Innocence

Oskar has a playful childlike innocence that allows him to be blind to the world. In the chapter when he is looking for information about a key, he looks through the phonebook finding all of the people with the last name Black coming across a woman named Abby Black. He Lies to her to get into her house and talk to her more. What I find fascinating is that he said “I didn’t feel great about lying, and I didn’t belive in being able to know what’s going to happen before it happens, but for some reason I knew I had to get inside her apartment,” because it shows the nature of a child. Did he want to go into her apartment because she said it wasn’t a good time since kids sometimes like to do the opposite of what they are told or was he curious because she told him that it wasn’t a good time? (Foer 91) Oskar even knew that it was bad to lie yet he did it anyway for such a strange reason. After Abby lets him in, they start talking about elephants because he sees a picture on the wall Giving Oskar the opportunity to talk about how much he knew about elephants. For me this was interesting because when I was a kid I loved science and was overjoyed to share my findings with other people. The way he interacts with Abby, one can truly see that he is a child. Eventually, Abby starts to cry for an unknown reason because the reader is put into the perspective of a child; we do not know for sure why she is crying. It could be many things such as talking about the elephants recognizing the voice of one who died could relate to the loss of a loved on to her however, Oskar has the childlike innocence and stays unknowing not assuming anything. Then later her husband says something to her and Oskar notices but Abby ignores her husband then Oskar says “But he’s your husband, and I think he needs something.” She cried more tears,’ shows how Oskar does not read into the potential relationship troubles she could be having but instead asks her what is wrong because his dad used to do that with him. (Foer 97). This chapter stood out in my mind because it really highlighted how innocent a child can be to certain things like relationship problems. Children do not really assume anything weather it’s because they do not know enough as adults do or whether they just don’t want to. Assuming things is unimportant to them whereas me being older, I can infer about Abby’s relationship problems.  It was sort of strange for me to read because of the narration being in a child’s point of view. As we get older we lose what it is like to think and act like we once did and for me that was refreshing. The mood was very light and playful causing me to remember what I used to do as a child such as hide from my grandmother or do things I think is crazy now but back then it made sense.