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Summary: Chapter 7

Oskar’s school production of Hamlet, in which he plays Yorick, opens. He stands on stage as Jimmy Snyder, who plays Hamlet, holds his head. Jimmy laments the death of Yorick, the funny jester. Oskar wears a papier-mâché mask shaped like a skull. He looks out into the audience and sees his family and also several of the people named Black. 

Out of Oskar’s family, only Grandma comes to the next two performances. She laughs and cries at the wrong moments. Oskar hates that he noticed Grandma’s mistakes until Jimmy mocks her backstage. Then, Oskar decides that it’s actually Grandma’s fault for being loud.

During the next performance, Oskar hears Grandma mumbling, “That’s so sad,” and wonders about her life, in which she needs imaginary friends. Oskar wonders what makes life worth living. He imagines taking Jimmy’s head in his hands and changing the monologue to be about Jimmy. In Oskar’s imagination, he removes his mask and smashes Jimmy with it. Jimmy’s skull becomes Ron’s, and Mom’s, Dr. Fein’s, Dad’s, Grandma’s, and the entire audience’s. Everyone cheers Oskar for making sense.

In reality, Oskar locks eyes with Abe Black in the audience and plays Yorick as usual.

Oskar meets Abe Black twelve weeks prior, when he takes a cab to Coney Island. Abe doesn’t know about the key, but he takes Oskar on the famous Cyclone roller coaster. Oskar’s afraid of the ride, but Abe tells him it would be a shame to die never having ridden it. Oskar next meets an extremely wealthy woman named Ada Black.

The next person on Oskar’s list lives in his building on the floor just above his. Mr. Black was born on January 1, 1900 and has known many people. He tells Oskar that it’s important to welcome new people into his life, but that means he must also let them go. Mr. Black’s wife died twenty-four years prior. He discusses his career as a war reporter, writing about wars Oskar’s never heard of.

Mr. Black knows about many things but not the key. When Oskar asks Mr. Black if he knew his dad, Mr. Black looks through his bibliographical index, where he distills every person he’s ever written or read about into one word. Mr. Black’s card for himself originally said “war” but now says “husband.” He has no card for “Thomas Schell.” Oskar wishes his dad had been someone great so that he’d be bibliographically significant. Mr. Black asks why that matters when most entries get summed up as war or money anyway. 

Mr. Black made his bed from a tree whose roots his wife tripped over. For most of their marriage, Mr. Black left his wife behind while he reported on wars. He later realized that what he wanted was to be with her. He cut down the tree as his last war. Mr. Black hasn’t left his house in twenty-three years. Oskar wishes he’d known Mr. Black was there so he could have visited him.

Oskar invites Mr. Black to help him investigate the key. Mr. Black turned off his hearing aids years ago and has been lip reading their entire conversation. Oskar asks if he can turn them back on, which he thinks would be beautiful and true. Mr. Black acquiesces. Birds fly past the window, and Mr. Black starts crying. He agrees to help Oskar.

When Oskar’s mom tucks him in that night, he tells her not to bury him when he dies. His mom promises he doesn’t need to worry about dying. Oskar counters that dad didn’t think he was going to die when he did. Mom asks why he wouldn’t want to be next to her and dad. He argues that dad’s coffin is empty, and his cells are all over New York. He brings the conversation back to the mausoleum, trying to make the request funny because if he makes his mom laugh, she won’t be mad.

He changes his mood in his journal from “desperate” to “mediocre.” He says he misses dad. His mom agrees, but Oskar doesn’t believe her. She asks if he thinks that her laughing means she doesn’t miss dad. Oskar updates his mood to “depressed.” He tries to make his mom promise not to fall in love. She says he reminds her of dad.

Oskar says if he could have chosen, he would have chosen her. Oskar’s mom leaves. Oskar updates his journal to “incredibly alone.” 

Oskar goes to his mom’s room to apologize. She tells him she was never mad at him, just hurt. 

Oskar updates his feelings journal to describe how he fell asleep on the floor and awoke with his mom putting him into his pajamas. She must have seen the bruises he’s given himself. He’d hoped she'd see them and ask about them. She didn’t. 

Analysis: Chapter 7

Oskar’s portrayal of Yorick in the school production of Hamlet highlights unhealthy things about his perceived role in his own family. Like the court jester Yorick, Oskar is the clown in his family, making his mom laugh and even believing his “raison d’être” is making his mom happy. We see this dynamic again in the way he couches his request for a mausoleum in humor, believing his mother’s love depends on his ability to keep her entertained. However, Yorick is dead, and Oskar’s ability to be a family jester is metaphorically dead, too. Oskar’s desire to no longer “play dead” and start attacking Jimmy demonstrates Oskar’s frustration at hiding his feelings in order to keep his family happy. In his argument with his mom at the end of the chapter, Oskar uses his feelings as a weapon by changing his mood journal to “depressed.” In his imagined onstage outburst, Oskar removes his mask and hits Jimmy with it, symbolizing that Oskar wants to strip himself of falsehoods to reveal painful truths. Similarly, he attacks his mom with the reality that his dad’s coffin lies empty, and they’ll never find his body, forcing her to acknowledge the empty coffin as a mask for the truth.

In this chapter, Oskar’s pessimism has escalated to the point of nihilism, the belief that nothing matters. Oskar’s imagined onstage outburst disrupts and destroys the play, something false but choreographed, and thereby metaphorically destroys all the falseness and roles in the world. He starts by attacking the falsehoods in his family. By imagining an attack on Ron, Oskar destroys the idea that Ron could replace his dad. He attacks his mom, believing her friendship with Ron proves that the love in his family means nothing. Oskar imagines attacking Dr. Fein, who, as a psychiatrist, forces happiness onto him, disguising the truth. Even his grandma requires an imaginary friend to be happy, which Oskar reads as her not being able to cope with reality, and he attacks this untruth. Oskar’s dad taught him to find meaning in meaninglessness, which Oskar can no longer do, so his dad too becomes a target. Importantly, when Oskar proclaims everything to be meaningless, the only thing he can think to do is smash everything, including people he loves. Here, nihilism leads to violence and isolation, making it a dangerous philosophy for Oskar. Indeed, when he later verbally attacks his mom with the nothingness he feels, he’s left “incredibly alone.”

Despite all that Mr. Black has experienced, he constantly returns to the importance of home and family, furthering the theme of the importance of the personal. As many of the “great” people in his bibliographical index get distilled into the word “war,” Mr. Black’s original description of himself under “war” puts him in the same rank as famous people. However, Mr. Black eventually rejects war and prioritizes his wife, elevating personal connections over the public and famous. His so-called last war emphasizes this because he fights not a real war but a tree that once inconvenienced his wife. What Mr. Black has learned from history is that greatness matters less than love. Mr. Black’s knowledge of history highlights Oskar’s ignorance. As a war reporter, Mr. Black has the potential to put Oskar’s understanding of 9/11 into a historical context, even if only by talking about how other survivors of terror attacks deal with grief. Although Oskar makes notes to Google all the names Mr. Black brings up, he can’t remember all the names listed, suggesting his disinterest. Just as Mr. Black prioritizes the personal over the great, Oskar wants to focus on his personal emotions about 9/11, not its historical scope.

Although Oskar spends most of this chapter depressed and furious, he finds the possibility of something both beautiful and true in turning on Mr. Black’s hearing aids. This action offers Oskar an alternative to nihilism in the form of human connection. As we see on his card in the biographical index, Mr. Black has made his wife the point of his life, his raison d’être. Without her, he therefore shuts out the rest of the world by turning off his hearing aids. Although Mr. Black could have physically turned his hearing aids back on whenever he wanted, he hasn’t, which symbolizes that a person who has shut himself out from the world cannot come back alone. By offering to turn on Mr. Black’s hearing aids, Oskar metaphorically helps Mr. Black back into the world, taking him away from silence and isolation. This act is beautiful because it’s a moment of caring between near strangers and true because both Mr. Black and Oskar genuinely want Mr. Black to experience the world again. Although Oskar still sees the world as bleak and meaningless, his ability to recognize the truth of genuine connection and love bodes well for his growth as a character.


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