IRA 16

So last week I mentioned that there was a theme with books throughout this story. First off the Grandfather loses his words so he must communicate through books, he writes out everything on single pages and goes through thousands of books. “ I started carrying blank books like this one around,  which I would fill with all the things I couldn’t say, that’s how it started.” (17,18) After Oskar’s grandfather lost all of his words he wrote them in books, and the book after he was done with them he would save them, they filled his house up with all of the words of his life and if he ever ran out of pages while out and about he would use what every seemed close enough to an acceptable answer. Once he needed kindling so he started using his laughs. All of the “Hahahahas” warmed him, which is really poignant if you think about it. Laughter warms us physically because of the action but his lack of laughter was replaced by a combustion of paper.

                More books Oskar has books of things he knows, how he feels, inventions and much more. He wants to almost categorize his mind from all the chaos that is taking place inside and out.  In the book we see pictures of stuff he finds important he has pictures of keys, Stephen Hawkings, Hamlet, and many more but the one I see as the most important is of a close up of a shot of a man jumping from the Twin Towers.  His father died in the attack on 9/11 but  we never hear exactly how he died. Oskar is very knowledgeable some of what he learned from the internet or books. But the idea of having  hard copy of something is prevalent to him.

                Now Oskar’s grandmother, we know about her, she is still alive and with them.  Her husband gave her a type writer so she could write her life. But when she finally finished her transcript and gave it to her husband. Only then did her husband realize that he had ripped out the ink strip so there was nothing written on the pages and pages of her life. He didn’t know how to tell her that so he pretended to read it, going through every blank page.  It broke his heart and he finally believed that she said she had crummy eyes, she really did.

                Only later do we find out that she knew all the time that the type writer wasn’t working. She just pushed the space bar over and over again. She felt her life story was only worthy of spaces. But she forced him to read it, because she couldn’t make him lover her. But she could make him feel sympathy for her. I think that is why they broke up, they had too many rules and too many books with words and no words on pages.

                Along with what I wrote about last week, I can see how books play a huge part in this book. I wonder how this theme will grow throughout the rest of the book.