The Key
The Key to SuccessOkay, we're being a little optimistic with our headline. The Key to Nothing would be a more appropriate title, but for most of the book, the key's a symbol of hope for Oskar. Unab...
Boundaries
A Thin LineWhen Oskar goes into Queens for the first time, he stands on the Fifty-ninth Street Bridge, between Manhattan and Queens, and wonders, "What's the name of the parts of New York […] tha...
Birds
New York City might have more birds than people (and, well, let's not talk about the rats or the bedbugs, okay?) so it's only natural that they show up a few times in a story set in New York City....
Missed Connections
This motif recurs throughout the novel; people get incredibly close but no cigar. The timing's just off. Some examples: Oskar's grandfather visits his true love Anna's house five times and never fi...
New York Times
With all due respect to the San Francisco Examiner and the Washington Post, we here at Shmoop acknowledge the New York Times as the true intellectual king of the newspaper world. It's got the most...
Doorknobs
During the firebombing of Dresden, Oskar's grandfather burned his hand on a metal doorknob, all that was left of his home. The image becomes "burned" into his mind, and before he left New York, he...
The Falling Man
The image of the man falling from the World Trade Center is probably the most troubling one that Oskar (and all of us) saw from the countless gruesome images of the 9/11 attacks. It brings this mas...