25 pages • 50 minutes read
Éric-Emmanuel SchmittOscar and the Lady in Pink
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Summary
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BetaChapters 1-2Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 1 Summary
The story opens with Oscar’s first letter to God. Oscar admits he’s never written to God before because “I don’t even believe you exist” (2). Despite his lack of faith, Oscar decides to write the letter at the suggestion of Granny Rose, an elderly volunteer at the hospital where Oscar lives.
Oscar is 10 years old and lives in a hospital with other sick children. He is dying of cancer, and the mood around him has shifted from happy and hopeful to quiet and sad. After a failed bone marrow transplant, adults are hopeless and uncomfortable with Oscar’s nearing death. Doctors who once praised him as a model patient now approach him with disappointment, making Oscar feel guilty and angry. The mood around Oscar has changed drastically since his surgery, but there is one adult who treats him as she always did: Granny Rose.
Granny Rose isn’t like the other adults at the hospital. She curses, tells wild wrestling stories, and isn’t afraid to talk to Oscar about death. She encourages Oscar to talk to God, so he writes to God to ask a couple of favors and one specific question: “Am I going to get better?” (12) Even though Granny Rose talks with Oscar about death, she remains silent when he asks if his operation worked, which is the closest to a confirmation Oscar has received from an adult so far. Without anyone giving him direct answers, Oscar requests that God gives him a simple affirmation about whether he is dying.
Chapter 2 Summary
Oscar’s second letter to God opens with excitement: God has already provided an answer to whether Oscar will get better—although indirectly. Oscar’s parents, who usually only visit on Sundays, arrive at the hospital without seeing Oscar. After waiting for his parents to arrive at his room, Oscar sneaks downstairs and overhears his parents in Dr. Dusseldorf’s office. The adults lament the hopelessness of Oscar’s situation, confirming the unlikelihood of his recovery. When his parents refuse to visit him in their distraught state, Oscar deems them cowards and hides in the first closet he finds.
Oscar remains in the closet alone, processing what he’s heard about his fate. When hospital workers notice his absence later in the day, he takes pleasure in hearing so many people worried about him. The hospital cleaning lady eventually finds Oscar in the closet, but he refuses to speak to anyone other than Granny Rose.
Oscar calms down and rests once Granny Rose is summoned. When asked what’s wrong, Oscar explains, “Dr. Dusseldorf told my parents I was going to die and they ran away. I hate them” (20). Granny Rose listens to Oscar’s tough questions and advises that he write to God about all of the thoughts building up inside him. Oscar agrees to write to God if Granny Rose agrees to visit him every day in return. Oscar realizes how ill he is when Granny Rose agrees to visit him every day at the hospital for the next 12 days. He realizes he will likely die after that time.
Granny Rose tells Oscar the legend of the 12 divinations, in which the last 12 days on the calendar predict the 12 months of the upcoming year. So, she adjusts the legend to fit Oscar’s timeline. For the next 12 days, Oscar agrees to treat each day as though it’s 10 years of life, starting with this day, December 19. He reflects on the day as though it’s been the first decade of his life: beginning unaware, gaining clarity about midway through, and coming to “the age of reason” by the end of the day (28). Oscar finishes his second letter asking God to make future revelations not quite as harsh and invites God to pay him a visit.
Chapters 1-2 Analysis
Oscar’s first two letters serve as exposition. They establish the setting and mood, introduce key characters, and set the foundation for the upcoming rising action in the story. The first two letters also introduce topics that evolve into themes as the novel progresses: death, faith, and avoidance.
The plot opens at a turning point for Oscar. Until now, he’s been an ideal patient, one who made his doctors happy. Oscar reveals that he has undergone unsuccessful chemotherapy treatment in the past, but the failure wasn’t taken as harshly because a bone marrow transplant was still possible. With the failed bone marrow transplant—Oscar’s last hope—his doctors are left “like Father Christmas who’s got no more presents left in his sack” (7). Oscar, though, has begun to accept that he’s dying. Rather than feel sad, Oscar feels angry at the adults around him for being too cowardly to face—or even talk about—death.
Granny Rose’s suggestions for Oscar establish her character’s advisory role. She understands both Oscar’s frustration and the adults’ avoidance, and she provides Oscar with an outlet for his questions and a structure to guide his reflections. Writing to God allows Oscar to question what he doesn’t understand without expecting a direct answer like he would from an adult.
Reflecting upon each of his remaining 12 days as representations of entire decades guides Oscar’s ruminations as he nears the end of his short life. Oscar’s willingness to adopt Granny Rose’s suggestion that he apply the 12 divinations to the final days of his life demonstrates the trust he places in her counsel. From this point onward, Oscar’s letters to God are from the perspective of a person looking back on a decade of life.
The story follows Oscar’s path to believing in God, whom he isn’t sure exists initially. By the end of his second letter, though, Oscar provides specifics of his daily schedule to help God find a time to pay him a visit. Oscar progresses quickly from not believing in God to anticipating the possibility of God’s existence. The question for readers isn’t whether Oscar will believe in God by the end of the story, but rather what the progression of that relationship will look like.
There is no question as to whether Oscar will die in the story. The truth of whether he’ll recover is provided immediately in the second chapter. This sets the foundation for the story’s climax to be something other than Oscar’s death itself, guiding the reader along with Oscar to look for meaning in each remaining day.
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By Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt
