Nine-Year old Oskar Schell, a boy from New York City, with a peculiar taste in life, who questions almost everything and adores his father, is going through shock in his life which starts to lead him towards an amazing, mysterious journey. His father died in the World Trade Center in the morning of September 11th, leaving a void deep in his heart. Oskar who now only lives with his mother, began searching through the closet of his beloved father. As he did so, he noticed a bizarre and pretty blue vase, which he desired to grab, and by trying to do so, he throws the vase to the ground. As it cracks open, Oskar encounters an envelope with the word Black, written in red. As he opens the envelope, he finds a key unlike any other. As anyone would have done, Oskar begins to try the key on every single lock of the house. Unfortunately, he was unsuccessful. He begins to wonder what that key could mean, or what did it open. After some time of investigation, Oskar finds out that the word Black was not referring to the color, but to a name. With this Oskar researches and finds 216 different addresses of people with the name Black in New York. This sets the start of an amazing journey this nine-year old boy will embark to unravel the secret of the key, and get one step closer to his father.
As I was flipping through the pages of this book, I encountered a quote I found interesting for its meaning. It states the following:
 |
| This is how Oskar feels everyday when he leaves home. |
"Every time I left our apartment to go searching for the lock, I became a little lighter, because I was getting closer to Dad. But I also became a little heavier, because I was getting farther from mom." (Foer 52)
This quote makes me question what is better, specially for Oskar, between getting away from his mom, who in the end, is basically the only thing he has left, to chase the memory of his dead father, or to stay with her and let him go? It is a tough decision because of the fact that Oskar adored his father and never had that relationship with his mother. Anyway, his mom is what he has now, its what he should cherish and adore. I couldn't imagine being in his situation, but If I were, I think I would care a bit more about my mom, and try to get closer to her.
As I read I found a second quote that seemed interesting to me because of the connection I have with it. The quote goes like this:
"Nothing embarrassed her. I admired that so much, because everything embarrassed me, and that hurt me." (Foer 78)
I relate so deeply with this quote because I am also embarrassed by almost everything. Some of my friends have the personality and ability to do as they wish, even if they look like crazy people, without caring about what others think or being embarrassed. On the other hand, I can't do those things because I am always thinking about how others can think I'm crazy and I get easily embarrassed. I wish I could have my friends ability to walk through life not caring that much about others' thoughts and actions. I want to have the ability to act crazy if I want to and to stop worrying so much about everything, or stop being embarrassed by almost anything.
 |
| This is a drawing of Oskar's father falling down from the World Trade Center |
To finalize this post I want to state that even if this book has been really confusing to me, it has
also been intriguing and exciting. I have come to desire knowing what the key opens as much as Oskar. In my opinion, if a book catches your attention since the first chapter, it's going to keep interesting you until the end, and this book definitely grabbed my attention since the very beginning. I am incredibly excited to find out about the key and the lock and everything that comes with it.
Here is a video of the movie trailer created after this book. In it, several important things that happen in the initial chapters of the book are represented in a more vivid and relatable way.
