1-107 blog

This series of short stories is told from the point of view of a few different people. One is Oskar Schell a young elementary school boy from New York City. One chapter is told from the point of view of his grandfather. Another chapter is told from his grandmother point of view. Each character is telling a story from a different perspective however they all seem to have a common theme. They are all looking for something that they believe can be found in other people. This affects my reading because it shows that although we are all different and may be going through a different problem we are sometimes looking for the same thing.
Oskar is an elementary school aged boy, who recently lost his father in the terrorist attacks on the world trade center. In reality Oskar is searching for a lock. He found a key in his house in an envelope labeled black. He plans to go all over New York (searching for people who’s last name is black) until he finds what the key opens. Metaphorically he seems to be searching for something to replace the empty void that has overwhelmingly taken over his life in his father’s absence. He also seems to be searching for some closure to his fathers life. He can’t understand why his father a person who he loved dearly died in such a violent and tragic death.
The image that adds the most to the narrative for me are the images of the people falling to their death while jumping out of the world trade center. Although you can’t see the free falling people very closely you can see that the photographs were spontaneously captured by a television camera. You can also see the force of the wind blowing through their clothes as they plummet to their death. For me it is a reminder of the situations extremity. I can’t imagine giving up on life to the point where I would jump out of a building. For somebody like Oskar Schell these images must conjure up many more feelings. To know that someone he loved that much had to suffer through that attack must be very difficult.