One of the most unique characters in Foer's story is the man with "yes" and "no" tattooed on his hands (Thomas). This character is particularly intreauging because of his appearance and backstory. He is a man who lost all words. The last word he lost was "I". And now, he talks with a notepad and pen. And he's Oskar's grandfather.
This man, called by Oskar, "the renter"(237) has remained a curiosity throughout this book because one must wonder why he began losing words. What left him speechless? Could he not bear witness to something he had done, or something done to him? After this one must question why when he was crying into his hands yes and no were reversed on his head (180-81)? Does he even have tattoos?
The first thing these questions make me consider is that , when YES and NO were reversed on his head, he was literally perceiving things backwards (of leaving his wife). This, oddly, reminds me of Oskar, bruising himself for doing something he saw as wrong. It would seem as though Thomas feels like there are only ever two options, yes and no. Yet, he truly knows that yes and no do not even exist. He knows this because yes and no are as true as the tattoos on his hands.
He is a paradox.
Though he knows there are more answers than YES and NO to life's questions, they are the one's on his hands (symbols of man's actions). Supposedly permanent, but only supposedly.
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