If You Had Been Oskar

[a_contemplative_life]

Would you have fled Blackeberg with Eli at the end?

Or would you have thanked Eli for saving your life, but said 'no thanks' to a life on the run?

No parameters on what "being Oskar" means. However you want to interpret.



My answer would be a resounding 'yes.'

[gattoparde59]

Not a question of "if." I was Oskar in various ways.

As that time in my life I fantasized regularly about escaping to some place other than where I was at the time, so "yes Eli, when do we leave?"

[Lacenaire]

Would you have fled Blackeberg with Eli at the end?

Or would you have thanked Eli for saving your life, but said 'no thanks' to a life on the run?

No parameters on what "being Oskar" means. However you want to interpret.



My answer would be a resounding 'yes.'

Quite honestly, I think this question is a little like the question "would you dive into a rapidly flowing river to save a drowning child?". I wish to be able to say "yes, certainly" and I almost believe this to be true, but there is always a lingering doubt: what would happen if I really had to make this decision right now? I don't think I can ever know for sure until I actually have to make this decision. You can only answer what you now think you would do or what you wish you would do, but this is not necessarily the same as what you would really do.

I am reminded of this passage from an interview with Borges:
"Personally I'm not afraid of dying. I think that if somebody told me, 'You'll be executed tonight,' I'd say, 'Well, that's that! Of course one never knows. Maybe I would break down."

So I can only say that while watching the film I thought my answer would be a "resounding yes". But that's all I can say.

[gary13136]

YES! Hasn't most everyone thought about "taking off" when reality became a little too real? Oskar fantasized a lot about killing others. And then one day someone tried to actually kill him. That would decide most, I think.

[hillerr]

Yes, I would have fled with Eli with no second thought. There isn't another person in the world he feels closer to and who understands him. Eli is his world. What lonely child of twelve years old who has been tormented as he has could go back to the everyday mundane existence, especially since the one person he cares so deeply about would not be there to share that world with him? Also, Oskar had to have known that the authorities would have questioned him about what happened. He obviously would not have wanted to do that.

[moonvibe34]

most definetly YES without hesitation. i had a few things in common with Oskar at that age myself and someone like Eli would have been a godsend. i would have followed her blindly and happily.

[foxfire]

Would you have fled Blackeberg with Eli at the end?
Or would you have thanked Eli for saving your life, but said 'no thanks' to a life on the run?

Like Oskar, I know what it's like to be an only child, living with my mother after my parents separated, having few to no real friends, and being the outcast at school.

If I were in Oskar's position, it would be difficult to just abandon my mother who had cared for me my entire life. I don't know that I'd have the heart to do that. It would devastate my mother, because I'm the only thing she has to live for (she doesn't have any friends or a social life either; it's very sad).

On the other hand, Eli understands Oskar better than anyone else, and she's saved his life, and she's a genuine supernatural being who can protect him and telepathically communicate with him. With Eli, Oskar need never be lonely again.

It's a tough decision

[Lacenaire]

On the other hand, Eli understands Oskar better than anyone else, and she's saved his life, and she's a genuine supernatural being who can protect him and telepathically communicate with him.

I think the question becomes rather too easy if one assumes that Eli is able to ensure Oskar safety and provide him with the sort of things a child like him, who had always depended on his mother, would need to survive more than a few days. But the example of Hakan (who was not a child) is not reassuring.

If you make it all a little more realistic, with a good chance that Oskar will soon end up dead, in a hail of police bullets, or find himself very seriously ill and without medical treatment etc, etc., then everything becomes more serious, grown up and Oskar's decision much harder.
I think the people who under these assumptions still insist that they would choose this fate with no hesitation, most likely just enjoy kidding themselves.

[sauvin]

If you make it all a little more realistic, with a good chance that Oskar will soon end up dead, in a hail of police bullets, or find himself very seriously ill and without medical treatment etc, etc., then everything becomes more serious, grown up and Oskar's decision much harder.
I think the people who under these assumptions still insist that they would choose this fate with no hesitation, most likely just enjoy kidding themselves.

Or has just forgotten what it's like to be twelve. I doubt anybody here can remember it very clearly.

[HonzaP]

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