PAIR WORK 306-END:
-Read the question together.
-Read the passage on the page #.
-Discuss a response and assign a spokesperson for the pair.
PAIR #1 124 a. Why does Grandma want to rewind the world to the beginning, "have Eve put the apple back on the tree" and all the way to the darkness before God said, "Let there be light." page 313
--------> Do you support this wish?
------> Would William Blake support this wish?
PAIR #2 125 “Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar.
It’s always necessary.
I love you, Grandma” page 314
----Based on her history in the Dresden fire bombing and the loss of her son in 9-11, why does Grandma feel compelled to tell Oskar she loves him?
---How does this exacerbate Oskar's secret about the phone messages?
PAIR #3 . 126. how does Oskar benefit from "shared trauma therapy" by finding out about Ron's family? page 315
PAIR #4 . 127. Why does Grandpa bury the letters to his son in the coffin? page 322
-How does do a similar thing by sharing the phone messages with Grandpa? And telling William Black about not being able to pick up the phone when Oskar's Dad called?
PAIR #5 128. What secret does Oskar's Mom share with him? page 324
129. Being tucked in by his Mom, Oskar states that "I don't believe in God, but I believe that things are extremely complicated." page 324 . How is Oskar leaving the door open for a faith? Why with Mom at this moment?
PAIR #6 131 BURYING UNDELIVERED LETTERS IN DAD’S COFFIN: How does Oskar find faith in Gerald-the limousine driver while burying Granpa's letters in his Dad's coffin?
---How does Grandpa moves on from undelivered letters and not being able to be a father by burying the letters of love in his son's coffin and helping Oskar in his grief?
---How is an uncommunicated message finally made less haunting?
---What does Oskar do with his uncommunicated message about his Dad's phone messages? see 301-302. How is he like his Grandfather in telling his Mom "I love you." see 324-5.
---How is Oskar burying his obsession with finding a closer connection with his Dad, for the Quest of the key has brought him closer to his Dad?
PAIR #7 130. “ I’d have said “Dad?” backwards, which would have sounded the same as “Dad” forward.
He would have told me the story of the Sixth Borough, from the voice in the can at the end to the beginning, from “I love you” to “Once upon a time…”
We would have been safe.” page 326
----How is Oskar desirous of a complete, literal return to Innocence?
---Connect this to Grandma's desire to rewind the world to the beginning, "have Eve put the apple back on the tree" and all the way to the darkness before God said, "Let there be light." page 313
---How do we know these are impossible, futile quests?
---But how do we know that re-valuing the original love and faith in the self and world in the Innocent Perspective is "the next best thing" to returning to when Dad was alive and would tell him stories?
----While the falling man cannot fall up and while Oskar cannot make everyone safe, Oskar can revisit the Sixth Borough story and the "love" the boy keeps in a can and "knows it is always there." How is revisiting this imaginative fable from his Dad an act that encourages the Organized Innocent perspective?