Oskar’s grandparents lived together, but always wanted to
have their private lives. They began to mark off “nothing” areas in their house
to have places where they could be without being seen. It began with one area
in the bedroom, but spread throughout the house until nothing was everywhere.
On page 110 the grandfather says, “There came a point, a year or two ago, when
our apartment was more Nothing than Something, that in itself didn’t have to be
a problem, it could have been a good thing, it could have saved us”. The couple
kept on thinking that if they had rules and areas of Nothing, they could be
happy and at peace. But this nothingness only brought separation, not a happy
marriage. The two decided to marry because they were both lonely in an
overwhelmingly big city. However, once they lived together it seemed as if all
they wanted was to be alone again. The rules and nothing places they set up
created a disconnect and distance between the two. The only time they really
connected was to argue over what was something and what was nothing. This
reminds me of all the rules and restrictions we have for ourselves to try and
make life easier. This can be a beneficial thing and help you keep your life
organized, but for Oskar’s grandparents all the little rules only made matters
worse. The two were never really happy or comfortable together, and they
thought by having so many rules things would get easier. It seems to me that
their rules were put into action solve their problems, but the real problem was
the marriage itself, and that couldn’t be fixed.
I agree with you that their methods of salvaging their marriage was what destroyed it in the end. They seemed so obsessed with dividing everything up that thats all they focused on in their relationship: what was something, and what was nothing. The rules they created to make things better are what doomed the relationship and eventually, they were just unable to make it work due to their disconnect with each other and desire to be alone once again, even though loneliness is initially what drove them together.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, as well. The more they divided their relationship into supposedly controllable variables, their marriage only became more dysfunctional. By putting up restrictions in their own home, they were defying what a home should be. Not to be cliched, but operating under the truthfulness of the phrase,"Home is where the hearts at", then they are dividing up their own heart, ruining their romantic relationship.
ReplyDeleteI also agree with you. Making up spaces that were Nothing and spaces that were Something were only temporary fixes for their marital problems. Though these fixes might have worked in the beginning to provide structure and understanding in their marriage, they didn't last. Staying true to these specified areas became too difficult and, in the end, so did their marriage.
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