Role of dreams in Ab Yehoshua's Lover rubbish that [she] picks up and throws into the basket” (9). In AB Yehoshua's novel The Lover, Asya uses dreams to release her inner tensions. Yehoshua uses Asya's dreams as symbolic and prophetic mechanisms that parallel the subtle emotional conflicts within the characters and within herself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Once Asya is deprived of her lover, Gabriel, she is consumed by his absence and immediately begins to dream of him. The first of Asya's dreams described in the novel reflects her unconscious desire to find Gabriel and abandon her family. The dream places Asya at a military encampment as an educator on an excursion, parallel to Gabriel's own military excursion (14). Like the dreamer, the reader is also unable to make the connection between the dream and Gabriel, as both are uncertain about Gabriel's military career at the beginning of the novel. “The faces of the children in Dafi's class” that Asya meets are analogous to the “boy-faced young men” in Gabriel's platoon (14, 297). While Dafi's class received compulsory education, the soldiers were forced into military service. Dafi's class also creates a commentary on the Zionist movement. Although the Zionist movement recently catalyzed the creation of an Israeli state, Israelis must now defend their independence in the Yom Kippur War. The excursion into Asya's dream exposes the young children to war, corrupting their naivety and innocence. These children must be prepared; they must sacrifice their childhood for the war, because most Israelis believe that their independence will be continually challenged, regardless of the outcome of the Yom Kippur War. Like Gabriel, Asya is lost in the camp; she does not understand his purpose, but eventually understands his position under the guidance of a superior. Asya teaches “the importance of history” to war-weary adults whose studies have been interrupted by the war (15). The fact that Asya teaches the importance of history in her dream presents another point about Israeli independence. Israel is a multiracial Jewish state, an oasis in a desert of intolerant Arab nations. Asya, like most Israelis, believes that there will never be a decisive victory for Israeli independence; there is a seemingly innate hatred between Arabs and Jews, as evidenced by their historical tensions. Asya's search for a missing part of her past parallels her father's quest. While Asya searches for Gabriel, her father searches the radio for “any mention of Israel or his own name in the distant void” (47). Asya's first dream gives the reader insight into the cause of her father's ignominious removal as head of the Ministry of Information and the reason behind her search to reconnect with her past. Again, the dream occurs before Asya's father's former occupation is revealed, thus inviting the reader to ignore the description. "He's an old man wearing a hat and he's walking down the wadi with such determination, heading off into the distance towards the enemy lines. My heart stops. He looks like my father. Is he there too? A- "Does he belong here or not? Walk straight and excited in the boulder-strewn ravine" (15). The fact that his father wears a hat would suggest that he is attempting a clandestine operation. The hat will cover his face, helping him conceal his identity. Asya's father crosses enemy lines alone,with determination; this suggests that he may be sharing sensitive information with aggressor countries for compensation, as the head of the intelligence department would not cross enemy lines alone in war, which is the task of a low-level agent . After his dismissal, Asya's father is convinced "that he is right, that an injustice has been done to him" (46). Perhaps he had hoped to end the war by peaceful and diplomatic means. Then, fear in a dream created by fear. Asya is overcome with anxiety as her heart “stops.” This suggests that Asya noticed her father's illegal actions in real time and is now haunted by their repetition in her dreams. His father is excited, implying that he believed he wouldn't be caught, even if he was. The ravine symbolizes the difficult path he was forced to follow to share intelligence secrets with other nations. The war does not leave Asya's thoughts. Asya's second dream describes the unconscious guilt she suffers from neglecting Dafi during the war. Asya is trapped in her dream world afterwards. Gabriel's departure harms Dafi's health, who becomes insomniac. War creates civil disobedience. “A gang of murders settles private scores in the city”, and Asya is afraid for her daughter (29 years old). , where Dafi is often alone but not forgotten. Despite Asya's concerns, Dafi arrives safely and the last segment of the dream foreshadows that Adam will finally find Gabriel. A murderer follows Dafi into the house; the uninvited arrival of the murderer parallels the unwelcome arrival of Dafi's Gabriel. Adam ends up subversively kicking Gabriel out of the house by having him sign up for the army; this is symbolic of Adam killing the murderer with a screwdriver. If Gabriel poses a threat to Adam, Gabriel also deprived Dafi of a part of her childhood by depriving her of her mother. By expelling Gabriel, Adam also benefits Dafi. Asya shouts at Adam, “their lives are ruined” (30). Asya's reaction foreshadows Adam's eventual use of a screwdriver to find Gabriel and end his wife's "ruined life" (30). The screwdriver may also predict Adam's possible affair with Tali and the murderer may actually mean Tali, who has come to disrupt Asya's house. The screwdriver can be phallic. The fact that Adam “tries to hide the big screwdriver” may foreshadow how he tries to conceal his relationship with Tali (30). In Asya's next dream, she unwittingly explores her strained and loveless marriage. Asya drives Adam's car, which likely represents her marriage to Adam. The car seat is low, which limits visibility. As with a marriage, Asya is forced to “drive [both the wedding and the car] according to her instincts” (57). When Asya gets out of the car, she observes “the vague dents,” but believes that Adam will fix them (57). This implies that their marriage is repairable, but Adam must take the initiative. When Asya finally arrives home, her dream becomes prophetic. There are “people in the house”, they represent the mourners (57). Yigal is dead, which catalyzes the sudden chain reaction that destroys Asya's relationship with Adam. Upon closer inspection, the car is destroyed, predicting the destruction of the marriage after Yigal's unexpected death. Throughout the novel, Adam attempts to solve money problems; a crashed car would not cause him “pain in the face” (58). His loveless marriage consumed him, “he tore his beard down to the roots, scalped himself” (58). Adam's self-mutilation of his beard symbolizes his loss of identity in his state of confusion after Yigal's death. Asya's inability to look at the remains of Adam's beard reflects unconscious blame. Asya blames Adamfor Yigal's death since Adam made the special hearing aid and Yigal is in Adam's care when he is killed. The dream could also represent Asya's affair with Gabriel. There are obstacles to overcome in this matter, but as with the car, “nothing could stop [them]” (57). Then the war comes and the car stops. The “people in the house” may think that people within the community know about the affair, but are not willing to get involved in the affair (57). “The capsized car” foreshadows the destruction of the affair (58). The destruction of the car also indicates that Adam is aware of the affair and foresees its end with the start of the Yom Kippur War. Adam “fixes the car himself” by sending Gabriel to enlist in the army (57). Asya's inability to look at Adam's altered physique echoes Asya's subconscious wish for Adam to fight in Gabriel's place. Asya's next dream, like several of her other dreams, predicts Adam's affair with Tali. Asya is alone in a classroom, parallel to the lonely setting of the hospital where Adam and Tali consummate their affair. There is "still a pile of sand in the corner," which suggests Adam and Tali's inability to make love on the beach (83). Asya “gets nervous,” eager to start her lesson, just as Adam can’t wait to sleep with Tali (84). The pubescent boy, the only student in Asya's class, "takes off his pants" and "stands naked in the corner", just as Tali "stands in the corner like a trapped animal", "exposing her naked little body " for Adam (84, 261). Yehoshua attempts to make the parallel more obvious when Asya wants to tell the boy to “come here,” which Adam says to Tali to catalyze the affair (84, 258). Asya's inability to escape her dream world makes her husband feel insecure. Adam's affair with Tali is a realization of virility and lust as he "becomes a lover, in search of a lover" (262). The student's "sickly face", which is also used to characterize Gabriel, leaves the possibility that the student represents Gabriel and Asya's helpless desire for his love (84). Even though Asya is married, she feels "a mixture of revulsion and desire" for the boy; Asya feels this same desire when she meets Gabriel (84 years old). When the boy finally leaves, Asya feels "completely empty"; this is what she feels after Gabriel leaves (84). Asya's inability to escape her dream world makes her desire for Gabriel blatantly obvious to Adam and Dafi, who are victims of her selfishness. Asya's later dream provides insight into her affair with Gabriel. Adam, an expert mechanic who cares for Asya but is unable to meet her emotional and physical needs, draws parallels with the "wonderful dentist", who is unable to work for Asya after falling asleep. While Adam provides the site for Asya's affair, the dentist provides the office for Gabriel so that he can use his "instruments" on Asya's mouth (110). While Gabriel is hired by Adam as a metaphorical prostitute who is supposed to "help his wife with the translations", he is also hired by the dentist as an assistant. While Adam is blind to his wife's affair, the dentist is asleep to his assistant's actions. Gabriel's instruments are undoubtedly phallic. Through his use of terms such as "her face tense with concentration" and "gliding gently into the hollow," Yehoshua makes Asya's dental experience a metaphor for sex (110). Dental assistants like Gabriel would not touch a patient, but Asya “is overwhelmed by the gentleness of his light touch” (110). In the last lines of the dream, Asya wonders why she came to the dentist, which reflects her tensioninternally regarding this matter. The final lines may also reflect that Asya is unhappy with Gabriel but fears his departure. She is afraid of "disappointing him", but has no qualms about being a lifeless amoeba in the face of her husband's sexual desires. The depiction of Adam in Asya's dream as a sleeping dentist is also predictive of his affair with Tali. Tali wakes the sleeping dentist and inspires him to use his instruments. The hospital where Adam and Tali have sex looks like a dentist's office. Everything in every room is sterile. Like an experienced dentist, Adam works mechanically and methodically on Tali's “little naked body” (261). Tali is paralyzed, she sits there like a dental patient, waiting for the pain to stop. In Asya's sixth dream, Yigal, whose death precipitated Asya's affair and left an emotional void within the family, is replaced by Na'im, who is also helping Asya find her lover. Asya is haunted by the memory of Yigal, but Na'im provided Asya with the physical imagery and personality necessary to create an adolescent projection of Yigal in her dreams. In Asya's dream, Yigal "rides back and forth on the wide sidewalk" with his bicycle, "he is tall and thin," unknowingly mocking his mother who has been emotionally troubled since her death (180). This is similar to Na'im testing the patience of a Jewish family conditioned to hate him and his people. While Na'im is embarrassed by race, Yigal is embarrassed by his disability. Asya's family accepts them both despite each of their social stigmas. Yigal's bicycle is "very colorful, shiny, loaded with gears and cogwheels and spools of thread," reflecting Yigal's desire for social acceptance and paralleling Na'im's quest (180). Na'im adapted to Jewish culture through subtractive assimilation. Na'im blends in with the Jews, they no longer recognize that he is Arab while Yigal goes to regular school and people sometimes forget that he is deaf. Then, in the middle of the dream, Asya "realizes that it is not Yigal but a kind of replacement that Adam has brought for [her]", which is obviously Na'im (180). This reflects Asya's unconscious resistance to forgetting her lost son, while further emphasizing Na'im's ability to blend in among the Jews. Asya then calls "Yigal's replacement", signifying her unconscious desperation for a son, an inheritance. Apparently, Asya refuses Adam this inheritance, for fear of losing another son or perhaps because she is too old and suffers from sterility. “[Na'im] hears him and understands, but takes advantage of his deafness to ignore” Asya, this is representative of the special bond between Adam and Yigal that has now survived vicariously through Na'im (181). The dream shows that although Asya would like to penetrate this obscure relational bubble, her attempts fail. The conclusion of Asya's dream predicts Na'im's eventual and unexpected departure from the family and Dafi's impregnation. When Na'im leaves the family, it is unexpected, as is Yigal's death. Na'im resigns from his position as guardian while Yigal resigns from his life. The seed that Na'im leaves in Dafi's belly is symbolized by the missing "replacement" who leaves behind a transistor radio that picks up a news anchor saying "life...it has come to life" (181). The dream that follows this one departs from the genres of the previous dreams. In Asya's next dream, she parallels the formation of the African republics with the formation of the Israeli republics. Like the Israelis, the African boasts of his “renewed land” (222). “New colonies are being built” in Africa and Israel, even though the rest of the world will not invest in either country (222). Yehoshua explicitly describes the African man as "a giant negro", ».

Essay / Role of dreams in Ab Yehoshua's Lover rubbish that [she] picks up and throws into the basket” (9). In AB Yehoshua's novel The Lover, Asya uses dreams to release her inner tensions. Yehoshua uses Asya's dreams as symbolic and prophetic mechanisms that parallel the subtle emotional conflicts within the characters and within herself. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Once Asya is deprived of her lover, Gabriel, she is consumed by his absence and immediately begins to dream of him. The first of Asya's dreams described in the novel reflects her unconscious desire to find Gabriel and abandon her family. The dream places Asya at a military encampment as an educator on an excursion, parallel to Gabriel's own military excursion (14). Like the dreamer, the reader is also unable to make the connection between the dream and Gabriel, as both are uncertain about Gabriel's military career at the beginning of the novel. “The faces of the children in Dafi's class” that Asya meets are analogous to the “boy-faced young men” in Gabriel's platoon (14, 297). While Dafi's class received compulsory education, the soldiers were forced into military service. Dafi's class also creates a commentary on the Zionist movement. Although the Zionist movement recently catalyzed the creation of an Israeli state, Israelis must now defend their independence in the Yom Kippur War. The excursion into Asya's dream exposes the young children to war, corrupting their naivety and innocence. These children must be prepared; they must sacrifice their childhood for the war, because most Israelis believe that their independence will be continually challenged, regardless of the outcome of the Yom Kippur War. Like Gabriel, Asya is lost in the camp; she does not understand his purpose, but eventually understands his position under the guidance of a superior. Asya teaches “the importance of history” to war-weary adults whose studies have been interrupted by the war (15). The fact that Asya teaches the importance of history in her dream presents another point about Israeli independence. Israel is a multiracial Jewish state, an oasis in a desert of intolerant Arab nations. Asya, like most Israelis, believes that there will never be a decisive victory for Israeli independence; there is a seemingly innate hatred between Arabs and Jews, as evidenced by their historical tensions. Asya's search for a missing part of her past parallels her father's quest. While Asya searches for Gabriel, her father searches the radio for “any mention of Israel or his own name in the distant void” (47). Asya's first dream gives the reader insight into the cause of her father's ignominious removal as head of the Ministry of Information and the reason behind her search to reconnect with her past. Again, the dream occurs before Asya's father's former occupation is revealed, thus inviting the reader to ignore the description. "He's an old man wearing a hat and he's walking down the wadi with such determination, heading off into the distance towards the enemy lines. My heart stops. He looks like my father. Is he there too? A- "Does he belong here or not? Walk straight and excited in the boulder-strewn ravine" (15). The fact that his father wears a hat would suggest that he is attempting a clandestine operation. The hat will cover his face, helping him conceal his identity. Asya's father crosses enemy lines alone,with determination; this suggests that he may be sharing sensitive information with aggressor countries for compensation, as the head of the intelligence department would not cross enemy lines alone in war, which is the task of a low-level agent . After his dismissal, Asya's father is convinced "that he is right, that an injustice has been done to him" (46). Perhaps he had hoped to end the war by peaceful and diplomatic means. Then, fear in a dream created by fear. Asya is overcome with anxiety as her heart “stops.” This suggests that Asya noticed her father's illegal actions in real time and is now haunted by their repetition in her dreams. His father is excited, implying that he believed he wouldn't be caught, even if he was. The ravine symbolizes the difficult path he was forced to follow to share intelligence secrets with other nations. The war does not leave Asya's thoughts. Asya's second dream describes the unconscious guilt she suffers from neglecting Dafi during the war. Asya is trapped in her dream world afterwards. Gabriel's departure harms Dafi's health, who becomes insomniac. War creates civil disobedience. “A gang of murders settles private scores in the city”, and Asya is afraid for her daughter (29 years old). , where Dafi is often alone but not forgotten. Despite Asya's concerns, Dafi arrives safely and the last segment of the dream foreshadows that Adam will finally find Gabriel. A murderer follows Dafi into the house; the uninvited arrival of the murderer parallels the unwelcome arrival of Dafi's Gabriel. Adam ends up subversively kicking Gabriel out of the house by having him sign up for the army; this is symbolic of Adam killing the murderer with a screwdriver. If Gabriel poses a threat to Adam, Gabriel also deprived Dafi of a part of her childhood by depriving her of her mother. By expelling Gabriel, Adam also benefits Dafi. Asya shouts at Adam, “their lives are ruined” (30). Asya's reaction foreshadows Adam's eventual use of a screwdriver to find Gabriel and end his wife's "ruined life" (30). The screwdriver may also predict Adam's possible affair with Tali and the murderer may actually mean Tali, who has come to disrupt Asya's house. The screwdriver can be phallic. The fact that Adam “tries to hide the big screwdriver” may foreshadow how he tries to conceal his relationship with Tali (30). In Asya's next dream, she unwittingly explores her strained and loveless marriage. Asya drives Adam's car, which likely represents her marriage to Adam. The car seat is low, which limits visibility. As with a marriage, Asya is forced to “drive [both the wedding and the car] according to her instincts” (57). When Asya gets out of the car, she observes “the vague dents,” but believes that Adam will fix them (57). This implies that their marriage is repairable, but Adam must take the initiative. When Asya finally arrives home, her dream becomes prophetic. There are “people in the house”, they represent the mourners (57). Yigal is dead, which catalyzes the sudden chain reaction that destroys Asya's relationship with Adam. Upon closer inspection, the car is destroyed, predicting the destruction of the marriage after Yigal's unexpected death. Throughout the novel, Adam attempts to solve money problems; a crashed car would not cause him “pain in the face” (58). His loveless marriage consumed him, “he tore his beard down to the roots, scalped himself” (58). Adam's self-mutilation of his beard symbolizes his loss of identity in his state of confusion after Yigal's death. Asya's inability to look at the remains of Adam's beard reflects unconscious blame. Asya blames Adamfor Yigal's death since Adam made the special hearing aid and Yigal is in Adam's care when he is killed. The dream could also represent Asya's affair with Gabriel. There are obstacles to overcome in this matter, but as with the car, “nothing could stop [them]” (57). Then the war comes and the car stops. The “people in the house” may think that people within the community know about the affair, but are not willing to get involved in the affair (57). “The capsized car” foreshadows the destruction of the affair (58). The destruction of the car also indicates that Adam is aware of the affair and foresees its end with the start of the Yom Kippur War. Adam “fixes the car himself” by sending Gabriel to enlist in the army (57). Asya's inability to look at Adam's altered physique echoes Asya's subconscious wish for Adam to fight in Gabriel's place. Asya's next dream, like several of her other dreams, predicts Adam's affair with Tali. Asya is alone in a classroom, parallel to the lonely setting of the hospital where Adam and Tali consummate their affair. There is "still a pile of sand in the corner," which suggests Adam and Tali's inability to make love on the beach (83). Asya “gets nervous,” eager to start her lesson, just as Adam can’t wait to sleep with Tali (84). The pubescent boy, the only student in Asya's class, "takes off his pants" and "stands naked in the corner", just as Tali "stands in the corner like a trapped animal", "exposing her naked little body " for Adam (84, 261). Yehoshua attempts to make the parallel more obvious when Asya wants to tell the boy to “come here,” which Adam says to Tali to catalyze the affair (84, 258). Asya's inability to escape her dream world makes her husband feel insecure. Adam's affair with Tali is a realization of virility and lust as he "becomes a lover, in search of a lover" (262). The student's "sickly face", which is also used to characterize Gabriel, leaves the possibility that the student represents Gabriel and Asya's helpless desire for his love (84). Even though Asya is married, she feels "a mixture of revulsion and desire" for the boy; Asya feels this same desire when she meets Gabriel (84 years old). When the boy finally leaves, Asya feels "completely empty"; this is what she feels after Gabriel leaves (84). Asya's inability to escape her dream world makes her desire for Gabriel blatantly obvious to Adam and Dafi, who are victims of her selfishness. Asya's later dream provides insight into her affair with Gabriel. Adam, an expert mechanic who cares for Asya but is unable to meet her emotional and physical needs, draws parallels with the "wonderful dentist", who is unable to work for Asya after falling asleep. While Adam provides the site for Asya's affair, the dentist provides the office for Gabriel so that he can use his "instruments" on Asya's mouth (110). While Gabriel is hired by Adam as a metaphorical prostitute who is supposed to "help his wife with the translations", he is also hired by the dentist as an assistant. While Adam is blind to his wife's affair, the dentist is asleep to his assistant's actions. Gabriel's instruments are undoubtedly phallic. Through his use of terms such as "her face tense with concentration" and "gliding gently into the hollow," Yehoshua makes Asya's dental experience a metaphor for sex (110). Dental assistants like Gabriel would not touch a patient, but Asya “is overwhelmed by the gentleness of his light touch” (110). In the last lines of the dream, Asya wonders why she came to the dentist, which reflects her tensioninternally regarding this matter. The final lines may also reflect that Asya is unhappy with Gabriel but fears his departure. She is afraid of "disappointing him", but has no qualms about being a lifeless amoeba in the face of her husband's sexual desires. The depiction of Adam in Asya's dream as a sleeping dentist is also predictive of his affair with Tali. Tali wakes the sleeping dentist and inspires him to use his instruments. The hospital where Adam and Tali have sex looks like a dentist's office. Everything in every room is sterile. Like an experienced dentist, Adam works mechanically and methodically on Tali's “little naked body” (261). Tali is paralyzed, she sits there like a dental patient, waiting for the pain to stop. In Asya's sixth dream, Yigal, whose death precipitated Asya's affair and left an emotional void within the family, is replaced by Na'im, who is also helping Asya find her lover. Asya is haunted by the memory of Yigal, but Na'im provided Asya with the physical imagery and personality necessary to create an adolescent projection of Yigal in her dreams. In Asya's dream, Yigal "rides back and forth on the wide sidewalk" with his bicycle, "he is tall and thin," unknowingly mocking his mother who has been emotionally troubled since her death (180). This is similar to Na'im testing the patience of a Jewish family conditioned to hate him and his people. While Na'im is embarrassed by race, Yigal is embarrassed by his disability. Asya's family accepts them both despite each of their social stigmas. Yigal's bicycle is "very colorful, shiny, loaded with gears and cogwheels and spools of thread," reflecting Yigal's desire for social acceptance and paralleling Na'im's quest (180). Na'im adapted to Jewish culture through subtractive assimilation. Na'im blends in with the Jews, they no longer recognize that he is Arab while Yigal goes to regular school and people sometimes forget that he is deaf. Then, in the middle of the dream, Asya "realizes that it is not Yigal but a kind of replacement that Adam has brought for [her]", which is obviously Na'im (180). This reflects Asya's unconscious resistance to forgetting her lost son, while further emphasizing Na'im's ability to blend in among the Jews. Asya then calls "Yigal's replacement", signifying her unconscious desperation for a son, an inheritance. Apparently, Asya refuses Adam this inheritance, for fear of losing another son or perhaps because she is too old and suffers from sterility. “[Na'im] hears him and understands, but takes advantage of his deafness to ignore” Asya, this is representative of the special bond between Adam and Yigal that has now survived vicariously through Na'im (181). The dream shows that although Asya would like to penetrate this obscure relational bubble, her attempts fail. The conclusion of Asya's dream predicts Na'im's eventual and unexpected departure from the family and Dafi's impregnation. When Na'im leaves the family, it is unexpected, as is Yigal's death. Na'im resigns from his position as guardian while Yigal resigns from his life. The seed that Na'im leaves in Dafi's belly is symbolized by the missing "replacement" who leaves behind a transistor radio that picks up a news anchor saying "life...it has come to life" (181). The dream that follows this one departs from the genres of the previous dreams. In Asya's next dream, she parallels the formation of the African republics with the formation of the Israeli republics. Like the Israelis, the African boasts of his “renewed land” (222). “New colonies are being built” in Africa and Israel, even though the rest of the world will not invest in either country (222). Yehoshua explicitly describes the African man as "a giant negro", ».

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