Chapter 6

            This chapter has switched back to the old man narrating and provides us with more details and clarity about the significant parts of his life.  Some of the things I figured out, in no particular order, are listed below:

 

-          He used to be with a girl named Anna when they were younger back in Dresden and he loved her very much

-          A part of him still loves and will always love Anna

-          He traveled to the United States to live at some point during his life

-          He has troubles speaking from some sort of trauma

-          He had a tattoo “yes” and a tattoo “no” put on his hands at some point – not sure when in the timeline of things

-          He wants to be a sculptor

-          While in the United States, he runs into Anna’s little sister

-          Anna’s little sister really likes this man, and has since him and Anna were together, and in a shop, she asks him to marry her

-          He draws and creates many sculptures of her – originally mainly to recreate Anna but then slowly the art turns into depicting the woman before him

-          They get married but as their marriage continues, they start to divide spaces into “Something” spaces and “Nothing” spaces with the “Nothing” spaces growing larger and larger

-          He suggests that she write a book of her life to help process all that she has been through and sets up a writing area in a “Nothing” space

-          She writes every day and one day, when she is done, she has him come read her pages

-          He looks at the pages and they are blank…he realizes that she is blind and has been for a long time but he never picked up on the signs

-          One day, he leaves the house on the pretense of going to the airport to gather papers, etc. in English for his wife to read (which he did often) but has decided that he is going to leave and not come back

This chapter begins to unfold into more a letter style where he is writing to his unborn son about why he left and the background behind everything.  He has filled notebook after notebook with his writing to his unborn son.  His writing is very honest with an overall melancholy tone that is fascinating to read.  I overall enjoy reading the chapters he narrates over Oskar’s narration.

I would like to end this chapter analysis with a poignant section within his letter to his unborn son, who I am starting to believe is Oskar’s Grandfather, is the following:

“I am telling you all of this because I’ll never be your father, and you will always be my child…I want you to be happy, I want that more than I want happiness for myself, does that sound simple? I’m leaving. I’ll rip these pages from this book, take them to the mailbox before I get on the plane, address the envelope to ‘My Unborn Child,’ and I’ll never write another word again, I am gone, I am no longer here. With love, Your father” (page 135).