The book Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, and movie Sharknado written by Thunder Levin, have similarities and differences in how the characters face natural disasters, the biggest being the hero. The heros in both stories face different conflicts. Zeitoun faces racism, while Fin faces his ex wife and children. No one asked these guys to be the heros, they did not have to save anyone, yet they did.

Zeitoun has stayed behind because he was not afraid, it became serious to him only after the storm surge began and the flooding took place.  He didn’t initially stay to help people, the storm was no big deal to him. But once it passed and the flood was present, he started finding people who would have died without him.

For example, the book says “He told her about the woman in the ballooning dress in the foyer, how he had lifted the ladder to save her” (Eggers 108). This woman was maybe 70-80 years old, and when Zeitoun found her, she was holding on for her life. Had he not come for her, no one else would have.  Now Sharknado’s (2013), character Finn had a similar occurrence.

His bar was off the ocean. He told all of his guests to leave for their safety while he stayed behind to tend to his bar. He ended up leaving the bar once the sharks appeared inside it, and started driving to his ex wife’s house to get them to leave. Once they all got together to leave, Fin seen many people who needed his help. He warned them of the sharks, helped them out of their cars, and fended off the sharks. Neither of the men stayed behind with the intentions to help people, but at the sight of struggle, both men couldn’t help themselvesAnother good example was when Zeitoun began to find abandoned dogs, he would bring food and water to them every day, for example, in the book it says “Zeitoun refilled their water dish and they dove for it.

After drinking their fill they went to work on the steaks, gnawing on them until the meat thawed” (Eggers 122). Zeitoun had returned to the dogs he found every day to feed and water them. Once again, no one had asked him to watch their pets. Any time anyone called, they wanted a damage estimate. Sharknados (2013), next compassionate scene was when Fin came across a pool at a nursing home, full of elderly people.

He helped escort everyone inside to their safety, especially those who were in the pool when the sharks joined them. The people who were being attacked by the sharks would scream for help, and Fin would not ignore a cry for help.Back to Zeitoun again, whenever he found lost supplies floating in the water, he would collect them and give them to the next person he came across. For my example from the book, “He would hand them whatever he had. He was finding so many things-Bottled water, MREs, canned food-And whenever he saw anyone, he gave them whatever was in his canoe” (Eggers 125). Weather it was supplies or assistance, he had enough and he was a do gooder. And for my final example, in the end of the movie Sharknado (2013),  Fin drives a vehicle full of bombs into the tornado to try and offset the pressure difference. He risks his life to try and stop the tornado from harming any more people.

His ex wife wanted him to stop trying to save everyone and put his own family first, but he was still determined to help as many people as he could.So for my intertextual approach, I chose to compare Zeitoun to Sharknado. It wasn’t easy as they are both very different texts. But for the untold lesson of these stories, I decided it was that Zeitoun and Fin did not have to be heros, it wasn’t their responsibilities.

No one asked them to, and they didn’t plan to save people, yet it still happened. Work Cited PageEggers, Dave. Zeitoun. McSweeny’s, 2009. Levin, Thunder, and David M Latt. Sharknado.

The Asylum, 2013.