Hologram For The King Culture
In Dave Eggers’ A Hologram For The King, we meet our protagonist Alan Clay. In this novel, we see Alan struggle physically and emotionally, he battles with his past and present struggles, but more notably he battles with himself. We are shown glimpses of Alan’s now deceased friend, Charlie Fallon, and how Alan continues to see Charlie in his dreams and starts to process Charlie and his life decisions. We meet Kit and Ruby, Ruby is Alan’s now ex-wife and Kit is Alan’s daughter with Ruby. As a single parent, Alan struggles to pay for Kit to go to the college she wants to attend, and Alan feels like he has ruined her life and that she hates him for it. Alan is near the end of his sales career without much to show for it, Alan sees himself as irrelevant
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Alan realizes that these people do not know him so he is basically a blank canvas, he can be a new person here and it will not affect his life back home. But when Alan arrives at the King Abdullah Economic City, he already starts to feel out of place and useless. A part in him being out of place is that the culture in Saudi Arabia is drastically different then in the U.S. Eggers points out the differences in culture by writing “He had been among burqas before, but to see these shadows moving through the playground, following the children—it gave Alan a chill. Was it not something from a nightmare, to be chased by a flowing figure in black, hands outstretched?” (30). Alan loved talking to Yousef, his driver, about the similarities and differences of the Middle East and the U.S. It turned out that Yousef went to school in Alabama, so it was nice for Alan to talk to someone who understood life in the U.S. When Alan arrived in KAEC he envisioned it as becoming a sprawling utopia, but Yousef told Alan that the city will never be as big as the king promised. “It might have happened at one time, but there's no more money. Emaar's a bust. They're going broke in Dubai. Everything was overvalued and now they're busted. They owe money all over the planet, and now KAEC's dead. Everything's dead. You'll see” (39). Alan will not let Yousef’s negativity divert his plan, Alan is focused on completing this deal so he can feel a sense of
Alan realizes that these people do not know him so he is basically a blank canvas, he can be a new person here and it will not affect his life back home. But when Alan arrives at the King Abdullah Economic City, he already starts to feel out of place and useless. A part in him being out of place is that the culture in Saudi Arabia is drastically different then in the U.S. Eggers points out the differences in culture by writing “He had been among burqas before, but to see these shadows moving through the playground, following the children—it gave Alan a chill. Was it not something from a nightmare, to be chased by a flowing figure in black, hands outstretched?” (30). Alan loved talking to Yousef, his driver, about the similarities and differences of the Middle East and the U.S. It turned out that Yousef went to school in Alabama, so it was nice for Alan to talk to someone who understood life in the U.S. When Alan arrived in KAEC he envisioned it as becoming a sprawling utopia, but Yousef told Alan that the city will never be as big as the king promised. “It might have happened at one time, but there's no more money. Emaar's a bust. They're going broke in Dubai. Everything was overvalued and now they're busted. They owe money all over the planet, and now KAEC's dead. Everything's dead. You'll see” (39). Alan will not let Yousef’s negativity divert his plan, Alan is focused on completing this deal so he can feel a sense of