03/02/09 Blog Entry - Porter

1) How is Oskar's sense of self affected by his search?

Oskar begins to come to terms with the fact that there are sometimes no answers, no reason behind the things that happen to us. I think by the end of the story, Oskar also realizes that the scope and size of the world is larger and more complex than what he'd initially thought. This leads him to feel (paradoxically) less safe and more loved (ex-- his father is still dead and without reason, but the discovery that his mother knew of his search gives him a sense that someone is watching out for him).

2) What does Thomas Schell discover?

Thomas discovers that his (ex) wife knew her sister was pregnant, he discovers (literally and figuratively) his grandson, and he discovers that he cannot perpetuate the life he left and recently came back to. For Thomas, the burying of his letters to his son is a means to leave his past behind him, but true closure can never come for him-- I believe this is the reason he leaves again.

3) How does fast food affect my life?

Fast food has affected my life since before I was born, and continues to influence aspects of my life, even though I don't regularly patronize fast food establishments. Economics, labor, trade, real estate value, food quality, competition, culture and globalization are all components of the fast food industry, and trying to define just how they affect me is like trying to describe how all of the oceans affect just one jellyfish- there is absolutely no way to imagine a world without fast food, for better or worse.

4) How does fast food affect me, after reading FFN?

Having read FFN fully twice now, I continue to notice bits of every day life that are impacted by fast food-- from the (generally) falling cost of commodities like beef, potatoes, corn, to the marketing I see on television and the internet.