Do you know what time it is?

Once again our discussion was extremely productive. We were able to begin forming answers to some of our question and identify some of the larger meanings to symbols. This reading assignment, although very short, gave us a better outlook on Oskar's grandmother and grandfather's past. We were able to further recognize Oskar's grandmother's inability to effectively communicate. I shared the evidence I found of Oskar's grandmother's family death in which his grandmother creates her own inventions- the markings of "Nothings" and "Somethings" around the house. The "Nothing" markings are placed in areas of the house in which are difficult to escape and the "Something" markings create an easy escaped, such as the hallway. We realized that just as Oskar creates inventions to protect people because of his father's death, so does his grandmother to protect Thomas from what Anna and her family have gone through- perishing in a house fire from the bombings of Dresden.

Allison brought to our attention that the two pictures illustrated in this chapter are a locked door with no key, in the beginning, and an unlocked door with a key, at the end of the chapter. We all concluded that this illustration has to do with Oskar's grandfather's escape and freedom from his wife. He had clearly only stayed with her to feel closer to Anna and now he wants to go live his life and at the end of this chapter, that is exactly what he does. Also, I brought to my groups attention that just as Vonnegut does in Slaughter House Five, Foer, in this novel, draws pictures when words fail him or his characters. This is an excellent way to metaphorically illustrate the effects of death on people and their inability to effectively communicate and use words to describe their emotions.

Effects of war are also portrayed as Oskar's grandfather transitions his life story using, "Do you know what time it is?". The significance was fuzzy to analyze at this point in the novel but we discussed it more literally and conluded that this transition, having been between his life with Anna and his marriage with Oskar's grandmother, is showing Thomas's confusion for time and essentially confusion for his life and what he has done with it.

Another big topic of our discussion was the significance of the interaction between Anna and Thomas and Mr. Goldberg's indirect interruptions about war on page 127. Anna and Thomas are making love as they overhear Mr.Goldberg comment on war and destruction. We concluded that these disturbing comments interrupting their love making foreshadows what will destroy their love in the end. Their world will intertwine with the outside world of violence and destruction. Kiki led us on that conclusion.

All together our discussion was helpful and productive but due to the length of our assignment, it was difficult to find ample amounts to discuss this time. Next time, we should have much more to discuss.