Dear American Airlines 6

One important theme developed throughout the book is that even the best intentions can go wrong. After all, the whole book is about how when trying to show that he cares about his daughter by going to her wedding, he ends up missing and creating even more disappointment. Another example of this is the phrasebook that he creates for his mother. His mother had a stroke which left her unable to speak, so she scrawls what she needs to say on post-it notes. The phrasebook simply sped up the writing process. He describes the phrasebook in the quote "I tried to be as comprehensive as I could--in addition to humdrum requests for food, water, medicine and whatnot, which I arranged by category…'"(175). This quote greatly shows Bennie‘s compassion, as well as his humor. He is truly trying to help his mother and make light of a slightly unorthodox situation. Unfortunately, his mother did not see it this way. She actually took it quite personally, as seen in the quote, "Taking a ballpoint pen to one of my Post-it pads, she wrote on three consecutive sheets: I HAVE MUCH MORE TO SAY THAN THAT. I hadn't considered that it might be disturbing for her, to see the entirety of her remaining life- and what is life if not the words that we speak?-reduced to fifteen or so loose-leaf notebook pages, sharp convenience not withstanding" (175). This really develops the theme that even the best intentions can go wrong. Bennie is a good guy at heart, but a lot of the things he does are taken the wrong way. He is affected by things out of his control, and this puts a lot of stress on all of his relationships.

Another theme that this book closes with is that people are nothing without their dreams. It is shown throughout the book, but especially so when Bennie is describing his mother and father. His mother, crippled by a stroke, is unable to speak, and when he makes her a phrase book, she reacts angrily. He realizes his mistake in the quote, “What I neglected to include in my mother’s phrasebook was something like hope--not the sentences she needed, but the sentences she wanted to need,” (176). Without hope that she would one day recover, his mother would simply waste away. She needed the possibility to be there of her being able to say things discussing her recovery, dreams, her art, etc. Another example is when he talks about how his father’s dreams have completely defined him as a person, such as when he writes, “Think of Henry Gniech, believing he could outrun the nightmares of Dachau by fleeing to New Orleans,” (176). Had his father not believed that he could move on from the tragedies he experienced in the German concentration camps, Bennie would not even be alive. Henry Gniech fled Germany and completely reinvented himself as a mechanic in New Orleans. This just shows how without their dreams, people are nothing.