On page 29 there is a picture of a doorknob. I think it is interesting how he includes random pictures.
I agree on the comment above, it is interesting how he incorporates doorknobs and other pictures into his writing.
There is a scene where Oskar is about to enter a room, and as he is about to enter, he holds on a split second longer than normal. There is a large correlation between doorknobs and keys, even if it's not in this book. Behind the doorknob is the unknown, and the only way to get there is through a key. Oskar holds intense interest in keys, for example, how he finds the key in the broken vase on the top shelf, and becomes obsessed with trying to figure out what it's the key to. Keys correlate to his father. It seems as if finding out what this key is for, will help Oskar find out more about his father. Metaphorically, this is the key to his father's past.
Same, with the different pictures it conveys a whole different view and perspective on things from the mind of Oskar and how it takes us through the book. For example, the first doorknob is zoomed in on so that you can only see half of the knob. However, the second doorknob is completely visible.
One instance where you see the symbol of both a key and doorknob is on page -3 (Assuming the bird page is -1) where there is a picture of a doorknob with a keyhole under it.
The different pictures of doorknobs in this book may also represent that opening one door may lead to many possibilities. I think that he tries to show the reader how our world could have been completely different than it is today if people had approached problems differently.
Doorknobs connect to keys
I think there is a significance, not only to the doorknob picture, but whether it has a hole that you could see you like the very first page, and the dead bolt that appears later.
i think that Oskar sees doorknobs as an escape, a way of exiting the current place you are at. he sees that in his own life he wants to us the symbolic doorknob to ask the pain of scary really world that he lives in, to a nice place where he is say and his dad is still there and will never leave him. he might have also seen it as wishing that his dad had a doorknob to turn when he was in the twin towers so he could have escaped and come home to Oskar and everything could have been the way it used to be.
"She wasn missing Dad. I held the doorknob for a while before I turned it." (pg 36) This quote shows how doorknobs are a significant sybol throughout this story. I think that in this context, the doorknob is the opening into the past and into what Oskar is afraid to think about because he fears the pain that comes with thr thought of his father.
I think that the progresion of changes in the doorknobs from the very first one until page 115, which is the most recent one from where in are in the book, according to the class reading schedule. On page 115, the deadbolt is gone, and the keyhole is there to see through, but something is blocking it, making me think that he has the ability to 'see' something, but Oskar's mind is not open enough yet to grasp it.
"the side of the door that faced the guest room was Nothing, the side that faced the hallway was Something, the knob that connected them was neither Something nor Nothing." (Foer 110) Oh my another instance with a doorknob. I think it means that like the knob is the portal between Something and Nothing, and it's interesting that JSF decided to include this very minor detail, that could have easily been left out about the knob.
Oskar's grandmother is talking about how his grandfather took pictures of everything in their apartment for insurance purposes:
"And the doorknobs. He took a picture of every doorknob in the apartment. Everyone. As if the world and its future depended on each doorknob. As if we would be thinking about doorknobs should we ever actually need to use the pictures of them. I don't know why that hurt me so much. I told him, They are not even nice doorknobs. He wrote, But they are our doorknobs. I was his too." (Foer 175)
-- I think that this is foreshadowing the events of maybe a doorknob being very important in Oskar's quest to find the lock that fits the key that he has. I also think that the doorknobs pictures in the beginning of the book represent the pictures that Oskar's grandfather took.
--I agree completely with the above comment. I think the doorknobs will connnect Oskar's search with his grandparent's story, especially since his grandfather says "they are our doorknobs" which shows a connection between him and Oskar's grandmother.
On page 134 there is yet another picture of a doorknob, this time with an unturned key in it. I think this shows that we are about to open the door to a new idea or a new event.
"He wrote, But we had a rule.
The next page was a doorknob.
I turned the page and wrote, I broke the rule." (178)
On page 212, you can find a lovely picture of yet another doorknob! I honestly am not sure why its there, considering the ever gruesome text that surrounds it.
While I was reading the book and looking at all the pictures of doorknobs it occurred to me that, this may have something to do with the hand on the front of the book, that everyone is wondering about. maybe the hand B used with a combination of the keys and the doorknobs to open up new pathways to what Oskar has been looking for.
Page 265 - wonderful picture of doorknob
Page 198 - picture of rotating doors ***no doornobs! ...different
Pg. 237 - "On the next page there was a picture of a doorknob, for some reason, so he went to the page after that..."