Hey,

our group decided to use a question instead of a hypothesis to start the discussion.
In this case, dream actually means the dream you have when you're sleeping and not any visions one can have about the future.

So, our leading question is the following: What is your interpretation of Cal's dream (p. 28)?

In this interpretation of Cal’s dream on page 28, I want to draw an analogy between Cal, the protagonist, and the girl that occurs in his dream. To do this in a reasonable and comprehensible way it is necessary to first analyze these two characters. The analysis of Cal will be of course focused on the aspects that are relevant for the topic.
Because the dream is a “recurring” (p. 28, l. 6) one, it can be concluded that it has a certain importance.
The girl in the dream is “young” (p.28, l.6). Furthermore she is naked and Cal thinks her beautiful. Also, she feels a strong sexual desire (p. 28, l. 9), which makes her “touch herself” constantly. As she flitters from window to window (p. 28, l. 10) one could assume she’s disorientated, moreover desperate as if she was caged wanting to flee. Her facial expression of “terror” (p. 28, l. 13) and her final suicide support this thesis of her being desperate due to her hopeless situation of being trapped in cage.
Cal, the protagonist, is a young adult living in Northern Ireland (back of the book). During the first part of the story he is unemployed (p. 25, l. 22) and mainly doesn’t know what to do with his life, which is why he is in his room “all the time”, as his father claims (p. 25, l. 21). His homeland, Northern Ireland, is an “entire region of hopelessness” (back of the book) for which the following quotation could be a describing, cynical metaphor out of a subjective perspective: “From a distance the place reeked of urine but when he got inside the stink was overpowering.” (p. 33, ll. 14f) Because of this deep, partly subconscious disgust Cal has for Northern Ireland he develops escapist habits. On page 6, ll. 1f his way of playing the guitar is exposed as an “attempt to rid himself of something”. Even Cal’s habit of cursing in foreign languages can be reduced to his simple urge of escaping out of the harsh reality in Northern Ireland. A possible explanation for this behaviour is that the English swearwords are too strongly associated with the “Troubles” and the conflict in general. In addition to that Cal is fascinated by, as he calls it, the “continent” which may also lead him to the frequent usage of terms like “Cochon” or “merde” (p. 6, ll. 4f).
In brief, it can be stated that Cal wants to flee from reality since he can’t bear the grief, pain and desperation anymore caused by the conflict in Northern Ireland.
In this context his love for Marcella can be considered as something replaceable because it only is the manifestation of his deeper, more abstract desires. First of all he believes her to be a girl from the “continent” (which even makes him “shudder” (p. 23, l. 14)). Secondly, and this is probably more important, Marcella is an outlet and target for his sexual drive which enables him to flee from reality by focusing on sexuality. His sexual desire for her becomes obvious several times. For instance, when he’s observing her through the bathroom window feeling a voyeuristic pleasure (pp. 80, ll. 1ff). On page 32, ll. 4f Cal gets pushed against Marcella and is simply enjoying it. This pattern, escaping into sexuality, is typical for Northern Ireland and it's youth: Throughout “The Troubles” there have been significant raises in the rates of illegitimate births and the sexual activity of young people generally increased. The historian Jack Holland calls this a “confused hedonism”(Wikipedia.com) and explains the enormous impact with the previous strict sexual morality in Northern Ireland.
However, finally these escaping methods aren’t enough for Cal and he willingly let’s himself get caught by the police (pp. 135f, ll. 1ff) presumably secretly hoping that they will beat him to death. So this can be considered as an attempted suicide.
My interpretive hypothesis is that the girl occurring in Cal’s dream is an allegory of Cal’s soul, of his deepest feelings. Her disorientation represents the young, unemployed Cal who doesn’t know what to do with his life surrounded by the hopelessness of Northern Ireland. Just as her Cal feels caged in a scenery full of grief and desperation and wants to escape – he mentally marvels at the outside world, the “continent”, while she flitters form window to window to stare out of them. Besides, both of them try to escape into sexuality. Cal craves for consolation by fantasizing about Marcella in a sexual way (and finally even realizes these thoughts), whereas the girl in his dream shows her sexual desire by walking around naked and “touching herself” (p. 28, l. 10). However, both of these behavioural patterns are only manifestations of Cal’s “attempt(s) to rid himself of something” (p. 6, ll. 1f). And in both cases it eventually culminates in the ultimate escapist action: the (at least attempted) suicide. The reader doesn’t know what finally happens to them, the girl is screaming “unceasingly” (p. 28, l. 16) and Cal will at the minimum be beaten “to within an inch of his life” (p. 136, ll. 3f), but this doesn’t matter for the interpretation anyway. The important aspect is that they both wanted to die because of the hopeless and desperate situation they were in – the death was the only remaining escape for them.
All in all there are many reasons to consider the girl occurring in Cal’s dream an allegory of his soul. In addition to that the proceedings in the dream can be seen as an augury for the whole story.

TL;DR