The Last Blog By hesham

1. How are Alma Singer and Oskar similar? Different?

Alma Singer and Oskar are some what similar in their attitudes and circumstances. They have similar circumstances in that they both lost their beloved father at a very young age. They both idolized their fathers for their traits and seek to become like them. Oskar loved his father’s engaging scientific mind, while Alma loved her adventurous traveling father. They both have mothers who love them very much, who seem distracted, but underneath they were trying to cope with the loss of their husbands. The difference between Oskar and Alma was while Oskar hated his mothers boyfriend, Alma was trying to find the “perfect man” for her mother.

Attitude wise, they both have very curious young minds. Both Oskar and Alma just happen to know all these trivial facts that no one tends to notice or think about. For example Alma knew the edible test along with Oskar’s many trivial facts. They both have a thriving passion in their lives. Oskar was an inventor, idolizing many great figures in that field. While Alma loved traveling and nature, idolizing the paleontologist from her father’s book.

And the most obvious aspect of similarity was there search. Oskar was set out to discover the meaning of the mysterious key he found in his father’s closet, to get know more about his father. Alma set out to unite her mother with the mysterious man that asker her to translate The History of Love. But underneath they went through this search for their own self development, and to try to cope with their realities. Weather it was Oskar trying to cope with his father’s death, or Alma trying to cope to her mother’s unhappiness.

2. Can you put Binx's search in to the context of HoL?

Binx’s search can be incorporated into the context of History of love in that the main narrators (Leo and Alma) are on their own searches as well. In all the three searches, they are all trying to find their place in life. Binx is confused and stagnant in his routine of going to the movies and dating his secretaries, so he is trying to find a more meaningful life for himself through his search. Leo is trying to a find his place as well toward the end of his life; he is trying to find his place in life and preserve it, so that he can die knowing that he is still alive in people’s hearts. And Alma is trying to find herself in the world by searching for the Alma in the book, which will help her cope with her father’s death and her mother depression.

3. What kind of person is Leo Gursky? What does he have to offer his son?

Leo Gursky is a desperate loner. He senses that death is closing in on him after his heart attack incident, thus he is always thinking about his own death in every context he is in. He feels that if he were to die now then no body would notice his death, so in order to get noticed he would create as many scenes as possible. For example he would go out to movies, buy a bucket of popcorn and just spill it to get people’s attention.
Leo Gursky is a lonely due to his feeling of an unaccomplished life. He had lost his family in the war. He lost his one and only love and was forced out of his son’s life. He spent the rest of his life working as a locksmith, a job he never saw himself ever getting in to. He is a refuge who was forced to flee to his native country. All these events lead him to this unhappy life, full of emptiness and loneliness.
Even though Leo Gursky seems like an old senile person I believe that he is a great man. He is a great writer, with great heart. He was man enough to back out of Alma’s life for her own wellbeing. I believe his heart always belonged to her and his son, putting their well being against his own happiness. I believe in the event of Leo raising up his son, he would have been a great father. He would have been a role model for his son’s writing passion, and would have greatly assisted his son’s writing skills. He would have been a compassionate father, teaching his son about love through the stories of himself and Alma. And he would have been the supporting backbone of every obstacle in his son’s life, teaching him through his own unfortunate past.

4. Am I gonna miss blogging in here?
yes and no.

Yes, because it was fun reading all of my peer's opinions and discussing them in class.

No, it was very a tedious task for me that I always did last on Sunday nights.