lit circle 3

Today we had our third literature circle meeting. We talked a lot about Oskar's grandparents today. We decided that they had an extremely dysfunctional and unhealthy relationship. The grandfather was still in love with Anne the sister of the grandma. This was a serious detriment to their relationship and eventually made everything become "nothing" space. We spoke a lot about the abundance of hospitality that Oskar received at the homes of the people with the name Black. They all welcomed Oskar into their homes and went to his play. We found this peculiar because strangers don't usually let random children into their houses. Their hospitality was a good thing for Oskar's self esteem though because he said at one point that he lost count of the number of disappointments he had. This made me really sad because childhood is supposed to be so much fun and very carefree but Oskar got a huge emotional weight dropped on him at a young age. We also talked about how he says that he doesn't know his grandma very well at all and he doesn't know what they are doing with all their time together if not getting to know each other. Oskar is trying not to be extremely close to people after his dad died because he doesn't want to lose them like he lost his dad. It is an extremely heavy burden for a young child to bear but at least he is keeping his father's spirit alive with all of his adventures and problem solving.