The Bombing of Dresden - #3

Oskar's grandfather is so afraid of losing something that he loves that he now refuses to love anything. (216) After the bombing of Dresden, the grandfather was a completely changed man. He had lost so much and seen extremely horrific things that made it so he somehow was never able to be the same as he was prior to the event. It was that night that he lost his ability to really love, due to his fear of things being taken from him, like Anna and his family. The grandfather killed all the zoo animals with such brutality that I was actually very surprised. He killed everything, even those who weren’t carnivorous, but I think that was the reason he had so many diverse pets as an adult. It was because he felt guilty for his savage killing of the animals in Dresden. The grandfather was changed so dramatically in that one night of bombing, and the effects were ones that plagued him later in life. The grandfather loved the “idea” of having a baby with Anna, (215) but the love of the idea died with Anna and the baby in the bombing. Therefore, the grandfather couldn’t love the grandmother because it could never be the same as with Anna and he didn’t want to replace his previous love of the idea of a baby with Anna with a baby with the grandmother (Anna’s sister) and so he left. In his letter to his son, the grandfather says, “How did that boy making love behind that shed become this man writing this letter at this table?” (216) The bombing of Dresden was the night that changed the grandfather forever, making it incredibly hard, if not impossible, for him to love something because of the eminent fear of losing it.