Describe the main character throughout the story "Facing the Forests" by A.B. Yehoshua. What is the process he undergoes from the first time he meets the mute Arab until he returns to his town?

A. B. Yehoshua's protagonist in "Facing the Forests" is a weak and passive forest guard. The protagonist is a graduate student who has accepted a six-month job as a guard to keep a fire watch over the forest. He is characterized by aimlessness and poor vision. Although the guard has small transformations throughout the story, he ends back where he started as a weak and passive young man.
Yehoshua crafts his story by developing the relationship between the Arab, the forest, and the guard. The forest is a new stand of young trees planted there after the destruction of an Arab village. An old Arab man lives there with his young girl.
At the start, the guard complains about his post. He likens his contract at the forest to a prison term. He feels alienated and distant from the forest and escapes to the familiar world of books. Eventually, however, he begins to leave his post and explore the forest. From that moment, we see a transition occur. The guard begins to feel closer to the trees and farther from the world of words, representing a character shift toward decisiveness and away from passivity in the protagonist. 
The guard's feelings toward the forest parallel his sentiments toward the old Arab, who is mute because his tongue was cut out during the war. The guard's thoughts reveal that he cares little for the Arab at this moment in the tale:

The Arab turned out to be old and mute. His tongue was cut out during the war. By one of them or one of us? Does it matter?

As the guard begins to feel closer to the forest, he also begins to be more interested in the Arab. The guard's progression away from his aloof self indicates a transition away from the past and toward the future. 
 
The guard's progression is redirected when he learns of the Arab village and the fire. A village once existed where the forest now stands. Israelis burned the village during the war and planted the forest in its place. When the guard makes this discovery, it changes the course of the narrative. The guard begins to look for the remains of the village. Now, instead of the passive and weak character we met at the beginning of the story, we see a purposeful guard who actively ventures out into the forest and maps his findings as he seeks the remains. The guard's interest in the village makes him more interested in communicating with the old Arab.
 
In the Arab's hut, the guard notices some cans of kerosene, which the guard suspects he will use for arson. Instead of reporting the Arab, the guard tries to draw him out by building a bonfire of his own. Together without words, the Arab and the guard develop an understanding that they will burn the forest. We see the guard's transformation as he now is extremely interested in the Arab and longs to connect with him:

The Arab speaks to him out of the fire, wishes to say everything, everything at once. Will he understand?

At the climax of the story, the Arab commits arson and burns the forest with the unspoken consent of the guard, who merely looks on as the forest burns. It is ironic that in the guard's most decisive moment, he is still just a passive onlooker. 
 
After the forest fire, the police come to investigate. They thoroughly question the guard, who ultimately gives up the Arab. By the end of the story, the guard has betrayed his job by burning the forest and betrayed the Arab by pointing him out as a suspect. At this point in the story, the guard's term as a guard is up, and he goes back to the city.
 
Once everything is over--the forest, the guard's job, the relationship with the Arab--the guard retreats back to the way he was. The guard regards his actions passively, musing that the forest was probably insured. By the end of everything, the connection the guard felt with the forest is gone. There is evidence, however, that although the guard acts passively about his actions, some trace of sorrow remains with him.

At night, in some shabby hotel room, he is free to have a proper sleep, to sleep free from obligations for the first time, just sleep without any further dimensions. Except that he will not fall asleep, will only go on drowsing. Green forests will spring up before his troubled eyes. He may yet smart with sorrow and yearning, may feel constricted because he is shut in by four walls, not three. 

This ending passage suggests that the guard is sad to leave his post as guard and sad about the way things ended. However, he is still plagued by personal incapacity. Though he does feel some remorse for his actions, he cannot close the distance between himself and the world, and he returns to his passive mode of existence.
https://jewishstudies.rutgers.edu/docman/zerubavel/17-forest-national-icon/file