Nationalism and Maternal Sacrifice in To the End of the Land

Abstract

In To the End of the Land , a compulsory connection is made between the space of the land of Israel, Jewish national identity, and death. Reading this essentially popular novel, we may understand the way the Akedah myth is taken for granted in Israel, threaded as it is through Israeli consciousness. The implications of Grossman’s use of the Akedah go beyond the reciprocal relations between the citizen and the sovereign power. The excessive emotional manipulation of the reader obtains from the transposition of the Akedah myth from the father to the mother. Grossman overplays the relation between nationalism and the Akedah myth by foregrounding the concern of a mother for her son. This is the perfect device to achieve total identification with Israelihood. Via the strongest and most understandable of emotions, the complex emotion of motherhood, Grossman struggles to revive the Akedah myth with its shocking, double meanings, and demands the unquestioning re-conscription of the myth to the good of nationalism.

“Everyone’s Child”: The Challenge of Judging Israeli Soldiers in the Shadow of the Conflict

“…Through the perspective of the fictional mother, Ora, whose son is in the military, the novel probes themes of motherhood to soldiers, the ethos of sacrifice and the price of nationalization and militarization. 77 Most importantly -albeit mostly overlooked by its many readers and critics -the novel offers a radical imagination of a prosecution of the son-soldier for crimes against Palestinians. As such, it serves as a cautionary tale of the challenging task faced by the court in the Azaria trial.…”