Death is the root of the major conflicts in the story. Oscar is only 10 years old and facing death while the adults around him flounder with how to broach the subject. They avoid talking to Oscar directly about death, which only intensifies the conflict for him. He wants to know whether he is going to get better, and the adults are afraid to tell him the truth because it means death is inevitable.

Oscar explains to Granny Rose, “I’m not really afraid of the unknown. It’s just I don’t want to lose the things I do know” (53). Oscar knows that he is dying, so death is no longer an unknown for him. He’s accepted that he’s going to die but is still struggling to come to terms with what that means. When Oscar resolves the conflict with his parents and learns to look back on life with appreciation, his death comes more as closure than tragedy. 

Death is not a term listed in the Medical Dictionary, which leads Oscar to categorize it as something that affects everyone rather than a medical problem to be solved. The realization that death is an inevitability in life makes it less frightening for Oscar.