For this post, I want you to write about whatever interests you with respect to the novel.
Here's what interests me at the moment: I find that I have a hard time talking about this book sometimes. I can analyze Oskar & his psychological makeup, and how the hurt and pain and confusion and guilt result in his endearing idiosyncrasies, crazy outbursts, and the obsessive quality of his lock-and-key search. I can talk about the things that make me laugh, like the Hamlet scene and the session with Dr. Fein. But I have a hard time talking about the things that really move me, and there are a lot of them, because I don’t know what else to say except that they move me. The chapter from the grandmother’s perspective, My Feelings (p. 174), is like this. Thomas and grandma have such opposite responses to the tragic losses of their lives, one drawing an iron curtain around himself (nothing), the other become a moth flying toward a light (something). One lacks courage, the other confidence. Grandma can certainly be frustrating in her lack of independence and confidence. On the other hand, though, I understand her. I understand why she would give a trick-or-treater dressed as a ghost two $100 bills because she was paying the ghost of Anna to go away. (It’s like Holden Caulfield paying the nuns $10, as if money can buy back your innocence.) I understand why she would be willing to compromise a lot, practically everything, to feel the security and comfort and warmth that comes with basic human connection. And while Thomas’s inability/unwillingness to live is also frustrating, it makes more sense after hearing his account of the firebombing of Dresden. How could he live after that? After losing not only the love of his life, but his unborn child, his family, everything. Add to that the guilt of leaving his family to look for Anna. I won’t even mention having to shoot an ape, twice, who looked at him with “understanding” but not “forgiveness.” The two of them are like magnets pushed apart by some repellent force (something, nothing; something, nothing). The conversation in the airport, played out by pointing to phrases already written in the notebook, is heartbreaking. Nobody pointed at, I love you — because nobody could. It is a very sad thing, in real life not just books, to hear older people look back at their life with wistful regret. If I were able to live my life again, she says, I would kiss my piano teacher. And send ugly photographs. Makes you want to do things — listen to the voice that speaks to the beating of your heart.
What interests you?
That post is one hundred dollars, Mr. H.
ReplyDeleteAnyways.
In this novel, I am currently most interested in Oskar and his "psychological makeup." Even though he lacks inner strength, as seen by his fits of bruising, he has an incredibly tough s(c)hell. Ha ha.
Anyways.
For example, take the scene when Oskar was presenting in class and Jimmy Snyder picked on him in front of the entire class. When asked, "Why are you so weird" and after the class starting cracking up, Oskar maintained his composure. He didn't run away or start a fight, but continued with his presentation. I am intrigued that, because Oskar seems to bottle up all of his feelings, he didn't crack when tested by his classmates. Also, Oskar appears to be a strong individual when he doesn't deal with his real problems, like his father's death, as shown in the psychiatry scene. When trying to deal with his own personal problems, Oskar can't seem to face them. In the scene, he wanted to scream at his doctor, because he clearly still felt incredibly strong about his father's tragic death. But I am very interested in how he could stay strong even when everyone around him was laughing at him at school. Although bruising himself is his "effective" way of dealing with the pain (according to him), he still has to work really hard to deal with his deepest problems. I am intrigued by Oskar's ability to put up a strong front so no one would expect the problems he is working on fixing. When I was his age, and even sometimes now, I was (and am) almost completely unable to hide what I think or feel, especially in a school setting. I would hate to be laughed at by my peers and termed an outsider at school. I wouldn't have been able to continue with my presentation like Oskar did. However, in a sense I can relate to him because I too tend to hide bad parts of my life from other people as well. I guess what I'm trying to say, is that it just seems to me that Oskar is a pretty unstable kid, and I applaud him for ignoring the rude remarks of Jimmy Snyder and the laughter from the class, and his ability to ignore them and continue to live his life. So, to answer the question in the simplest way possible, Oskar and the psychology aspect of his life interest me the most.
-Rebecca :)
The thing that interests me most about this novel considering how far I have gotten, is Oskar's relationship with his grandma. He states that she may be the person he is closest to, yet he knows nothing about her. He even ranks her number two (above his mother) on his list of people he loves most. I am curious why his grandma has not opened up with him and told him about her past and her husband. At first I thought that the reason was because he wanted to protect Oskar. Protect him from the pain she felt as well as to keep him from hurting more after the death of his father. Now i believe that the reason Oskar's grandma doesn't open up with him is because she physically, and literally cant. Her and her husband, who has always been in love with her sister, had many, many "rules" constricting the openness of their relationship. They never spoke to one another about many things including painful memories. Because she lived holding all of her pain and true feelings inside of her, she is unable to release them as well as the truth now. She is unable to have a healthy, open relationship with anyone, including Oskar, due to her relationship with Oskar's grandpa. I also believe that she might even be ashamed of her past and the truth. She might not want to admit that her and her husband lived in such a loveless and restricted relationship, and that her husband was always in love with her sister and not her. She might be ashamed that she was not enough for him, and does not want to embarrass herself in front of Osker, whom she knows idolizes her. She wants him to believe that her and her husband had a healthy and happy relationship.
ReplyDeleteHowever I believe that it is inappropriate that she does not tell Oskar anything. He has the right to know about his grandpa and his grandparents relationship.
I agree with Rebecca. The thing that interests me the most about the novel is Oskar’s incredible intellectual make up. Oskar is inventive, sensitive, intelligent, and free thinking. The first thing that interests me about Oskar in the story is his motives. While I agree that a key in an envelope can be enticing, what significance can it really have? What does Oskar expect to find out about his father by searching for every person with the last name Black and asking them about the key? Even if he finds a matching lock for the key, what will that tell him? I feel like the only possible things that Oskar can still uncover about his father are ones that Oskar doesn’t want to know i.e. Oskar’s dad was having an affair or something along those lines. Thomas Schell’s death seems to be pretty certain, not like a 2pac death, but it seems that Oskar still feels incomplete in some way, which is definitely understandable. But I just feel like there is nothing else to be found out about Thomas’s death, and Oskar should forget these reconnaissance shenanigans and move on.
ReplyDeleteAnother part of Oskar’s intellectual makeup is his maturity and intelligence, yet his lack of social skills. Oskar is profound enough to consider himself both an atheist and an inventor at nine years old, which is pretty impressive. He is not star struck when writing Steven Hawking or Ringo Star but I am sure that this would not be the case if he saw either of the men in person. Oskar does not have a great ability to interact with the people that are close to him. Maybe his father dying has something to do with it, or a lot to do with it, but we won’t know because we do not get an extensive image of Oskar before his father’s death. However, nine is an extremely tender age for a family member’s death and it most likely crippled Oskar’s social skills significantly.
I agree with Ben that Oskar doesn't have that much to gain from searching for someone who knows about the key or what it might open. It is completely understandable that he is doing this thought, because he lost his dad, who was the person he was closest with at a very young age. He is trying to gain some type of closure and is trying to stay connected with his father. I find it interesting how mature he can seem at times, and then at other times how childish he can be. When I began the book and we had not yet found out how old Oskar was, I definitely thought he was much older than nine except for his occasional childish outbreaks. He is very smart and already seems to notice tiny things that most people would never notice, like his dad using a fork instead of chop sticks. He is completely comfortable talking with random strangers and he is very driven. As Ben pointed out, he does not seem to interact well with the people that are close to him. He feels betrayed by his mom because she is trying to live a happy life. It is much easier to open up to strangers because it is likely that you will never see them again. People would normally rather talk about their issues with a stranger than with someone they know because they figure they will never see the stranger again.
ReplyDeleteOskar shows how advanced he is for his age when he goes to buy a new answering machine to protect his mom from hearing the last voice messages that his dad left before he was killed. He chose to save the answering machine so he could hear the sound of his dad's voice.
My favorite scene so far is the play, where Oskar imagines lashing out at Jimmy Snyder. It is somewhat comical, yet it is still sad because we can see the anger that Oskar has built up inside of him.
Hmmm...
ReplyDeleteTo begin this is easily the broadest blog entry prompt ever. There are a ton of things to talk about here, but what interests me the most is how we all have reacted to this book. One would think that a book this radical would produce some incredibly polarized opinions of the writing. But, at least to my knowledge, nobody is in the "strongly disagree" section of four corners. After all I am usually the first to arrive there anyway.
Don't get me wrong I think that there are some incredibly thought provoking, interesting parts of this book, which I love by the way. But I'd imagine that nearly everyone will write about the book here so I decided to write about you all and why we like it so much. My reasoning is actually quite simple and the there are twelve pieces of evidence in Mr. H's room every morning at 8 am. The reason that we like this book is that it pushes the boundaries of the novel and explores the beginning of a new derivative. Why do we like this then? you ask. Well the simple reason is that we are all young people in an intellectual environment. We are taught and encouraged to be creative within the traditional forms, take the essay for example. This novel is a super intensified version of a creative, experimental essay that we could write in class.
Now these kinds of innovations are attempted at all the time but what makes this one so special is the way the innovative structure is used. Many new age writers use these kinds of strange structures simply for the purpose of using them. What separates ELIC is that Foer uses the breaks the rules with a goal in mind, he does not break them simply to show that they can be broken, but to show that by breaking them he can craft a better novel.
This novel is one that has certainly incited controversy and polarity, but not within our class, and in general rarely amongst the youth. Because it appeals to the forward thinking intellectual and does so with purpose and power it is adored by many readers including myself.
Hi everybody. I agree with everybody’s comments from above because our blog is flawless unlike some other classes at Francis Parker. Anyways, to be frank, I’m digging the parallel structure of the novel and how the plot unfolds. The book is simply the last recon mission of little Oskar’s life and I want him to succeed… along with everyone else, but that’s beside the point. The purpose of his mission is what matters. We’ve glanced over his purpose a little bit during class (his brain is like a beaver and if he doesn’t stop ch-ch-ch-chomping away he’s going to suicide) and I the message to drive home is that this book is a procrastination, delay, filibuster, and suspension of thought. And I like it.
ReplyDeleteThere’s this quality of confusion running throughout the book because Oskar doesn’t want to face his fears. All he is doing is circumventing the worst day, but constantly engaging in the worse day to satisfy him. It’s a paradox of paradoxes! His mission with the Blacks is nothing more than a valiant effort to cope with his father’s death while constantly avoiding his father’s death by escaping inside the mission.
Little Oskar is a lost child. At first, nobody can relate to our little Shell man because nobody loved his father as much as he did. The unbearable pain and the endless tears… woe is his life. So, the whole novel cannot be written about how tragic his life is and eventually connections form and secrets unfold beginning with the Grandma because she also loved his father deeply.
testing one. two. three
ReplyDeletetime to talk some trash
ReplyDeleteSo far, what I notice about the book is how it seems to connect with me more than any other piece of literature. I am hesitant to say that I relate to it, because I have never experienced tragedy on the scale that Oscar has, but I do notice that the creativeness of his character and the overall writing style that Jonathan Safran Foer uses has definitely captured me. Oscar's ingenious inventions and ideas are what amuse me most about his character. Whenever I read over one of the many inventions that Foer has plastered throughout the book, I can't help but chuckle. One of my favorites is the ring that lights up with the other person's pulse. Brilliant and touching. On top of the inventions, I love being reminded that he is only nine. I find that I lose myself in the book and completely forget that he is a child, and then he suddenly reminds us with something like the hilarious letter to his French tutor.
ReplyDeleteThis book is one of the only books that I can think of that has actually evoked an emotional response from me. When Oscar slowly reveals the messages his dad leaves him on the answering machine right before he died, I feel legitimate sadness. Not to say I break down weeping on my bed, or even shed a tear for that matter, but I do linger on the message for about a minute before I realize that I should keep reading. Not even Gatsby, Cuckoo's Nest, or any of the terrible African genocide books we had to read in the previous years evoked such a response from me.
Aside from all the mushy feely stuff, The plotline of the book I think is unfolding nicely, although very confusing at times. Its hard to tell when metaphors are being used or whether these people are just really really weird (like the whole Nothing, Something stuff in the grandpa chapter. If Mr. H hadn't explained that, I would be totally lost.) And around now, I would like to say I agree with so & so about such & such, but honestly, I didn't read any of them, (except the period 4 vandals) and its half past midnight, so I think now is about time to make my leave.
So far, I completely agree with what everyone else has posted about. One thing that I find interesting is the significance of the “something” and “nothing” spaces in the grandparent’s house. I’m still having a hard time grasping exactly what that means and how anyone could live like that without going crazy. As the book makes clear, Oskar’s grandma and grandpa both live in a life of denial and passive acceptance. It seems that Oskar inherited some of his grandpa’s characteristics. He accepts the fact that his father is dead, but he won’t move on with his life without reminding himself that he shouldn’t be happy (ie giving himself bruises). Oskar’s grandpa lived his whole life loving someone who could no longer live him back, the same thing that happens to Oskar. Their obsession with past relationships affects the relationships that follow in the rest of their life. Not only can the grandpa not love Oskar’s grandma, but Oskar has a hard time loving his mom. In this sense, Oskar is also living his life separated into “something” and “nothing” sections and as a result, his relationships in his life seem to suffer.
ReplyDeleteThe aspect of this book that interests me most, is how it always catches you off guard. You never know what is going to happen next or what ludicrous and random thing Oskar will say next. His imaginative mind and intelligent quips makes it easy to forget his actual age, that is until he says something that reminds you that he is only a nine year old dealing with tragedy in his own unique way. He doesn't allow himself to be happy or ever forget what happened to his father, and believes that his mother should do the same. His grieving is to put himself in constant sadness until he can finally let his father go. The way Oskar decides to slowly get through his father's death, is to do, as Tony says, his last recon mission. When Oskar finds the key that once belongs to his father, it is important to him to find out more about his father, this will hopefully give him some sort of closure and allow him to move on and live his life. Being someone who has not dealt with true tragedy in her life, it is interesting for me to see how someone who feels so much, reacts to situations such as Oskar's. To see how difficult it is to deal with the death of someone you love so much and how confusing it can be to try and understand why things like this can happen.
ReplyDeleteWhat interests me about Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is the journey that Oskar endeavors on: literally and psychologically. Looking for a person with the last name Black that knows about his father and the key is quite interesting. So far, I have quite enjoyed meeting all the various Blacks that Oskar has. However, what makes his journey even more interesting is to why he is is doing this and what is the importance of the journey to him. He is obviously trying to find a way to "be" or connect with his father. As Oskar acknowledges early on, he needs to find something to do that fills the void that was created when his father died. As I continued reading I have noticed a pattern of Oskar reaching out to all the Blacks and strangers that he meets, sharing his live stories and secrets with them. However, by going on this mission and reaching out to strangers, he distances himself from his mother and grandma. I am curious to see how this all plays out.
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