Impportance of Beds

As defined in the section of Jacob's journal entitled "Procrustes" (Section 11), beds represent someplace else in the world where he does not fit. Jacob refers specifically to how, as a child and a man, he never found a bed in which he was comfortable. Both the major aspects of Jacob's not fitting are evoked in the references, in "Procrustes," to how, according to legend, people who did not fit in Procrustes' beds had parts of themselves cut off. Even though he is Arab, he does not fit in the Arab world from which he comes because he is gay and effeminate: therefore, he tried to cut the gay part of himself off. Because he is both Arab and gay, he does not fit in America, the country to which he immigrated: as a result, he tried to cut himself from his Arab heritage, and kept his sexual orientation as secret as possible, which is a metaphoric version of a "cutting off."