Jordan - Section 4

"Down"- Blink 182

Although this song is a love song, I think this song represents his pain and regret about his father. The pain described in this song of losing someone is how Oskar feels without his dad. In the last section, he discusses a lot about how he wishes he could make it go in reverse and his dad would be there, which is how Blink-182 describes the loss of this girl. The longing to have his dad back and the desire to move forward are well represented by this song.

Jordan - Section 1

I drew this to depict a few of my favorite of Oskar's inventions. On the left is the building with a skyscraper of grades underground. Beside that is the portable pocket he thinks of with his grandfather. Above that is the teakettle that sings "Yellow Submarine" instead of whistling. Above that is the ambulance that will tell you what's going on, if it's someone you know, and whether or not to worry. To the right of that is the reservoir of tears from every house in New York for everyone who cries when they fall asleep, and beneath that is the speakers you swallow that play your heartbeat out of your mouth. I depicted these how I thought Oskar would.

ELAIC: Poem

1
HE FINALLY REPLIED!
HE REPLIED TO ME!
AFTER ALL THIS TIME
HE APPRECIATES MY
DEDICATION, FINALLY!
I'VE BEEN WRITING HIM
FOR YEARS AND YEARS!
What would Dad think?
Would he be surprised?
Or maybe
he's Stephen Hawking
in disguise.
How wonderful would that be?
Dad finally replying to me,
through the voice of
Stephen Hawking.
Why did he wait so long?
The thought gives me heavy boots.

2
I worry about Oskar,
and I know he misses his father.
I do too.
He's been very sick lately,
I don't want to lose him too.
I can't.
I wonder if he thinks I don't care.
How could he ever think that?
Have I been neglecting him?
No, never.
He reminds me of his dad so much.
The things Thomas used to do
are embedded into his DNA.
It's scary how much he reminds me of him sometimes.
I shouldn't say that, I forgot he doesn't like the comparison.

3
Look at him.
I'm so proud.
He's looking around for that lock,
just how I taught him.
But I wish I could tell him that
that key has nothing to do with me.
I could never ruin his adventure though.
*shrugs*
Maybe this is what he needed to finally let me go.
I can't help but to think what could have been.
He still has the messages..
I wish he would show his mother.
Can he feel my presence?
I'm glad he didn't see it on TV,
because that was a very long fall.

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.