Sept 17

Agenda: Small Group Discussion Questions

• How does the description of Mrs. Black contribute to your interpretation of her character?
• How does the description of the elephant picture develop the plot? What connections can you make from this scene?
• When Oskar asks if he can kiss Mrs. Black (99), does this surprise you? Is this in keeping with the character's behaviors? How does this change (or keep the same) your interpreation of his character?
• How is the picture on page 98 "more truthful"?
• How does the interchange between Oskar and his mom (about throwing out his dad's stuff on page 102) develop their relationship? How does Oskar's perspective of it all change our understanding of his mom?
• How does the story of Oskar and his grandma saying "I'm OK" develop the grandma's motives? What about the fact that he says, "I don't know how she knew when I'd be there. Maybe she just waited around all day (102)? How does that help us develop her motives?
• On page 106, Oskar thinks he hears something. What do you think it is?
• In the mysterious narrator's passage, he says, "Your mother and I never talk about the past, that's a rule" (108). Why? What does that inaction reveal about their motives? What does that reveal about their relationship?
• What do you make of the "Nothing" and "Something" spaces? Why are they capitalized?
• What do you make of the mystery narrator's story of meeting the girl he loved (Anna)?
• Why do you think the mystery narrator was "looking for Anna" in his wife's story?
• Why do you think the story his wife was writing was blank? Did she know it was blank?
• Did you catch that it was set in Dresden? Where is that? What's important about Dresden? What is important about the historical situation that occurred there?
  • How could that setting be similar to Oskar's current day?
• What do you make of Simon Goldberg (126)? Why does he say he is "trying to be" (126)?
• How does the juxtaposition of Anna's dad talking to Mr. Goldberg compare to what is happening with the narrator and Anna behind the books? What does this reveal about their love?
• Why does the narrator keep switching between Anna and his wife? What does that structure do to contribute to the overall meaning and connections we should be making? What does this comparison reveal about the narrator's perspective on both relationships?
• The narrator tells his wife: "You could write about your feelings." She says, "Aren't my life and my feelings the same thing?" (130). What she writes Oskar is called "My Feelings," so is that where she writes the story of her life? Is it the one she was writing?
• What does he mean when he says, "Your mother suffered, too, but she chose to live, and lived, be her son and her husband" (135)?
• Who do you think "My Unborn Child" is? What does that mean?
• What do the written words in the following pages mean happened in the action between himself and his wife?