Blog 5: Backwards

"I'd have said "Dad?" backward, which would have sounded the same as "Dad" forward. He would have told me the story of the Sixth Borough, from the voice in a can at the end to the beginning, from "I love you" to "Once upon a time..." We would have been safe" (326).


This is how the entire novel ends: with Oskar wishing for everything to simply go backwards, for everyone's lives to speed through on rewind so that everything that happened to his father on the day of September 11, 2001, can be taken back.

I chose this particular picture because, even though it's just a toddler in the picture, it still conveys the same emotions that I felt when reading that particular passage of the novel. It seems desperate. Oskar is mature in many ways, but at the same time he's still just this little boy, feeling like the whole world is rushing around him in a blur while all he really wants right now is to have his father back.

I've never lost anyone quite that close to me, so I can't honestly say that I understand what Oskar was going through. I've felt that emotional pain before, though, and to be truthful, I'm impressed by how Oskar continues to push forward despite this huge tragedy in his life. I admire him for that. If I was in his situation, I really doubt that I could keep going on the way he does.

I'm not just saying that I like the last part of the book simply because it was the end; I actually really liked the backwards concept. Very few people will ever go through their entire life without thinking, "I wish I could do this over again." Oskar is very relatable in this way because that's what so many people in life wish for. Everyone just wants a do-over, a second chance.

Morgan Bernstein