Still in the middle

Oskar's favorite person ever is his grandmom. They're each other's bestfriends. Usually, bestfriends know everything about each other. For example, my bestfriend and I can tell someone what each other is about to say before we even say it. Oskar, on the hand, knows next to nothing about his grandmom. On page 105 he says "I don't think there's anyone I spend more time with, at least not since Dad died, unless you count Buckminster. But there were a lot of people that I knew better. For example, I didn't know anything about what it was like when she was a kid, or how she meant grandpa, or what their marriage was like, or why he left. If I had to write her life story, all I could say is that her husband could talk to animals, and that I should never love anything as much as she loved me". It's obvious that she doesn't talk about her past for a reason, but what do you think that reason is? 

In the previous post, I reveled that the strange man was Oskar's grandpop, but I am still unsure of who the woman is. In the flashback on page 124, she lets him read a book that she wrote about all the things she has seen in her life. There were 2000 white, wordless pages. She hasn't seen anything, because she's blind. Neither Oskar's grandma or her sister Anna are blind, so that question will remain unanswered for now. 

Oskar played a role in the school play, Hamlet. All of the "Blacks" that he meant while he was on his journey for the lock came. I thought that meant something really special, and I feel like they all know his dad even though they said they didn't. On the last night of the play, Oskar "felt, that night, on that stage, under that skull, incredibly close to everything in the universe, but also extremely alone". He also, "wondered for the first time in my life, if life was worth all the work it took to live" (145). When I imagined him saying this, it reminded me of internal screaming. 

He has that feeling that he can't tell anyone, because they'll just think it's nothing. Why do you think he feels like this even though he is surrounded by love? 

In the Middle

I am just starting to realize that this book keeps going into flashback mode. They are in forms of letters. I have no idea who is writing them right now, but it's not just one person and they're being written to all different people. Although, there is one recurring couple, but they don't talk. They only write notes to each other. The guy even got tattoos on his hand of the words "yes" and "no" so that he could answer people faster and more efficiently. Could you make guesses on why someone would just stop talking one day and decide never to talk again? Do you think you would be able to stop talking if you really
wanted to be silent?

On page 85, it was revealed that the Thomas from the flashbacks was Oskar's grand dad. A first he didn't love him Oskar's grand mom, he fell in love with her sister first. When I read this I was beyond shocked, because I don't think I could ever marry, nonetheless love, a man who was in love with my sister. In the book it describes how Thomas is still very much in love when he got married to her sister. It mad me sad, because he had to settle. I sound kind of heartless right now, but he couldn't get the girl of his dreams, so he went for a different version of her. For me personally, I would never people able to do that, especially if i'm unhappy in my new relationships. because of the old one. People can be gone, but their always with us in our hearts. I would much rather be happy and alone then with people and feel lonely, If you were in Thomas' position, how could you have handled the situation differently?
The scene that is my favorite in the book so far is on page 86, when Oskar is getting tucked into bed by his dad. He brought up the topic of all humans being "relatively insignificant", although his dad begged to differ. His dad replied to that statement by asking him "What happened if you went to the Sahara desert and picked up a single grain of sand with tweezers"? The answer was that he changed the entire Sahara desert by picking up that one little grain of sand. This concept was so intriguing to me, because I never thought of one tiny little sand molecule making a difference, but his dad is so right. The decisions that we make every day single-handedly changes the fate of the world. You are important, because you don't just effect yourself or others around you. You effect people in California 3000 miles away!

This is one of my favorite quotes, because it gives you such a sense of empowerment. Oskar is unhappy with his dad's death, because there are so many questions he left unanswered. He decided to make change happen on his own, to find what he is looking for. What kind of changes can you make that will make things better for you?