Why has this chapter been marked up in red? What does that
tell you?
So Oskar's grandfather had gotten Anna pregnant before the
bombing of Dresden. How does this change your view of him and his behavior when
he gets the news that Oskar's grandmother was going to have his baby?
While he's in the hospital after the bombing of Dresden,
Oskar's grandfather says he was operated on, but it was the nurse's touch that
saved his life. Why do you think he says this?
He says that "thousands of people were left to suffer
hope." What does he mean by this?
How does this letter to Oskar's father change your view of
his grandfather, if at all?
Simon Goldberg writes his grandfather a brief letter.
Goldberg is an actual figure in history...you may want to find out a little
about him...and think about how this letter may have affected Oskar's penchant
for writing letters to famous people.
54 comments:
The chapter is marked up in red because it is supposed to be the reaction Oskar's father had to the letter. Oskar's father would always mark up the newspapers whenever they made a grammatical mistake. It seems as though Oskar's father is trying to distance himself from the letter by reading it strictly for grammar. He feels betrayed by the fact that he grew up fatherless, which is why he circles in red "my child." He believes that that is a misconception since his father was never around. This attempt to try and stay emotionally detached doesn't work as seen by how much he marks up the last page. What really drives the point home that he refuses this man to be his father is when he circles the last five words, "I love you, Your Father."
This letter was possibly the only one ever sent. All the other letters were left untouched, however this one is covered with Thomas Schell's signature red-pen corrections. I think the simple (yet extremely difficult)task of sending this letter means so much to Thomas's father. He needed his son to understand why he did what he did, and all other apologies were meaningless without giving an explanation. Grandfather Schell is torn between two evils; should he "betray" his single, true love, or should he pretend to love a woman and feel guilt every waking moment for bringing their child onto Earth? His confusion, however only sets anger into Thomas. His father's past life in Dresden with Anna doesn't matter to Thomas; what matters to Thomas is the cold truth that his father cared more for his dead aunt than his "dad" cared for his own son. The letter, in my opinion, shows bravery, but also cowardice. Bravery for sending, yet cowardice for not meeting in person.
My opinion of Thomas's father, after learning that Anna was pregnant, changed dramatically. Since the first introduction of Thomas's father, I had always felt sympathetic toward him. However, when he left his wife, I was confused and angry. How could you leave the one person who loved you more than anything? How could you leave an unborn child? But after this chapter, I better understood. The hollowness he felt inside him was amplified at the thought of having a child with another woman. For him it was only Anna, always. Guilt and shame drove him to leave, whether you think it was the correct choice or not.
It is pretty much clear that at some point Thomas found this letter. That is why it is all marked up in red, because Thomas has a tendency to mark pieces of writing for grammatical errors. The part of the letter that is very interesting to me is that when oskar's grandfather wrote, "I'm sitting in this library, thousands of miles from my life, writing another letter I know I won't be able to send, no mater how hard I try and how much I want to." The fact that he said he could not send this letter makes me question how he got it. Since he said he wrote this exact letter in Dresden, makes me think that Thomas might have traveled to Dresden at some point of his life.
Learning that Anna was pregnant before the bombing explains much of Oskar's grandfather's behavior. I was so angry when he walked out of Oskar's grandmother but then it made sense. Seeing her pregnant most likely brought back so many memories of Anna he wasn't ready for. Once again Anna and Oskar's grandmother's lives run parallel. Oskar's grandfather keeps Anna alive through her. When he comes back he wants to met Oskar. He views it as Anna's grandchild.
The chapter is marked up in red because Oskar's father read the letter and did his usual grammar markings, although they're unusual for the letters. This letter is the only one that's been marked up so far. I think this time it's marked up for more than just a way for him to pass time like the newspapers.
Oskar's grandfather's reaction to the news that Anna is pregnant makes me like him a little bit more, but then we find out that he flips out when he gets Oskar's grandmother pregnant which puts me back to square one on liking him. It's like he can't take it that someone other than Anna is having his child. Which is kinda selfish if you ask me, although I understand it because of all the trauma he was put through back in Dresden. But then again, Oskar's grandmother experienced it too and she isn't messed up like he is.
Even though reading through this chapter, after already having known that Oskar's father uses red a spellcheck, I don't believe that's all this red means. There are things in this chapter that are grammatically correct yet still marked up. I think this is because it's something that his Thomas believes is wrong in his life, not the grammar. Knowing now what Oskar's grandfather went through it is a bit more clear to me why he did what he's done. He lost his first love and the child that hadn't even been born before the rest of his life went up in flames. He is afraid of disappointing and hurting the new child. He was afraid of being hurt. In the beginning they had agreed upon not having children, but Oskar's grandmother went behind her husband and made her son happen. This situation was something he did not plan for nor was he ready to handle yet.
As everyone else has stated above, the reason that this chapter was marked up in red is because Oskar's father marked it up when he read it. Not everything marked in this chapter was written or used incorrectly, but for some reason Oskar's father still marked them. I'm not entirely sure why certain things were marked, even if they make sense when you read them. This chapter confused me because of the fact that there were several things circled and I tried to figure out why they were marked, but I couldn't. I liked the letter because Oskar's grandfather tried his best to explain everything as best he could, so Oskar's father knew the reason why his father wasn't around.
I think what Oskar's grandfather meant when he said it was the nurse's touch that saved his life is that he truly felt that someone cared for him and was looking out for him. Prior to that moment he was lost and alone and felt that he was too unimportant to be noticed. The nurse took him under her care in order to help him, and mentally this was what made Oskar's grandfather change his outlook. At the time, his mental wounds were greater than his physical ones and the nurse was the one to heal them.
When Oskar's grandfather says that "thousands of people were left to suffer hope" I believe he means it in a way in which hope is not a good thing. For example, in Greek mythology hope is considered an aspect of human suffering and was the only thing left in Pandora's box after Epimetheus accepts it from Zeus, and the contents are scattered. Hope is considered to be a bad thing because humans that are hopeful are usually in some form of distress and constantly waiting for good to come. When someone hopes for something they usually hope for something good, while they are currently experiencing something bad. A person that is hopeful can also be very doubtful of their life and their current situation. From Oskar's grandfather's point of view, those who have lost loved ones and are unable to find them will be stuck hoping for them to be alive, all while under the notion that they are most likely dead which causes suffering for that person.
I agree with Abbie when she says it was understandable when Thomas' father left, but it was still frustrating and not right. He is a character that the reader feels bad for, but after he leaves his wife it makes the reader feel angry and betrayed. She loved him more than anything and would give anything for him, and his poor child would grow up never knowing who his dad was or understanding why he did what he did. It made me so angry at first, but after this chapter I began to see why he left. He was upset at the thought of having a child with another woman, and the guilt drove him away. For him, there was only ever Anna. What he did makes more sense to me now, but there is no way that I believe that it was right.
At first I defiantly didn’t agree with Oskar’s grandfathers choice in leaving his wife, especially after finding out that she was pregnant, however, once the book revealed that he had also been expecting a child with Anna then lost her soon after, I can understand why it would be difficult for him to accept having another child because of the fear of losing something he loved so much all over again. And of course it wasn’t the child between him and Anna either, thus making the situation a bit different. Although I sympathized with him I still think he should have stayed with his wife instead of leaving. Who knows his happiness or even his words could have even come back due to getting a chance to raise a child.
When you lose something that is important to you, you put a wall up to protect yourself from the hurt. Oskar’s grandfather is just another example of humanity. Before learning that Anna had been pregnant, I just figured that he had left his wife because he simply did not love her the way he loved Anna. I thought he was just settling with a life he didn’t want. I was a little shocked to find out that Anna had been expecting and told him right before the bombings. My first gut reaction was anger that he would leave his wife without a husband and his child without a father, but then that anger turned into understanding and sadness. I understood his fears of losing another child, and I understood why he THOUGHT he needed to leave, to protect himself. I think this is how humanity works. We run away from things because we are afraid of the potential consequences that could follow. One bad experience can’t affect our whole lives, and I think Oskar’s grandfather was allowing that to happen. That is why I also felt sadness for him. He lost his second chance due to fear and lost the chance of a son of his own.
This letter was marked up in red because this is the letter that Oskar's father actually received from his own father. This is the one letter that he received and the marking of the letter with the red pen was something that Oskar's father did to the New York Times when catching grammar and spelling mistakes. Finding out that Anna was pregnant before the bombing of Dresden explains why Oskar's grandfather made the rule of "no children". Oskar's grandfather had already lost a child and was scared of losing another. This explains to us why Oskar's grandfather left and didn't come back until after his son's death. When Oskar's grandfather says that "thousands of people (in Dresden) were left to suffer hope" he is saying that thousands were left searching for their relatives and loved ones in the wreckage and remains, however, many of these thousands would be heartbroken to learn that their loved ones had died. This letter helps us understand Oskar's grandfather's decision to leave, however, I still feel that he did the wrong thing no matter how scared he was of losing another child. By looking up Simon Goldberg I discovered that he was a famous sculptur and by writing a letter to Oskar's grandfather this would have inspired Oskar's grandfather to continue his sculpting career. This would explain why Oskar writes to so many famous people he admires.
Before it was explained that Oskar’s grandfather had gotten Anna pregnant before she passed away, I had found it extremely selfish of him to leave Oskar’s grandmother once she got pregnant. I was honestly mad at the grandfather for putting himself before his own family. However, knowing that the real love of his life was pregnant and then murdered in a bombing, well it makes it more understandable. It makes me have sympathy for the grandfather, losing not only the love of your life but your first child is just a nightmare I wouldn’t want to experience. I can understand now why the grandfather made the rule of no children with Oskar’s grandmother; it would’ve broken everything that was left of him if something were to happen to his second child. I definitely have more sympathy for the grandfather and I understand what he did, but this second child he was about to have was also his second chance. He was given another chance and he passed it up.
I agree with Adam about the quote "thousands of people were left to suffer hope." Obviously, some degree of hope is beneficial, and it is often what pulls people through a difficult time. However, a person who is either too hopeful or hopeful for an excessive period of time will often begin to have distorted thoughts or views; in a sense, overly hopeful people tend to go somewhat insane. I think this is partially because hope for a good thing is not necessarily tangible evidence that the good thing exists. Really, when you think about it, hope equals uncertainty, something with which most people are far from adept at coping. Therefore, when Oskar's grandfather says that people were suffering hope, he is really saying that they never got the relief of knowing whether their loved ones had actually survived the bombing. He is implying to Oskar's father that grieving for a lost relative or friend may not be as painful as constantly wondering what has become of that person. People can eventually accept a negative situation that is brought to their attention, but one cannot accept what one doesn't know. For this reason, many people in Dresden were unable to completely move on from the bombing; part of them will be trapped in that horrific day forever.
Finding out that Anna was pregnant before the bombing of Dresden makes it more understandable about why Oskar's grandfather left Oskar's grandmother but it still doesn't make it right. The grandfather let fear of losing another child get in the way of having his child in his life which meant he lost his son anyway. The grandfather let fear dictate his life making him a coward but human. Humans are driven on two things fear and hope, too much or too little of each is a bad thing; there needs to be an equal balance, which is something the grandfather did not have. In the end the letter doesn't change my view of the grandfather, if anything it solidifies it.
Oskar's father used to circle many things he's read in red. Usually when he circled things it was because of grammatical errors. Although the letter was not an ordinary newspaper article, which is the way Oskar's father tried to look at it. The reason was because he didn't want to get emotionally attached to the Oskar's grandfather. Since he grew up basically fatherless it was easier to just look at the letter as nothing more than words on paper.
From previous chapters, we learned that Oskar's father liked to mark up newspapers with a red pen to point out any mistakes, usually grammatical, that the article had. The red markings in this chapter indicate that Oskar's father had read this letter and marked it for any wrongs. While reading this chapter, I saw how some things were circled for a different reason besides a grammatical error. I believe he circled these things to point out the irony in them. In a way, Oskar's dad is mad that his father left his mother; as he circled in the letter, he understands but doesn't forgive his father's actions. To me, this letter was a view-changer. Before this chapter, I didn't completely understand the reason behind Oskar's grandfather leaving his wife besides the assumption that he was not prepared to be a role model for his child. After reading this chapter, though, I can understand where the grandfather is coming from. He lost his first child in Dresden, and that tragedy, along with losing Anna, left him mute for life. He could only imagine what would happen if he lost a child again. By leaving his wife, Oskar's grandfather was only saving himself from a horrible pain he had already experienced.
he says that "thousands of people were left to suffer hope." he means that people will actually suffer form hope. in a disaster like the bombing you are left with nothing. when you are left with nothing all you can do is hope. you suffer hope when even when you know nothing good will happen,you keep hoping and hoping for something good to come out of the bad.Oskar suffers hope on the day his dad died because he would not give up hope that his dad was still alive.
While the reason for the letter's red markings has been discussed above, I still feel the need to delve into it. We know that it's always been a habit of Oskar's father to circle errors in the text he's reading, but in this letter it's less about the mechanical errors and far more about what Thomas disagrees with. Circling "my child" right in the beginning makes this obvious from the start, and it's intriguing to read further and see what Thomas truly thinks of his father. Given how his mother has made comparisons of the two in the past, to feel such little connection to him (to the point of refusing to be his child) despite any similarities makes sense, but at the same time makes everything weigh so much more. We almost come to resent Thomas' father in this chapter regardless of what sense he makes in is letter, which is what the author intended; after all, the red, erratic marks highlight Thomas' anger. It's an engaging way to experience emotion--although it isn't written out for us, the message resounds just as, if not more, loudly. And thanks to the messy circle around "I love you, Your father", this chapter is one that sticks with you long after you set the book down. To me, Thomas having died with these feelings towards his father still in tact makes his death all the more tragic.
The quote, "thousands of people were left to suffer hope", is a pessimistic take on what optimists tend to hold onto. That isn't to say that there is no benefit of hoping, but in many cases hoping prolongs the inevitable. We hope, in its most drastic sense, as a way to combat reality with good intentions--after all, certainly something better than expected could come from a tragedy, setback, or any other boundary that could prevent our desires from coming true. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. While we consume hope and deny probability, it becomes harder to deal with tragedies later on. In Dresden, thousands of people hoped that their loved ones survived the bombing. Because bodies went missing, many people never received the closure that we, as humans, tend to grasp for, and while this "Schrödinger's cat"-like scenerio may sound appealing to hold onto for the hope of survival, it only opens the door for life-long haunting and denial. Dream-like realities formed around the hope that something has gone a different way add an extra sting when they become what keeps a person going.
The reason why the chapter was marked in red was because of grammar mistakes. Oskar's father always circled grammar mistakes in read for whatever he was reading. He would circle the mistakes in newspapers and magazines. He also circled words or phrases that were not grammatical like 'my child' and 'over joyed'. He seemed to feel that this was ironic because he didn't know his dad at all and for Oskar's grandfather to call him my child seems to be taunting him. He also circled happy, or exciting parts because he felt left out without a father growing up. Oskar's father couldn't have happy times with his dad and due to that, he circled them like they were mistakes.
Oskar's father would mark things in red if there was a grammatical or spelling error which is exactly what he did for the letter. I believe he did this to distance himself from the letter because he couldn't forgive his father and really didn't want to have a connection to him. So he went cold emotionally while reading the letter until finally at the end he started marking things he just thought of as a mistake even if it wasn't necessarily a grammar or a spelling kind, or at least that's how I interpreted it. Which made the last part really depressing because he circles the part that says I love you, and you can only imagine the confusing and angering things that that sent through his mind. You can understand what Oskar's father was thinking as the letter went on.
The quote "thousands of people were left to suffer hope" means that the people who lived didn't suffer just from greiving. A lot of people believe that hope is the most painful. After the bombing of Dresden many people were left to look for loved ones. They searched through rubble of looked everywhere they could for them. They held on to the hope that the ones they loved were still alive and had gotten saved somewhere. They held on to that thought that helped them from being upset over death. They think mourning is the worst feeling when really hope is. Hope doesn't make something happen it just makes it that much harder to accept it and move on. The hope is just prolonging the pain.
The whole chapter made me realize that when he said he lost everything, he ment it. I feel even worse for him knowing that he lost the love of his life and their baby. He made it a rule to not have kids because if he couldn't have them with Anna then he didn't want them at all. In my experience that nurses are nicer then doctors and are seen more. A thousand people were left to suffer by thinking that there was hope that their loved ones were alive somewhere. This letter means that he loves Thomas and when the news that he was conceived came; he couldn't he happy for something that he could lose at any moment like Anna. The way all those people died is not something you want to see and for Oskars grandfather to see that and experience it physically is not something you want to remember and changed his life drastically.
In the beginning of the book Oskar's father marked a newspaper up in red ink to show grammatical errors. Thomas was more interested in specific details in the letter that he got. Words or phrases that seem to impact him are circled as well and give the reader a better idea of the emotions Thomas had. All the markings tell me there's a lot of maybe pain or sadness that Thomas is feeling from this letter. When Oskar's grandfather said that the nurse's touch saved him he needed love or hope and that he will find Anna. My view changed for Oskar's grandfather, we didn't really know who he was but now you understand why he has this personality. He's had to experience things that no one should ever go through.
Yes, the doctors that operated on Oskar’s grandfather are the ones that actually saved his life, but it was the nurse that saved him mentally. Oskar's grandfather woke up in a strange environment where he couldn't move his arms or legs. He believed he had lost his legs until he looked down and saw that he was strapped to the bed. Then, he was told that he was trying to hurt himself. This was a very stressful and confusing moment. However. when the nurse touched him it was a reassurance that he was going to be alright. The nurse’s touch made him realize that he was alive and they were people around him to care for him. He needed the human interaction to stabilize him mentally.
When he says “thousands of people were left to suffer hope,” he was saying that people were never going to get closure. There was no way of knowing who exactly was dead. People were going to have to move on with their lives not knowing if their loved ones made it or not. Most would hope that their loved ones survived and then go on hoping and hoping until they can't hope anymore.
This chapter is marked up in red because it was Thomas's (Oskar's father), way of correcting newspapers such as "The New York Times." This tells me that Thomas has in fact read these letters from his father. As for Oskar's grandfather getting Anna pregnant before the bombing of Dresden, I see now why pregnancy was against the "rules" and I understand now why he left. I understand that it was painful losing Anna and his unborn child, but I see him as less of a man and a father since he simply up and left when he figured out that Oskar's grandmother was pregnant with his son Thomas. It is incredibly sad that he had his dreams of a life with the love of his life and their growing family, but he should have handled Oskar's grandmother's pregnancy in a more mature way. I feel like he does regret leaving in a sense since he continues to write letters to Thomas and he returns to Oskar's grandmother after his death.
In a way, it doesn't surprise me as to why Thomas left Oskar's grandmother. Thomas always wanted to be married to Anna and not Oskar's grandmother. He actually experienced true love with Anna and not Oskar's grandmother. I'm not supporting the decision Thomas made to leave her, I'm just saying I'm not shocked as to what he had did. He should've never abandoned Oskar's grandmother. He admits that he maybe would've been able to raise the child with Oskar's grandmother if he would've confessed to her about Anna's unborn child. Thomas didn't do this however and ran out on Oskar's grandmother. This also shows that Thomas was an afraid and scared man.
When Oskar's grandfather first left his grandmother after finding out she was pregnant this made me feel incredibly angry for how could you leave your unborn child fatherless? How could he be so selfish to not want him in his life? Then we get to the story about Anna and how shew was pregnant. This really changed my views on Oskar's grandfather. He was scared and didn't want to go through with what happened to Anna a second time. I still don't think he should've left, but I can at least understand where he is coming from. It seems no matter what for Oskar's grandfather there is no getting away from the memory of Anna.
At first I was a little confused on why Thomas acted the way he did when he found out Oscar's grandmother was pregnant but after learning that Anna was before the bombing of Dresden I can sympathize with the way he acted. He probably didn't want to go through the pain of loosing another child because the grandmother could have a miscarriage or there could be complications in labor and the complication could be so bad that he would loose both the baby and Oscar's grandma. He didn't want to relive what he went through with Anna.
In Why I’m Not Where You Are 4/12/78, Oskar’s father marked almost the entire letter in red ink. Like many of the others had mentioned before, some of the markings are for corrections, but other phrases and words are circled that are correct. “To my child:” is circled. As well as “I love you, Your father”. This is quite peculiar. Thomas felt betrayed and wished not to acknowledge his father because his father abandoned him, and marked up the last page of the letter, which poured his father’s emotion out. The circling of “To my child:” and “I love you, Your father” tells that they’re not grammatically incorrect, but that Thomas doesn’t accept it, that it’s wrong to him.
Oskar's father would mark up the Times in red ink to correct all the grammatical errors. Thomas had marked up certain words or phrases in the letter that he felt were of significance. I feel this gave a very easily understood vision of Thomas's emotions. I do agree with Donovan in saying that his perspective of Oskar's grandfather changed. It did for me. You begin to understand that Oskar's grandfather is the way that he is because of the traumatic experiences that he has gone through in his life.
In The Hunger Game Series, President Snow says something wise regarding hope. He says, “A little hope is effective, a lot of hope is dangerous.” This very closely relates to the statement “thousands of people were left to suffer hope.” Like Susan said, hope is uncertainty. Hope keeps you on your toes and forever keeps you wondering and wishing [hoping]. As long as you hope for something, there is no rest or relief. The thousands of people who were left wondering never really got the relief regarding the state of their loved ones. They just kept hoping and hoping for them to be safe and eventually would become distraught and fluster as time went on without a definite answer.
While the death of his child with Anna certainly explains why he made the rule of no children with Oskar's grandma, even if it doesn't explain why he left her. I found it odd that he both circled the grammatical errors and the emotional parts in the same way. It seems similar to how Oskar rationalizes things that are clearly in the emotional realm. By bringing down the parts of his father's letter that he didn't agree with to the same level as grammar mistakes, he turns them from things he can't handle into something tangible and manageable.
This chapter was marked up in red because it shows how Oskar's father reacted to the letter. Oskar's father always marked up the newspaper for grammatical errors and I think by doing this to the letter it made him feel like the letter had less meaning then it should of had. What really stuck out to me was the things he circled in the letter, things that the father wrote down to show compassion and sympathy, but Oskar's father circled it like he does in his grammar checks. I think by circling the compassionate things it shows how he didn't really care.
In the beginning of the book when it said that Oskar's grandfather left his wife when she was pregnant I was really upset and didn't feel any sympathy for him. Then, when I found out that Anna was pregnant and then died soon after I felt sympathetic. I still don't believe he should of left his wife while she was pregnant but it gave me a whole new perspective. I finally understand his fear of losing another child and having the need or thought to leave. He was protecting himself for another disappointment and I agree with Abby when she said it is how humans work. We run from things that can come with great or sad consequences.
The chapter is marked up in red to show that Oskar’s father read it, since that is characterized early on. Knowing that Anna was pregnant with his baby in Dresden and Oskar’s grandmother was now, as well, made to think that having Oskar’s grandmother only reminded him of Anna. When he says thousands of people were left to suffer hope, he means that the people were suffering from hoping because their hopes of safety would never come true.
The fact that the letter is marked in red means that its a letter that Oskars dad had read. He was still angry with his father for leaving him as a child, so he marked up letter as if it didn't mean anything to him. He acted like it was just another piece of grammatically incorrect paper. By the end of the letter more things begin to be marked which, I think, shows how frustrated Oskars dad was becoming while reading the letter. When the grandfather said that "people were left to suffer hope," he is saying that they had hope in nothing. They wanted to hope that everything, and everyone was okay. In the end it wasn't. People hoped that they would be reunited with their friends and family members, only to be heart broken to find out they had died in the bombing. So while they might of not been dead, they had to live through the pain of their sadness.
When Oskar's grandfather left his grandmother I found him selfish I never understood how he could leave when he new she truly loved him. She needed him in her life. Finding out he lost Anna right after finding out she was pregnant made me realize how he was able to do it. He couldn't have another child with another women he lost his one love and he just couldn't handle that pain. With all the letters that Oskar's grandfather wrote to his son made me realize that deep down he cared about the child. Even though he was never able to send them all to him he still thought about him. Even after his sons death he still wrote, he found himself writing to him. Through his writing and letters it made him feel like he still had a connection to his son even if his son didn't know him.
I agree with what Nick said, when Oskars grandfather leaves his grandmother it doesn't really surprise me in any way. We knew he loved Anna and wanted to be with her since she was the love of his life and was never really in love with his grandmother. I don't support Thomas's decision to leave her in any way because leaving an unborn baby without a father is not something a mother or the child will ever want. Thomas let being afraid of losing another child get in the way of him staying with his grandmother to raise another. I understand his possession because Anna was pregnant and lost her, but it's different times and with different circumstances that he should not of let affect him.
This chapter is marked up in red because, like the New York Times, Oskar's father read through the letter and corrected it. It shows you that the one letter he received was this one. He also might have circled certain words that meant something to him. He circled phrases like "I'm pregnant" and "you can't love anything more than something you miss." These were phrases that he might have related to or found important. This news makes me feel more sympathetic for the grandfather. After his first loss, he was devastated and probably didn't want to live through another one. He also might not have been over the loss of his first child, therefore, not being ready for another child.
Learning that Anna was pregnant before she died made sense of why the grandfather's #1 rule was no children. He couldn't bare the idea of bringing someone into the world after the disaster with the other child. Not to mention it being with another woman besides Anna. My opinion hasn't really changed of him, his whole life seems to be full of unfortunate events. He's caught in the problem of not wanting to get over Anna and not wanting to leave the grandmother alone. He's just such a sad man.
"thousands of people were left to suffer hope."
This quote is talking about the human ability to make up possibilities of someone being there even if the chances of them being gone forever is more probable. The suffering is caused be the uncertainty the hope brings which, in a way, could be worse than knowing. When you know someone is dead there is no bringing them back, it's final. However many sleepless nights will be spent agonizing with just a sliver of hope.
The chapter is marked in red because Oskar's father read the letter. While reading the newspaper Oskar's father would mark in red pen underlining and crossing out words. When Oskar's grandfather found out Anna was pregnant he was ecstatic, but when he lost his love and his unborn child he could not go through a traumatic event like that again. When Thomas found out Oskar's grandmother was pregnant he could not deal with the stress of losing another child.
I believe that the paper was marked in red to signify a few different things. At first read through, I thought the author was trying to tell us Oskar's father read the letter, as we were told early on he would correct grammatical errors. But, there are some circled that are correct. I think that the circled phrases with correct grammar are showing us what Oskar's father often thought of, and maybe even was his way of apologizing.
The marking in red tell's us that Oskar's father read the letter. We know that Oskar's dad had a ting for correcting and pointing out any grammatical or spelling errors in the paper. We also know that Anna had been pregnant and Thomas left Oskar's grandmother because he was afraid of losing yet another child. That must have been very upsetting to know that you could have had a future with one person and it is shredded to pieces in just a few moments.
In my opinion, the chapter was marked up in red because his father did not want to look at it from a personal standpoint. That fact that the letter was marked in the first place told us that Oskar's father had read the letter. I think he used how anal he was towards grammatical errors to prevent himself from feeling strong emotions about the letter. Still, there is proof that he could not conceal all of his feelings behind the strict grammatical rules of the English language. Oskar's father marked words and phrases that were not as much a grammatical error as they were important things. It shows that he did understand the letter and he knew the meanings behind the words. Perhaps the circle portions where ideas that his father often thought heavily about and wanted to talk to his father about.
This chapter is marked up in red because it is Oskar's father's reaction to the letter. I think Oskar's father wanted to keep away from the letter and that is evident because he was strictly reading the letter to correct the grammatical errors. Just as he would read the newspaper and mark that up in red. He feels that he was deprived because he grew up without a father and this shows when he circled "my child".
The news that Thomas had gotten Anna pregnant does not change my opinion on him. I find it cowardly to leave a woman carrying your child regardless of the past, but I see how the idea of another child was enough to make Thomas give up on the marriage. I think it was a selfish act to leave her, as he had a chance to finally raise a child of his own. However, in Thomas' eyes, life was a terrible thing to experience. He was blinded by the horrors he had faced in Dresden to see any of the good left in the world. Based off of his experiences, bringing a child into the world where that cruelness existed, was unfair. At this point in the novel it became very clear to me why the number one rule of the marriage was not to have children.
When Oskar's grandfather talked about people being left to suffer by hope he meant that people are going to suffer because they hope when all is hopeless. They are told that everything will be fine and they will live. Once they find out that is a lie, they fall from the hill of hope that they were on and suffer greater than if they hadn't hoped at all. Whether this is right or wrong is debatable but it is powerful.
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