chris blackall

In "Steven Hawking's" complete letter to Oskar he mentions one of his favorite quotes by Albert Einstein. It goes, "Our situation is the following, we are standing in front of a closed box which we cannot open."

This quote is of interest to me because it does not pose the question of, "how do you open the box which cannot be opened." It would seem likely that the first question one would ask of a closed box which we cannot open would be, "can it open, and if so how is it locked". But, this is not where the problem goes, as to how the box is locked. Rather, the quotation assumes that the royal we know how the box is locked but simply cannot open it. I like this assumption on his part. It's probably a problem which he had to deal with throughout his career.

In Oskar's case, this quote holds significance because it refers to "the journey". It is as though now that he has found the lock and has the key that he may feel all his problems are solved, but are they. I haven't finished yet so I can't say definitively, but I don't think they are. Oskar's problems will continue and his search will go on. He admitted earlier in the chapter that he was home when his dad was calling, but that he was too scared to answer the phone. Will finding the lock to the key change this? N-O. This kid has to deal with the fact that he could have done something different, but didn't. And it's funny, I think he knows that his search is futile too, but it gives him time to think, to consider and ponder. But, now the inventing and search have become problematic and are problems of their own. It was Frued who wrote, “Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways." This is the box Oskar is standing in front of, but cannot open. He cannot open the box of his father's death because first he must deal with the symptoms of his repressions (the visits to the 'Blacks', necessity to invent).