In the Dream Book the dream of painless sex can be applied to Alex's life. Since the dream says that the dreamer desires “a love that never never withdraw” and that this painless sex was “not the feeling of completeness, but the feeling of not being empty” (Foer 37) withdrew love and replaced it with abuse for both him and for Igor. To fill the void created by Alex's past, he uses sex to produce new masculinity and also the feeling of love. Humor is one of the main coping mechanisms Alex's own self, instead of consoling him when Igor cries in front of the television, she limits herself to laughing because "as long as Igor is seen as a man in society, he will be