Oskar Schell Timeline & Summary

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• Oskar Schell tells us about how he's been coping after the death of his father in the World Trade Center attack and what he was thinking on the way to his father's funeral.
• Oskar's father left messages on the answering machine at home which Oskar listened to. His father called one last time, but he was afraid to pick up the phone.
• A year later, he finds a key in his Dad's closet and decides to find the lock it fits.
• Because the key was in an envelope with the name "Black" on it, he decides to visit everyone with that last name in New York City. In alphabetical order.
• He meets Aaron, Abby, Alice, Allen, Arnold, Barbara, Barry, and a few more Blacks, but none of them know what the key goes to.
• Oskar performs as Yorick (yes the skull) in his school play of Hamlet.
• He ends up meeting a Mr. A.R. Black in his building, and Mr. Black helps him search.
• They end up meeting all the Blacks up to Ruth, who lives atop the Empire State Building.
• Mr. Black stops searching that day, and Oskar meets the mysterious old man who is renting a room in Grandma's apartment.
• That man is his Grandpa, but Oskar doesn't know it yet.
• Oskar gets a message from Abby Black, whose husband William knows what the key goes to.
• It's to a safe-deposit box belonging to William's dead father. Oskar gives the key to William.
• Oskar admits that his Dad called right before the tower fell, but Oskar was too scared to answer the phone. This has tortured him since that day.
• He has the idea to dig up his Dad's empty grave, and brings his Grandpa with him.
• After all this, Oskar still doesn't have any closure. He makes a flipbook of a man falling upward into the sky, and pretends his Dad is safe.