own money. This moment, when Firdaus realizes that she can make her own money and not be dependent on men for her livelihood, is like having a veil lifted from her eyes: this is the first time she realizes she can be an independent woman.
A Feather (Simile)
“My body was as light as a feather, as though its weight had been nothing more than the accumulation of fear over the years” (Saadawi 138).
When Firdaus kills Marzouk, all of the fear she’d accumulated over the course of her life left her body. She says at this point her body felt light as a feather. This demonstrates how heavy and oppressive her fear of men was.
