A Bottle in the Gaza Sea

Like many young people, Tal and Naïm struggle with complex questions about who they are and where they belong in their respective societies. Some of these struggles are connected to the impacts of the larger geopolitical conflict on their individual lives, and others are representative of the kinds of decisions and dreams many young people explore as they come into adulthood; these struggles develop the characters as unique individuals with hopes and dreams. As they explore their different identities in the world and in relation to each other—Israeli and Palestinian, “Bakbouk” and “Gazaman,” aspiring filmmaker and aspiring doctor—Tal and Naïm demonstrate how societal divisions complicate the rites of passage often associated with coming of age.

Tal struggles to a lesser extent than Naïm with her sense of belonging, having already determined that while she “would love to see Paris, Venice, Beijing, and New York, [...] [Jerusalem] is where I want to live” (9). Rather, she encounters difficulty shaping her identity as an Israeli in response to the violence she witnesses, feeling as though her head is “in pieces” after the cafe bombing and the bus bombing. The conflict and division around her causes her to question her pursuit of a career as a filmmaker and even her own identity: “I’d like to now be me, for a while. To take a break from my own memory” (97). The fact that her connection with Naïm is what brings her back to her sense of self and purpose demonstrates that unity, rather than division, can provide healing, peace, and a path forward.

By contrast, Naïm never loses sight of who he is—Gazaman, after all—but is stymied by a lifelong sense of not belonging to the society around him. He emphasizes the extent to which he feels pulled in opposite directions when he writes, “I hate feeling two things at once; it’s like having an argument with myself” (31). This argument with himself about whether he detests or admires Tal is representative of his other internal conflicts about his place in Muslim and Palestinian society. Naïm’s appreciation of Western music, his enjoyment of the Israeli singing competition Kohav nolad, his view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and even his status as an only child set him apart. His desire to forget everything connected with Gaza at the end of the novel suggests that, like Tal, the only way to form his own identity is by forgetting the divisions that he has experienced. Naïm’s narrative illustrates how the tropes associated with developing a sense of identity and belonging—falling in love, embracing new interests and friends, and even going to school to embark on a career—are complicated by life within a divided society.

The structure of the novel provides an ideal vehicle for this theme, as Tal and Naïm’s interwoven points of view demonstrate that storytelling and communication can be powerful tools for the purposes of both connection and division. The characters narrate stories about the distant and recent past, their present circumstances, and their hopes and fears for the future; however, they also see and hear negative news stories and rumors about people on the other side of the conflict. Tal acknowledges as much in her initial letter, which is both an act of faith in storytelling and communication to change the world for the better, and an illustration of everything she has merely heard about “the Palestinians” through other people’s stories. She acknowledges that “I’m full of fear and full of hope writing to you like this. […] I’m not sure I’ll manage to say what I want to say” (17).

Naïm’s journal entries and responses to Tal demonstrate both the positive and negative power of storytelling and communication. He writes his own stories to make sense of the world for himself, and both characters are slowly transformed through their emails. However, Naïm points out the danger of believing in every story. He notes that Tal’s perspective of “the Palestinians” has been colored by what she hears on the news, rather than what individuals like him have experienced. It is only after Tal demonstrates her openness to really communicate and her desire to hear his stories with an open mind that the two can form a connection. While the power of storytelling and communication are presented as positive in the novel, they do offer one caveat: Because of this power, people must be careful about what stories they choose to communicate and believe.