How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
It is said that he found a chink between the logs under the raft, just big enough to keep his respiratory organs above water (2.40).
There are several versions of what happened to Oskar's grandfather after he dove under a raft while running from police. This happens to be one of the versions where Joe gets away. When you don't have a body to bury, it invites all kind of speculation about whether or not a person has died. You can see how this might be a confusing story to a child who's trying to understand death.
Quote #2
[A] passion that I found, both then and now, quite understandable, but could not name, because the small word red says nothing, and nosebleeds do nothing, and banners fade, and if in spite of all I still say red, red won't have me, turns its coat: back to black, the Cook is coming, scares me yellow (12.38).
In a rare moment, Oskar admits to feeling very afraid. And the thing that makes him so afraid is none other than the Black Cook herself, whom we've learned to recognize by this point as an omen of death.
Quote #3
[…] a face devastated by pain and nausea […] Even though she tried to please her visitors, just as I take pains to seem happy when my friends arrive on Visitors Day, she still couldn't prevent the occasional bouts of retching that repeatedly racked her slowly succumbing body, though it could come up with nothing more by the fourth day of that difficult death than the last gasp we all must expel to gain our death certificate (13.8-9).
Oskar's mother died a terrible death, and you can imagine what it must have been like for him to have to watch it up close. He says he was relieved when she stopped retching and died, because she looked beautiful and peaceful. He also believed that this was a suicide, because his mother was pregnant and couldn't deal with the consequences of her love triangle.