Throughout first time reader of Oz’s literary
Throughout theshort story “Nomad and the Viper”, the author, Amos Oz, uses a variety ofdifferent literary devices to help describe the state of tension between theIsraelis and neighboring Arabs. Oz immediately begins the story with a notionof hatred that the Israelis in the kibbutz have towards the arab nomads. As afirst time reader of Oz’s literary work, a well-known Israeli author, I wasconfused why he would start the story with such a strong prejudiced feelingregarding the Arabs. Oz changes his narration, beginning from the third person,to second person and finishing with the first person, which shows the personalemotion of the fears and wishes of the Israelis. Atthe start of Amos Oz’s story, he immediately indicates the notion of hatred theIsraeli kibbutz has towards the arab nomads.
Oz really exemplifies the tensionbetween Israelis and neighboring Arabs during the time period after World WarII. At the start of the story Oz implies the idea that everyone in the kibbutzhave the same feeling of revulsion for the arabs. Oz narrates the start of the storyfrom the third person, as he tells it from the perspective of the entireIsraeli community. Beginning the story with implementing ironic metaphors todescribe the Arabs such as “trickling” and “streaming” down, leads the readerto unconsciously follow the bias discrimination that the narrator has towardsthe Arab nomads. Even though Oz doesn’t clearly state his hostile feelings, hedeliberately chose these words to express the irony of the drought in thekibbutz. Oz uses the Bedouins as a scapegoat for the critical conditions fromthe drought. Regarding a Bedouin boy that is beaten senselessly because of a “slyface” and his “mouth was set with long curved fangs like a fox’s”, Oz statesthat “a man with such an appearance was capable of anything.” The kibbutzdepreciates the Bedouins and use physical depictions of the Bedouins to justifytheir violent actions.
These statements demonstratethe canonical interpretations of Arabs in Israeli Jewish literature, similarlyto the way Jews were portrayed by the Germans during World War II, having bignoses and being cheap with money.
