In “The Corpse Washer” by Sinan Antoon, The fictional life of Jawad Kazim unfolds through first person narration that ultizes both his dreams and realistic encounters to give the reader insight on his own individualistic journey. Through the character of Jawad, the author is able to allude to the hardships people, within Iraq, faced during war in the 1980s through the early 2000s. The disruptive reality of war throughout the novel is a predominant theme as Jawad faces challenges that are a result of such conflict. The struggle that Jawad has through his profession and personal life also give insight to a individual understanding on life and death as he, in the novel, comes to the conclusion through his life experiences during and before war
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Throughout the novel the writing shifts from a surrealist encounter to a displaced realistic life experience that highlights the individual self, representing the broader notion of an inconsistent life during war. The surrealist chapter in which Jawads displacement becomes most apparent is when he remembers his first love Reem. This particular dream sequence in which Jawad see’s Reem in a “orchard full of blossoming pomegranate trees” help illuminate the surreal tone in the novel that dramatically shifts to “…Reem crying as she tries to stop the fountain of blood gushing from the wound” to captivate the sudden turmoil’s people face during war (102). When involving his real life experiences through his occupation and family encounters, the chapters involving the death of his brother help create the tested part of human condition as the author uses cultural expectations to allude to the hardships of war. Particularly when finding out the death of his brother, BLAH, Jawad is faced with the task to tell his father, amidst his Mother and neighbors joining in a cultural wailing. In telling his father about the death of blah, his father immediately wails: “ There in no power save in God” and that only god is “immortal” (12). Within the structure of this chapter help capture the Jawads own feelings and …show more content…
Through his real life and surreal dream encounters Jawads life is portrayed to create a vivid dialogue of how war creates displacement in people’s lives. In Jawad’s case is own displacement in feeling indifferent to his circumstances help illuminate a greater symbolic representation of how one can begin to feel a sense of normality of war in their own lives. The “blurred” lines between life and death help further captivate this idea of the human condition during war, as Jawad is unable to recognize his own sense of reality in these sequences. In all, the novel is able to reflect on the human condition during war by using a symbolic and culturally important corpse washer to and his journey through self-discovery and fallen
Throughout the novel the writing shifts from a surrealist encounter to a displaced realistic life experience that highlights the individual self, representing the broader notion of an inconsistent life during war. The surrealist chapter in which Jawads displacement becomes most apparent is when he remembers his first love Reem. This particular dream sequence in which Jawad see’s Reem in a “orchard full of blossoming pomegranate trees” help illuminate the surreal tone in the novel that dramatically shifts to “…Reem crying as she tries to stop the fountain of blood gushing from the wound” to captivate the sudden turmoil’s people face during war (102). When involving his real life experiences through his occupation and family encounters, the chapters involving the death of his brother help create the tested part of human condition as the author uses cultural expectations to allude to the hardships of war. Particularly when finding out the death of his brother, BLAH, Jawad is faced with the task to tell his father, amidst his Mother and neighbors joining in a cultural wailing. In telling his father about the death of blah, his father immediately wails: “ There in no power save in God” and that only god is “immortal” (12). Within the structure of this chapter help capture the Jawads own feelings and …show more content…
Through his real life and surreal dream encounters Jawads life is portrayed to create a vivid dialogue of how war creates displacement in people’s lives. In Jawad’s case is own displacement in feeling indifferent to his circumstances help illuminate a greater symbolic representation of how one can begin to feel a sense of normality of war in their own lives. The “blurred” lines between life and death help further captivate this idea of the human condition during war, as Jawad is unable to recognize his own sense of reality in these sequences. In all, the novel is able to reflect on the human condition during war by using a symbolic and culturally important corpse washer to and his journey through self-discovery and fallen