Grandpa

"[...] sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all of the lives I'm not living." (113)

Oskar's grandfather finds it difficult to live. How come? Well, it is true that nobody has experience in living when they are born and many of us may wonder whether or not we are doing it alright. Nonetheless, Oskar's grandfather goes further, he is indeed anxious to learn how to live but fails each time in comprehending what he should do. Moreover, him having lost his one and only Anna, in the war, only worsens things. Indeed, it is because of this traumatic experience that he stops speaking and communicates only by writing, writing everywhere. He realises that, in life, we have plenty of choices, but we only get to choose once. This knowledge makes him feel this "weight", as a burden, of all the experiencces he is missing, of all the people he is not with, of everything he is not doing.

"I have failed you." (124)

Probably one of the most striking quotes. He utters this after Oskar's grandmother gives him the book of her life, a book she has devoted many hours to, and realises there is actually nothing even though he often heard her taping on the typing machine. In fact, it is all his fault, because he forgot having pulled the ribbon from the machine. Thus, there was no ink. It appears she didn't realise it because when she said that her eyes were "crumy", she really meant it. He decides to go on with the lie and says he loved it. He has indeed failed her.

"[...] it's a shame that we have to live, but it's a tragedy that we get to live only one life, because if I'd had two lives, I would have spent one of them with her." (133)

This quote is in the same line as the first. Choising only once tears him apart. This is why he would like to have two lives, something many people have thought about, especially when on Erasmus (wink).