The motif of boots symbolizes a saddness or a heavy burden that Oskar is carrying around with him. Through many of his examples the reader is able to tell that "heavy boots" is a common element that existist in Oskar's life. He often refers to having heavy boots when he talks about his father, mother, himself, or other things that he deals with.
"I desperately wish I had my tambourine with me now, because even after everything I'm still wearing heavy boots, and sometimes it helps to play a good beat." (2)
"... in the morning the weatherman could report if the water level of the Reservoir of Tears had gone up or down, and you could know if New York was in heavy boots." (38)
"I thought for a minute, and then I got heavy, heavy boots." (39)
This quote is from when Oskar is in the lock shop. Oskar has heavy boots because he knows that something will never be the same ever again. New technology and change scares him. This can relate to losing his dad and the change that he had to go through to accept the death.
When Oskar thinks, he is constantly consumed by dark thoughts. His boots are implied to be "a weight on someone's shoulders" and every time something climactic happens, he is brought down even farther by the boots.
Not only does Oskar's "boots" become heavy, things can also make them lighter. Like when "it made [my] boots lighter to be around his [dad's] things." (36)
"... I had thought about giving it to Sonny, the homeless person who i sometimes see standing outside the Alliance Francaise, because he puts me in heavy boots." (35)
"A few weeks after the worst day, I started writing a lot of letters. I don't know why, but it was the only thing that made my boots lighter." (11)
--The letters lighten the load of Oskar's grief because they allow him to think about other things than his father's death. By connecting with other people through letter, Oskar feels more connected to the living.
"...I got incredibly heavy boots about how relatively insignificant life is, and how compared to the universe and compared to time, it didn't matter if I existed at all." (86) This is another time Oskar brings up the phrase "heavy boots." I think that these heavy boots is a symbol of something weighing him down. Such as how life is insignificant and that it doesn't matter if humans existed at all.
Heavy boots could also mean becomming sad and depressed much like something weirghing him down, but it seems like at some points he is at a point of almost giving up.
"It gave me heavy boots that she had nightmares, because I didn't know what she was dreaming about and there was nothing I could do to help her."(104). This is yet another time Oskar mentions "heavy boots" in place of an emotion. I think that he is using 'heavy boots' to describe his emotion so he doesn't have to tell us what he's really feeling.
"I read the first chapter of 'A Breif History of Time' when Dad was still alive, and I got incredibly heavy boots about how relatively insignificant life is, and how, compared to the universe and compared to time, it didn't even matter if I existed at all."
One of the chapters is also called Heavy (crossed out) and Heavier Boots
"Everyone had to have a part, but there weren't enough real parts, and I didn't go to the auditions because my boots were too heavy to go to school that day, so I got the part of Yorick." (142)
"My boots were so heavy that I was glad there was a column underneath us. How could such a lonely person have been living so close to me my whole life?" (163)
On page 142 there is a chapter called Heavier Boots.
"Every time I left our apartment to go searching for the lock, I became a little heavier, because I was getting farther away from Mom." (52)
Where most people would say 'heavy heart" Oskar says "heavy boots" I believe he does so to show how sometimes it feels as though grief is weighing you down to the point where the weight seems physical as well as emotional.
"But still, it gave me heavy, heavy boots. Dad wasn't a Great Man, not like Winston Churchill, whoever he was." (159)
"I didn't understand why i needed help, because it seemed to me that you should wear heavy boots when your dad dies, and if you aren't wearing heavy boots, then you need help." (200) Oskar makes a good point in this quote, you should feel sad when your dad dies and usually it does take you a while to get over it.
"On Tuesday afternoon I had to go to Dr. Fein. I didn't understand why I needed help, because it seemed to me that you should wear heavy boots when your dad dies, and if you aren't wearing heavy boots, then you need help. But I went anyway, because the raise in my allowance depended on it."(201)
"Mr. Black asked me how I would feel in bed that night if I didn't get on the ferry. I told him, '"heavy boots, probably."'
"We had been searching together for six and a half months when Mr. Black told me he was finished, and then I was all alone again, and I hadn't accomplished anything, and my boots were the heaviest they'd ever been in my life."(234)
I think the term "heavy boots" means he his anxious or nervous about something.
"[...] 'I know about this building because I love this building.' That gave me heavy boots, because it reminded me of the lock I still hadn't found, and how until I found it, I didn't love Dad enough.' " (251)
" Mr. Black asked me how I would feel in bed that night if i didn't get on the ferry. I told him," Heavy boots, probably."" (240)
"I started to get heavy boots, for obvious reasons, like where were all of her things?" (242)
"Dad told me it gave her incredibly heavy boots, even though my lip only needed a couple of stitches, and that she kept coming across the street to tell him, "It was all my fault. You should never let him be around me again"
^ Oskar normally just talks about himself having 'heavy boots,' but this time he actually uses it to describe someone else.
"I didn't know what to say. I found it and now I can stop looking? I found it and it had nothing to do with Dad? I found it and now I'll wear heavy boots for the rest of my life?" (302)
On page 200, Oskar says, "I didn't understand why I needed help, because it seemed to me that you should wear heavy boots when your dad dies, and if you aren't wearing heavy boots, then you need help." This quote not only uses the image of boots and how they connect to emotions, but also how you don't know how much you miss somebody until they are gone.
Heavy boots can show depression and how one's life can slow down.
death