How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I thought about all of the things that everyone ever says to each other, and how everyone is going to die, whether it's in a millisecond or days, or months, or 76.5 years, if you were just born. Everything that's born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they're all on fire, and we're all trapped. (13.83)
Yikes, this is dark. But a kid whose Dad died in 9/11 would use the same sort of gruesome imagery as a metaphor for death. You can see how meaningless life seems for him since his father died.
Quote #8
If I could know how he died, exactly how he died, I wouldn't have to invent him dying inside an elevator that was stuck between floors, which happened to some people, and I wouldn't have to imagine him trying to crawl down the outside of the building, which I saw a video of one person doing on a Polish site, or trying to use a tablecloth as a parachute […] There were so many different ways to die, and I just need to know which was his. (13.138)
Oskar pours his heart out to his grandfather about how he's tormented by all the images of what might have happened to his father. It was the case with most of the families of 9/11 victims that they never knew how their loved ones died. No remains. Empty caskets. Just horrible possibilities to imagine and no closure. Grandpa's probably had the same thoughts about his family that was killed in Dresden.
Quote #9
The message was cut off, you sounded so calm, you didn't sound like someone who was about to die (14.1)
Oskar's Dad must have been frantic and terrified in his last moments. He was probably trying to sound calm just to spare Oskar and his Mom from the terror. It's comforting to think that maybe he did come to some acceptance of his hopeless situation, but we don't know that. It's a sign of his love for his family that he tried to be calm and reassuring.