Oskar's Freakout

In response to Mike's post, I thought it might be helpful to understand the five stages of grief. According to the Kubler-Ross model, introduced in the book "On Death and Dying," the five stages of grief are:

1. Denial--"I feel fine," or "This can't be happening"

2. Anger--"Why me?" or "It's not fair!"

3. Bargaining--"I'll do anything for a few more years!"

4. Depression--"I'm so sad" or "Why bother with anything?"

5. Acceptance--"It's going to be okay."

While we're still watching the story unfold, I think we can gather a lot of information about the characters from this model. I think, most importantly, we can understand a lot about Oskar by measuring his progress throughout these stages.

I recently read one of my favorite scenes in the book, one which, in my opinion, exemplifies Oskar's progress in his stages of grief. The scene comes from the chapter, "Heavier Boots," when Oskar recounts a scene he imagines happening during his play. The excerpt reads:

[I pull the skull off my head. Even though it's made of papier-mache it's really hard. I smash it against JIMMY SNYDER's head, and I smash it again. He falls to the ground, because he is unconscious, and I can't believe how strong I actually am. I smash his head again with all my force and blood starts to come out of his nose and ears. But I still don't feel any sympathy for him. I want him to bleed, because he deserves it. And nothing else makes any sense. DAD doesn't make sense. MOM doesn't make sense. THE AUDIENCE doesn't make sense. The folding chairs and fog-machine fog don't make sense. Shakespeare doesn't make sense. The stars that I know are on the other side of the gym ceiling don't make sense. The only thing that makes any sense right then is my smashing JIMMY SNYDER's face. His blood. I knock a bunch of his teeth into his mouth, and I think they go down his throat. There is blood everywhere, covering everything. I keep smashing the skull against his skull, which is also RON's skull (for letting MOM get on with life) and MOM's skull (for getting on with life) and DAD's skull (for dying) and GRANDMA's skull (for embarrassing me so much) and DR. FEIN's skull (for asking me if any good could come out of DAD's death) and the skulls of everyone else I know. THE AUDIENCE is applauding, all of them, because I am making so much sense. They are giving me a standing ovation as I hit him again and again...]

The reason why I enjoy this scene so much is because I feel like the emotion seems very real. I don't feel like Oskar's feelings seem manufactured by a writer, but I do feel like his thoughts reflect the ideas of a grieving child.

With that being said, I think that Foer captures Oskar in a couple stages of grief. First, I feel like Oskar shows signs of still facing denial. The fact that he includes his father as an actor in the play says, to me, that he still considers him as an integral part of his life, with equal significance to someone living. Additionally, Oskar obviously faces anger in this stage, as he reacts very violently in response to nearly no provocation. He outlines his anger to the reader:he's mad at Ron, his mother, his father--most interestingly--, his grandmother, and his therapist. And for Oskar, all of his anger makes sense.

I'm curious to see Oskar's healing process unfold throughout the story; I want to observe closely to see if and how he follows the stages of grief.