Monday, November 19, 2012
why?
While reading this section, I found myself questioning what Oskar was doing; why was he afraid of subways, why would you walk from place to place and not take a bus, etc. etc. So one of the question's I asked myself was, why is he trying to complete his father's last mission? Will it give him closure? Does it make him feel closer to him? And I think both of these things are true, but I also think he's doing it for the human interaction. With Aaron Black and Abby Black, he gets a whole new perspective of the human experience, because both the situations of the two, unrelated Black's are completely different from each other, and also completely different from Oskar's. I think, if only partially, Oskar is embarking on this journey to find all the possible perspectives on the human experience as he can, the same way his grandmother did with her writing samples.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
First off, Oskar's fear of public transit probably stems from the death of his father in a hot and confined space, caused by public transportation itself in regards to the aircraft.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I agree with you in the sense that Oskar's journey will reveal the nuances of people to him far more elegantly than his few interactions while cooped up at home. Even if human interaction isn't his conscious goal, his fearlessness to simply trawl through the phone book and talk to complete strangers speaks to his eagerness to communicate.
At one point in the section, when Oskar's grandma tells him to try writing letters to people he actually knows, he says he really doesn't know many people at all. This journey will help him broaden his horizons and meet new people all over New York. I also believe his fear of public transit stems from the manner in which is father died, but it is intensified by his autism.
ReplyDeleteLiam, that is exactly what I was thinking. In the same paragraph it also states his fear for bridges. That probably reminds him of the height of the world trade center. Due to those to factors he decided that walking on ground level is his safest option.
ReplyDelete