Wednesday, November 14, 2012
Oskar is deeply affected by the death of his father, and has barely even begun to grapple with this tragedy. One of his only coping methods seems to be to "inventing" diversions to express his grief, including taking it on himself. Oskar thinks, "I invented. I gave myself a bruise. I invented (69)". He does this right after he listens to his father’s message, which is an obvious source of sadness for him. Also, on page 72, Oskar “invents” the idea of having an ambulance that alerts the loved ones of the victim to their condition. He imagines this idea to express what he would have wished would have happened while his father was dying. Oskar uses these “invented” concepts and self punishment methods to deal with his loss.
Maybe these are just manifestations of his possible social anxiety/autism, but to me, it appears as though he is using it as an emotional release.
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I agree about the emotional release. It looks like this book is really going to look into the death of Oskar's father. I'm surprised by the author's word choice of "invent" throughout the book so far. It seems like everything he thinks about are just normal thought processes. It feels like the author is trying to force the idea that Oskar is autistic with this.
ReplyDeleteI agree somewhat, but I also think that in many cases where kids experience the death of a parent, they would express less tranquil behaviors and show more depression. I think that many of his actions can be classified as coping mechanisms to deal with his loss, but many of his actions are unusual in terms of how kids deal with loss.
ReplyDeleteI agree that Oskar is deeply affected and does not know how to cope with the loss of someone who was most likely his best friend. Instead of discussing his emotions with his mother or a therapist (as far as we know), he releases his sadness and confusion through quirks such as his "inventions", like you mentioned. HIs difficulty coping with the loss of his dad can also be seen on page 36, when Oskar says, "Even after a year, I still had an extremely difficult time doing certain things, like taking showers, for some reason, and getting into elevators, obviously. There was a lot of stuff that made me panicky." Because he doesn't know how to release his grief healthily, he also uses avoidance to get by day to day.
ReplyDeleteI think that every person has their own way of dealing with death. There is no right or wrong way to deal with it. His coping mechanisms keep him active and going which after all make him think of his dad even more. For example, how is grandma always touches him and how his mom always states how one of Oskar's actions remind her of his dad. Everyone is different with death and it is going to be interesting how this book is going to own up and unravel with this.
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