Binary Oppositions Based on Animal Image in Ghassan Kanafani's "Death of Bed Number 12"

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the binary oppositions based on animal imagery in Ghassan Kanafani’s short story collection Death of Bed Number 12 and to examine their role in constructing narrative meaning, character portrayal, and the revelation of implicit textual significations. The study adopted a descriptive-analytical approach by analyzing the stories in which animals function as symbolic or semantic elements contributing to the formation of the narrative structure. It also traced the major and minor binary oppositions associated with animal representations and examined their relationship to the development of events and characters. The findings revealed that animal imagery constituted a central mechanism for generating various binary oppositions, including courage versus cowardice, truth versus exaggeration, belonging versus alienation, and responsibility versus indifference. These oppositions significantly enriched the symbolic dimensions of the narratives and reinforced their semantic unity. Furthermore, they exposed the psychological and intellectual dimensions of the characters while highlighting the national and humanitarian messages embedded in the stories. The originality of the study lies in addressing a relatively underexplored critical topic by investigating the relationship between animal imagery and binary oppositions in Kanafani’s fiction and offering a semiotic and semantic reading that contributes to enriching narrative and literary criticism studies related to his works.