ELAIC: The Significance of "Heavy Boots"

The importance of the phrase "heavy boots" throughout this story is worth mentioning. The narrator often uses the phrase to describe his feelings of sadness and despair. He says things like "seeing homeless people gives me heavy boots", or "hearing that my best friend's grandma had died gave me heavy boots". Heavy boots, in a literal meaning, would weigh a person down, slow them up, or even keep them in place.

Heavy boots could also make a person fall very quickly to the earth...

The narrator feels like he is staying in place, because he is getting nowhere with finding out what relevance the key he found has to his dad: "In bed that night, I couldn't stop thinking about the key, and how every 2.777 seconds another lock was born in New York." (52) The odds of finding the lock that the key fits are slim to none, which would make for some very, very heavy boots indeed.

Here is a link to the meaning of "heavy boots": http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=heavy%20boots

ELAIC: Song Link

I want to link a song to a specific section of ELAIC. The song is called "The Opening Title Sequence" by Wale.

http://www.livemixtapes.com/mixtapes/10413/wale_the_mixtape_about_nothing.html

The section "Why I'm Not Where You Are" talks about a married couple that has many, many rules that eventually ruin the marriage. They decide to think of everything as either "nothing" or "something", with the intent to make life simpler: " 'This is Something,' we decided. 'This is Nothing.' 'Something.' 'Something.' 'Nothing.' 'Something.' 'Nothing.' 'Nothing.' 'Nothing.' Everything was forever fixed, there would be only peace and happiness..." (111). Wale's song talks about how people are more interested in nothing than something (the something being his talent). In order to get their attention, he names his mixtape "The Mixtape About Nothing". The first line is "Hmm, what's the deal with this rap stuff?", questioning the quality of other rapper's music and why they continue to make songs that aren't up to par with his; yet he is the one without a record deal. It shows the flaws of the music industry, and how pop rap often overtakes real poetry. He decides to make life easier for other people who are interested in nothing and lack the intellect to understand his music, as the couple tries to make their lives easier by calling things "Nothing" or "Something".

Jordan - Section 3

Emptiness

Planes going into buildings

Buildings falling

Bodies falling

Crashing, falling

No where to go but down

Emptiness

What is the space called between two boroughs?

Unknown, anonymous

Empty

A key, searching

Searching for an answer

Searching for hope

I am weak

I want to be honest

But I lie

Empty, falling

Bodies falling

Jordan - Section 2

I made a collage for section two of our book. I wanted it to represent the sort of frantic thoughts Oskar has while representing his journey. I picked some memorable and reoccurring images from the story that are important to his adventure. I chose a quote to put in the middle that shows the reason he is trying to hard to find this key. He flashes back to when his dad was alive, and they discuss the significance of moving a grain of sand in the Sahara desert. His dad explains to him that he would've changed the course of human history if he does this, proving that he has the ability to make a difference; he should never give up. And this is the philosophy Oskar lives by during his journey of finding the lock this key fits. This was one of my favorite passages, and I wanted to incorporate it and these themes into a collage of his journey.

ELAIC: Poem

Intricate little mazes of steel,
the perfect fit to a hollow other.
Detailed to perfection,
of course.
There can be no other way to
craft such meaningful beings.
However, they may cause confusion.
Different shapes too, some teeth here,
a phew teeth there,
but none the same. Of the many
produced,
18 per person to be exact,
there will never be two of the same.
Unless of course,
they were to be duplicated.