Oskar uses external cues to help him process his emotions. Unlike Grandpa’s meticulous photographs of the apartment, Oskar’s book is a sort of photo album of his mind. Oskar keeps a binder of Stuff That Happened to Me that’s filled with plenty of stuff that didn’t happen to him-images of tennis players and astronauts, for example-but provides him with a fossil record of his imagination. Oskar is also insatiably curious, and-as his business card, which has about twenty different occupations listed shows-he has a huge range of interests, from making jewelry to physics to archaeology to the Beatles. As he walks around New York, Oskar carries a tambourine, which he shakes to try and calm himself. Thanks.Oskar is the nine-year-old protagonist of the novel: he’s extremely precocious and incredibly imaginative, but he has a lot of fears, worries, anxieties, and guilt. Please feel free to use them, online or off, with attribution. How do both main plot and subplot (Oskar's grandfather and the bombing of Dresden) interweave with one another? a meaningful, integral part of the work? Or do you find them distracting and gimmicky? Why are they there?Ħ.
Do you find the illustratrions, sribblings, over-written texts, etc. or as more of a fable, on the order, say, of Life of Pi? If the latter, what is Extremely Loud a fable of? (Like Pi, Oskar seems to be a quester-but of what?)ĥ. Is that a relevant comment? Do you see this book as a work of realism (in which case the mother's role would matter). Some critics have wondered where Oskar's mother is and how the child is left alone to wander the streets of New York alone at night. Which characters fall into which category in Extremely Loud? What might Foer be saying about our ability to communicate deep-seated emotions?Ĥ. Jonathan Safran Foer has said that he writes about characters and their miscommunications: some characters think they're saying a lot but say nothing others say nothing but end up saying a lot. What is the significance of that role? (See Hamlet: Act V, Scene I, Line 188).ģ. For Shakespeare buffs: Oskar "plays Yorick" (the long dead jester whose skull Hamlet holds in his hand!) in a school production. Do you find him sympathetic or annoying? Or both?Ģ. Talk about Oskar-an unusually precious child. Read-Think-Talk (a guided reading chart)Īlso consider these LitLovers talking points to help get a discussion started for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close:ġ.Generic Discussion Questions-Fiction and Nonfiction.How to Discuss a Book (helpful discussion tips).Use our LitLovers Book Club Resources they can help with discussions for any book:
0 kommentar(er)
