In the chapter “My Feelings”, Oskar’s grandma mentions frequently a dream she had the preceding night. In that dream, events from her life and history happened in reverse. Eve put an apple back on the tree, collapsed roofs reformed, and tears ran up faces instead of down. Even as she was moving on from the past with Oskar’s grandfather, leaving the town and apartment she’d been stuck in for upwards of fifty years, she couldn’t help but recall that dream.
This is echoed in the next chapter when Oskar looks at his volume of Things That Happened to Me. He rearranges the pages so that the falling man falls upward. He thinks about the last night with his father, and how everything would’ve happened backward. He wanted to be safe with his father once again.
As I read these two passages, I thought about our discussions of mourning and melancholia. It seemed strange to me for two narrators to be thinking in this fashion. They both expressed a desire to want to go back to a time before the present. They wanted their tragedies to be erased. Even as Oskar’s grandma was working through her feelings in a letter, and Oskar had cried with his mother (both signs of mourning), they were reliving their tragedies. They seemed to be stuck in the past, even as they were showing some signs of progress. So, the question remains, where does melancholia end and mourning begin for Oskar’s grandma, and especially Oskar himself?
This is a good question, Mike, and I never really took the time to consider it before reading this post. As we reach the end of the book, we want some sort of solution, some indication that the characters will move on and be fine in their future endeavors. However, in Foer's final scene, I'm wondering if I got that sort of closure.
ReplyDeleteGoing back in time doesn't really seem to solve the problem. As we know, going back in time--if ever even possible--probably couldn't prevent the attacks from ever happening again, so is this final scene suggesting that the characters would like to go back in time in order to change something about their lives? After all, they can't change the outcome. For Oskar, I think he wanted to say goodbye to his father and let him know how much he loved him. For Oskar's grandmother, I think she wanted to redo certain parts of her life, but overall, I think she had the same idea; she wanted to let her loved ones know how important they were to her.
Overall, if we look at mourning as action and melancholia as stagnation, this reflection definitely seems like an act of mourning. However, does moving backwards still count as action? The characters are moving, but they're moving in the wrong direction. Does this suggest any change or progress? I can't really tell, but if I had to make a statement for whether it's mourning or melancholia, I would say it is mourning, simply because the characters are actively thinking about the incident, which could be the first step to moving on.
YES! This is the question, isn't it?! Is he still stuck, or is it the last wistful fantasy that we can't ever reverse time?
ReplyDeleteI don't think that Oskar is, at the very least, completely stuck anymore. The moment where he ended up crying to his mom was a signiciant turning point for him because he was able to finally let the emotions that he had been holding in up to that point out. It was especially significant that he cried to his mom because he had been so angry with her and refused to let her in for months. Even though Oskar understandably still wishes that he could reverse the events and keep his dad (and himself) "safe," I think he has come to terms with the facts once he learned all of the details that he hadn't known throughout the key searching process. Ultimately, I would say he has moved from melancholia to mourning, but it still moving through the process.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ana. As the novel finishes I believe it’s significant that Oskar opened up to his mom. He allowed her to see him vulnerable. Throughout the book I realized that Oskar was not emotional with his mother. The only emotions ever displayed forthright to her were anger and resentment, an example of this would be when Oskar admitted that he wished she was the one that was dead, not his father. However, once Oskar finds out the information about the key and realizes that his mother truly does care about him he is able to let her see him in an emotional state of sadness.
ReplyDeleteAs a young man in the family I can’t help but to think that if Oskar didn’t share emotion with his mother because he was the lone male left in the household. Did he pick up from society that even though he was only 9 years old he still had to be strong? Of course as a 9 year old there are relapses, and that is where his outbursts come in. His anger comes from feeling like he can’t share his emotions and being angry that everyone else is moving on.
Once his mother reveals that she too met every person he did and knew where he was every weekend on his explorations I believe Oskar realized the magnitude of her love. This is the turning point. The fact that he and his mother share this time is the transition from melancholia to mourning. As an audience we can’t forget that mourning is a process too. It can take a long time as well. The difference is that it will not last forever and there can be some growth for Oskar.
As has been touched on in previous comments, one way to look at the transition of melancholia
ReplyDeleteand mourning is that Oskar is moving from melancholia to mourning, but the change is not
immediate. Reconnecting with his mom is just one step in the mourning process, but that
doesn't mean that melancholia is immediately gone. I see it as a scale. In the beginning it is
weighted primarily in melancholia, but a shift begins towards mourning and is a gradual change,
meaning Oskar hasn't relapsed with the falling man photos it is merely a step in the process.