Basar

I LOVED THIS BOOK! It was so beautiful! I wish I would have been in class on tuesday so I could have discussed the end with everyone! I love how the key didn’t really have anything to do with Oskar’s dad! The led to him finally realizing his brokenness and accepting the lift of his burdens. It led to the realization that there was nothing he could do to change the situation and helped him in overcoming guilt. I also loved how Mr. Black learned what it meant to live!
It was really sad, but I love being sad from books and movies so its ok :]

So…about this paper…I love my topic but I’m having a lot of trouble putting my thoughts down on paper. Its really frustrating because I know what I want to get across it just won’t come. I’m really taking a risk because its not really writing on a narrative strategy but more a narrative theme that helps me make sense of the text. Hopefully that will fly. I’ll keep my fingers crossed…and meet with Kirstyn to make sure its ok :]

I really like this image because in my paper, I am writing about the theme of redemption throughout the novel. It is the idea that we search for these things to fulfill us, to help us overcome our pasts, but never will these things work. What Oskar the the other characters struggle to understand is that redemption doesn’t have to be exhausting, its takes stepping back, realizing your problems, admitting you can’t do it on your own, and letting the Lord step in on your behalf. Lucky for us, there is the free gift of salvation, we don’t have to go door to door searching for it. I just love the analogy of the key and door throughout the novel. No matter how many locks we try to put the key in (money, relationships, sports, partying) it won’t cut it! We were created for this specific doorway, following in the footsteps of our redeemer. It is the only door that will bring full and everlasting life.

I had no idea who Mohammed Atta was when mentioned on page 159 of ELEC. I picked him because Oskar was very upset that this man had a card in Mr. Black’s bio. box and his father didn’t.

“It’s just, why would you want one for him and not one for my dad?…It isn’t fair!…My dad was good, Mohammed Atta was evil..My dad deserves to be in there!” (Oskar, Pg. 159)

On September 10, Atta picked up al-Omari from the Milner Hotel in Boston, Massachusetts, and the two drove their rented Nissan to a Comfort Inn in Portland, Maine, where they arrived at 5:43 p.m. and spent the night in room 232 only to catch a US Airways flight back to Boston the following morning. Possibly this was done by the two men to clear airport security under less scrutiny in Maine than they would have faced at Logan Airport in Boston. It was initially reported that Adnan and Ameer Bukhari were the two hijackers who had rented and driven the car. The FBI also states that Atta made a credit-card purchase in Manhattan, New York on the 10th.

Atta and al-Omari in the Portland, Maine airport on the morning of 9/11
The two spent their last night pursuing ordinary activities: making two ATM withdrawals, and a 20-minute stop at Wal-Mart. FBI reports specified that “two middle-eastern men” were seen in the parking lot of a Pizza Hut, but despite alluding to Atta and Abdulaziz, does not explicitly say it was them.
On the morning of September 11, they drove to the Portland International Jetport, and took the 6:00 a.m. Colgan Air (U.S. Airways Express) BE-1900C flight to Logan International Airport in Boston. The two sat in the rearmost seats, next to one another. In Portland, Mohamed Atta was selected by CAPPS, which required his checked bags to undergo extra screening for explosives and involved no extra screening at the passenger security checkpoint.
The connection between the two flights at Logan Airport was within Terminal B, but the two gates were not connected within security. One must cross a parking garage before going through security once again. There are two separate concourses in Terminal B; the south concourse is mainly used by US Airways and the north one is mostly used by American Airlines. It was overlooked that there would still be security in Boston because of this distinct detail of the terminal’s arrangement.
At the American Airlines concourse, the pair boarded American Airlines Flight 11, where Atta was checked in under the abbreviation “Moham Atta”, and was seated in 8D. At 6:45 a.m., while at the Boston airport, Atta took a call from Marwan al-Shehhi, another hijacker. This call was apparently to confirm that the attacks were ready to begin.
At 7:59 a.m., the plane departed from Boston, carrying 81 passengers. The plane’s transponder was turned off at 8:28 a.m..[12] At 8:24:38 a.m., a voice believed to be Atta’s was heard by air traffic controllers, saying: “We have some planes. Just stay quiet and you will be OK. We are returning to the airport. Nobody move, everything will be OK. If you try to make any moves you’ll endanger yourself and the airplane. Just stay quiet…”.

Seconds after American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the World Trade Center.
Atta is believed to have been the pilot of the plane when it crashed into the north tower of the World Trade Center 23 minutes later at 8:46:40 a.m. All aboard the plane were killed.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mohamed_Atta… ok shake your finger at me, i thought it was really helpful information…)

Yeah, that is really hard to learn…And to think they were doing it for the Kingdom is so frustrating. “If they only knew on this day what would bring them peace…” (Luke 19:42)

I think a really cool theme to look into would be the idea of how religion is presented in the book. Oskar claims to have been an atheist earlier in his life. The key words there are “used to be.” How does he view life and spiriuality now? So far in the book I have only found a few examples pertaining to this topic, but I hope to find more as I watch Oskar’s outlook on life transform throughout the book.

Pg. 4: “I used to be an atheist, which means I didn’t believe in things that couldn’t be observed.”
Pg. 86: “That’s right! I changed the universe!” “You did!” “I’m God!” “You’re an atheist!” “I don’t exist!” I feel back into the bed, into his arms, and we cracked up together.

I would really like to explore how the ideas of atheism are presented earlier in the book and how new ideas of believing in something bigger than yourself are coming to the surface as Oskar grows as a character….I’m not really sure how that will happen, but I hope to preach the Gospel though it and see what truths I can dig up from the text