Monday, June 9, 2008
Extremely Loud--Non-Verbal Elements
What connection do the various non-verbal elements (photographs, cards, colors, pen marks, white space, the book cover, etc.) have to the rest of the story? Can you identify any patterns of meaning? Why would a writer not use words in his novel? Why have they been included as part of the narrative? What is their effect? Where do they come from? In your opinion, do they add to or detract from the actual story?
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I have read up to page 74, the non-verbal elements so far represent what is going on through the character’s head. These pictures show the character’s randomness, for example pages 53-67, don’t have anything in common other than its in his book called “Stuff That Happened to Me” (53). The pictures consist of things he saw, not exactly experienced and there totally random, they didn’t happen in order. Another non-verbal element represented his curiosity, on pages 49-50 while examining pens at an art store he noticed a piece of paper used for pens to test out their color, on that piece of paper he saw his fathers name written in red ink. He then tried to find out whether his father had been at the art store and what he purchased, so he asked the store manager to see any receipts for a Thomas Schell (his father). None of the receipts had the name of Thomas Schell, that could have meant many things, was his father ever their, had he just tried out pens or did he pay with cash? The boy went home to find out more information and continued to research, he needed to know why his dad’s name was written there.
The non-verbal elements add to the story, it helps us better understand what the narrator is going through. The pictures bring us closer to the author.
I agree with Anna F, the non verbal elements all characterize Oskar and his literal view of the world. The author uses these pictures so that we can see the way he does and understand him. So far, the pictures and Oskar's book "Stuff that happened to Me" also seem how Oskar leaves a mark on the world and is always looking for a better understanding. This is shown in the beginning when he says, "Even though I'm not anymore, I used to be an atheist..."(4). This shows that sometime he did find understanding and his own explanation for everything. Oskar is always using the phrase "Even though I'm not anymore...” or one like it because he is always changing his view of the world and searching for a reason. The non verbal elements in this story represent Oskar and the way he sees the world.
There are many non-verbal elements to the novel that make the novel what it is. Sometimes the markings and pictures seem completely out of context to the book, but the one thing that is important to remember is this is really like a diary for this nine year old boy. Like Anna F. said before, it “represent[s] what is going on through the character’s head.” Anything that seems interesting he is going to remember and therefore talk about in his book. The other effects that are in the book such as the white space in the letter that Oskar’s grandfather writes to describe his wife’s life story represents the fact that her life story has no way of being completed to his understanding. This seems a little crazy because it takes the reader’s mind into a whirlwind of possible explanations for those pages to be blank. This detracts from the actual story because Oskar’s grandmother is writing her life story in a book about Oskar’s life. All it represents is the strained relationship between his grandmother and his grandfather. I do not believe that any of the non-verbal elements in the story are necessary for the reader to understand it and get the full meaning out of it. For example, when Oskar goes to the Art store and looks at the pen sheets, we as the reader could have just understood that people write the color they are writing with like the manager said, but Oskar shows us. It emphasizes that “Black” written in red is a person not just a color. Some of the non-verbal elements are never really explained. These are really just the pictures on page 53-67. But it is still Oskar’s mind. Think about it, most of the things that humans in general think of cannot be explained. Why Oskar is interested in Stephen Hawking, why Oskar loves turtles or the French. That’s why the non-verbal elements are ultimately important in this novel; they show us that Oskar is human. It gives him the type of emotion that should be related to a real person. Even though these non-verbal effects send the reader’s mind off into something that has nothing to do with the story, their presence is completely relevant to the novel. I believe that the pen marks are interesting because it tells Oskar that what appears to be solid (such as color) can have a different meaning once he reads into it. Oskar tells us that “But one thing I can say is it’s sort of interesting that the person wrote the word ’black’ in red pen” (44). Ultimately this is what leads Oskar into his journey of finding Abby and William Black.
Foer's use of non-verbal elements adds to the story as a whole. The photographs throughout the novel, for example, help the reader to really visualize what Oskar describes in words. By using more than words alone, theses visual aides enforce and strengthen the events of the story. While Casey R. makes some very compelling conclusions about this topic, I do not quite agree with her statement that, "Some of the non-verbal elements are never really explained. These are really just the pictures on page 53-67." These pictures may appear to be random and irrelevant at first glance, however, one connection can be made between them. This connection is that the images on these pages all deal with the most important benchmarks in human life: endless possibility (key), victory (tennis), death (skull), new life (turtles), youth (airplane), evolution (apes), and a home (New York). One sees that Oskar's view of life is more complex than might be expected. Instead of just taking pictures of his dog or a scar he has, Oskar notices that life is more than just his individual experiences. He realizes that all of these things have been a part of his life, and that they are all part of humanity. Again, these pictures provide what words cannot which is a clearer and deeper look into how Oskar views the world.
Written words or lack there of also add to the non-verbal elements. These show that communication is not speaking alone. Oskar’s grandpa “would write out the lyrics of [his] favorite songs . . . and the music would run down [his] legs” (18). This one incident shows how communication between people has been lost. Just as the words on Grandpa’s legs washed away, connections to other people have also disappeared. The words symbolize how everyone has trouble communicating with others. Non-verbal elements help to show how the world has lost it’s ability to connect with others.
These non-verbal elements enforce and make the written words have a stronger meaning. In the pictures, for example, one reacts more to a photograph of someone falling out of a building than from words written on a page. By being able to actually see something, the reader is given the opportunity to feel exactly what is being described. Foer’s use of non-verbal elements really helped to make the events in the novel come to life.
Alex P. made a very good point when she said, “One reacts more to a photograph of someone falling out of a building than from words written on a page.” I however disagree. There are certain times in the story where a picture might help to further describe an event that occurred or thoughts in Oskar’s mind, however, I believe that words can evoke more emotion than pictures can. In the chapter titled Why I’m Not Where You Are 4/12/78, there is very strong images that are inspired by words. This passage is what struck the most emotion out of me in the novel, not the picture of the person falling. A tragedy is described; death, injury, animals, pain, suffering, avoiding. This chapter contains no pictures (except for the doorknob), but it does contain another type of non-verbal element that I will get into later. Although Alex P. states that the non-verbal elements “enforce and make the written words have a stronger meaning,” I believe that without the pictures, the words themselves would be just as strong. The chapter of the bombings of Dresden is a perfect example of this. Without physical pictures, Foer paints a picture with words so that every word can evoke an image in the reader’s mind. This is extremely important to Foer.
I also disagree with Alex P. when she states “[The] connection [of the pictures] is that the images on these pages all deal with the most important benchmarks in human life.” Then she listed what she believes the pictures represent. I disagree with what Alex P. believes they represent. Although these items are often associated with things of that nature, in this case, I think that they are photos not symbolic of anything in particular. Oskar’s life is the only thing that I think these pictures can depict. The skull, for example (on page 55), is not simply a skull. It is the skull from Hamlet. Hamlet is something that Oskar takes pride to be a part in and the skull is his part. Oskar is not dead and does not represent death when he plays the part in the play. Also the image of tennis on page 64 could either represent victory or defeat. It is ambiguous here because the reader is not truly able to see which the man in the photo is experiencing. Some of the pictures in these pages have relevance to the story only when it comes to Oskar’s interests and events that occur in his every day life. The fingerprints, the word purple written in green, the French astronaut, the falling man, the jewelry; they are all things that Oskar thinks about because he sees them and obviously finds them interesting. The pictures have meaning in Oskar’s life when it comes to representing that he is a human. He has thoughts that are unique to him and his book of Stuff That Happened To Me is a symbol of that.
Now, to touch upon what I said I would earlier, in the chapter that describes the bombing of Dresden, there is a non-verbal element that is present in only one other place. On page 10, Oskar is describing an article in which his father circled the phrase “not stop looking” as a clue for Oskar. That was only a phrase. In this chapter, the whole eight pages of text are marked up with red pen. The use of the red pen is never really explained. The only thing we as the reader know is that Oskar’s father used the red pen and had circled things before. A few words and sentences are circled, but the bulk of the text circled is commas. The sentences seemed to never end. I couldn’t stop reading. I was drawn to the red circles, but I never really understood why. As the story grows more intense, so does the use of the red pen. It is as if Oskar’s father read the letter and made his marks for himself and never told anyone what they meant. I felt the pain of the story and looked at the red pen as if the pages were bleeding. The story was so intense that it hurt to read it near the end. The red pen to me seems so important because it connects the story with an actual person.
Unlike Casey R, I agree with Alex. I think that the pictutres included in this book add clarity to Foer's words. I think that becuase Oskar has such an interesting and unpredictable thought process, it helps a little to have a picture of what he means. Like Alex says, seeing a person fall out of a building has a much deeper affect on a person than simply reading about it, for me at least. A person can hear something many times and not really be affected by it. Then it happens to them, or they witness it happening( in this case, in the form of a picture) and suddenly it sinks in and makes more sense. While Foer's words are far from hollow and only touching the very surface of things, the pictures add substance and clarity to them.
I do agree with Casey when she says that these ways of non-verbal communication help to show Oskar as a real person. It also helps to show us that he is still just a little boy. I think that becuase of the things he knows and says we all expect him to be much older than 9. Seeing pictures may help him understand things so he would think that, as readers, we need them too. Including the picture of the turtles, the marker pages, and some of the other pictures, remind us that we are dealing with a 9 yeyar old kid. These things seem interesting to him, so why wouldn't they to everyone else?
Being as literal as he is, whatever oSkar sees is true to him. Adding the pictures may be his way of trying to prove that these things are true to everyone else.
Casey also says that these pictures on pages 53-67 are not meant to mean anything. I somewhat disagree with her on this point. I think that the fact that they are random and meaningless is a symbol itself. It's a symbol of Oskar's mind. Those are the things he thinks about whether of not they make sense to anyone else. We see these pictures and we see random pictures that don't relate to each other or anything else. But when Oskar sees them, it all makes sense to him and his thought process. Their disorganized and nonsensical order are exaclt what Oskar's mind is. I don't think that they are meant to make sense to us, but to illustrate the mind of Oskar just like a picture of his mind would.
I disagree with Anna f p, when she says "these pictures show the characters randomness" When looking at the pictures on pages 53-67, i see many pictures that fit into the many things he brings up before hand.
For example, one 53, there are many keys, which is waht he happens to be looking for-a place for the key he found to fit. On oage 55, we see a freeze frame from the old movie Hamlet, which Oskar mentions earlier in the text.
Furthermore, it seems like we are shown first a picture of man falling far away, and then up close. Perhaps this shows us that this picture, or this man who is falling has an immense importance to the story. I believe that all the pictures have already become relevant, or will become relevant at some point in the future.
Despite all of this, i also have a totally new theory about why Foer uses pictures instead of just word in his novel. My plain and simple thought is that because Oskar is a child, Foer hoped to better step into the shoes of his characters by keeping present in his novel what so many children enjoy in their own books-Pictures. All children read a picturebook at some point, and perhaps Foer's reasoning was that, because Oskar is so young, he would want to show us parts of the story, instead of just verbalizing it.
I agree with Megan where she says, "I think that because Oskar has such an interesting and unpredictable thought process, it helps a little to have a picture of what he means." This statement means that sometimes it is hard to comprehend what Oskar is trying to say. He has to use pictures to help the reader see things through his eyes. His thought process is much different than most peoples'. It is more in-depth and some things just do not make sense. He uses pictures to get the point more clear, like the picture of all the keys on page 53. We might not see all those keys in one place at one time, so it doesn’t seem like there are that many keys. It is more like a number to us, instead of the actual keys laying there in front of us. Where as Oskar sees them as all in one place at one time and it is a lot more stressful for him. The picture of the keys is a representation of how he sees the keys. He puts the image into the book to show us how he views the keys. In doing this he wants us to view the keys in that way as well so we can get a better understanding of his mind and thought process.
I also agree with molly when she says, "My plain and simple thought is that because Oskar is a child." This is another well thought point. Oskar views topics and situations as pictures instead of words. So in order to get his thoughts across, has to put pictures into the book to show what he is thinking. He does this so we can understand his thinking, so we can better relate to the situation he is in, and to understand why he writes and explain things the way he does.
Foer uses many non-verbal elements in his writing. He uses anything from pictures to just no words at all. All of these aspects add to the story and help the reader understand it. I agree with Alex P that all of the pictures do have meaning, but I disagree with some of her meanings. Like Casey R said “The image of tennis on page 64 could either represent victory or defeat.” On page 53 the picture of the keys could just simply be there to show the obsession that Oskar has with the one key and how endless the possibilities are. Some times the pictures could be there just to help with the image that Foer is trying to get across like the elephant on page 95. The picture helps the reader really see what he is talking about, giving them a better idea. Also some of the pictures are over used like Casey R said the pages with the colors were a little much. They needed to be there, but only one not three.
One of the big mysteries in the book is the key Oskar found. The word black being written in red pen is what starts it all. This is what brings up all the questions. I find it odd that his father used to correct the newspaper in red pen. Is there a connection there? I do not know because I am only on page 124.
Many of the pages of Oskar’s grandfather’s journal have only one sentence on them. This gives the reader the feeling that he is really loosing words, and is a quite person. All the extra space could be because of all the emptiness he has in his life. Oskar’s grandfather is talking about his first love, Anna on page120, “I got a paper cut on my forefinger and bled a little flower onto the page on which I should have seen [Anna] kissing somebody, but all I saw:” This is followed by 2 blank pages. It seems every time Anna is mentioned, the emptiness that is brought on by here is showed by blanks on a page.
Foer uses many non-verbal elements to help the reader understand. Like the old saying “A picture is worth a thousand words”.
Reading through the comments above I saw that everyone thinks (even if they mean something or they don’t)that they still are important. However, while the photos do connect in some way to part of the text, when I came across them my thought was could they just be there for the narrator? It is his novel, and just because the pictures make connections to something he had said before doesn’t mean he put them in because of that. If that were true, wouldn’t the pictures be nearer to the pages where he describes them? Kelsey B made the already well known statement, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” Well, a thousand words could be any words at all, they could be put together to tell any story. I think that’s what Foer was trying to display. Yes, there are references and connections for each picture but who’s to say that they have to be only connections or references? I like what Alex P thought the pictures meant, “. . . endless possibilities (the keys), victory (tennis), death (skull), new life (turtles) and a home (New York).” However, why do the turtles have to be a symbol of only one thing? Can’t they, maybe, also represent being strong but not brave, or maybe it was just a picture to show that Oskar really does like turtles. The pictures really could be anything. Just like the mystery, the answer could be anything at all.
I think Foer wanted us to think that they were simply visual connections at first, but then he wanted us to think back to when Oskar said he was no longer an atheist. At the start of the novel Oskar is very closed minded about the world. He makes some jokes about the mentally challenged, and when he and his father are talking the night before the ‘worst day’ he says, “I’m god” and then when his father points out he doesn’t believe in god he turns around and says, “I don’t exist.” Yet, after his father dies he gives up that type of thinking. He lets himself gain an open mind about the world. He knows that there could be a million things the key might open, but that doesn’t stop him from searching. I think Foer used the photos to try to draw out that point. Just because something seems to have only one solid connection or answer, that doesn’t mean it will be the only answer. It could mean something completely different if you look deeper. Oskar doesn’t know what answers the key will bring him but he has an open mind about it (As we should to the photos) We must look at them and not pin them down to one exact meaning.
There are many ideas that have been approached that I completely agree with and others that I can disagree with. First of all, I will clarify that I believe that the pictures on the pages throughout the book have no real meaning, but are meant to represent that Oskar is a person and like many have said before, a small child. Oskar is not fully grown and his mind is still developing and is still running around through many ideas. One minute he is thinking of turtles, then planes, then Hamlet, then suicide, then “the worst day.” He is a young child and these pictures are what he sees in his mind.
Alex P. and Megan B. have both said that you can understand more with a picture than just simply words. Again, I disagree. Megan B. said, “A person can hear something many times and not really be affected by it.” I disagree with this statement because really the only people who approach life like this are people who do not associate emotion with words. I feel like these people would not pay attention to something unless it was a picture. This reminds me of children. I can read something and understand it completely without pictures to go along with it. Sure, pictures might be easier to look at and more fun to look at, but I believe that to get the full emotion out of a story, it needs to have words to explain the situation. This idea was followed up by the idea that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” My belief is that perhaps each picture is worth a thousand words, but each word in itself can evoke so much emotion and passion and another thousand words if not more. Words are a sacred thing. Yes, the pictures are used to accentuate the story of Oskar, but the story would not have been told without the words. The pictures may not have been relevant to the story as a whole, but they were a nice break from the words. Molly R. stated something about the pictures that I believe is mostly inaccurate. She said, “I see many pictures that fit into the many things he brings up before hand.” I think that Oskar doesn’t really have a purpose for talking about the things he does or taking pictures of the things he does. He does this because he is interested in it. Oskar starts the book and the first two paragraphs with questions, random questions that would never make sense by themselves without the rest of the paragraphs. Oskar asks “What about a teakettle? . . . What about little microphones?” (1). Molly R. also states that “[The pictures] will become relevant at some point in the future.” Most of the pictures in the story never reveal their purpose and have no relevancy to the story. As I said before, they are just a nice break from the words, but they do not truly ever show a purpose.
When we talk about Oskar being a child and the pictures helping to show that, there have been many ideas floating around about the reader using the pictures as a way to better understand Oskar. Demitra A. said that “[Foer] has to use pictures to help the reader see things through [Oskar’s] eyes.” This is exactly what Foer is doing. He uses Oskar’s grandfather’s camera that he carries around to help the reader see through Oskar’s eyes. They literally are his eyes. He is looking through the viewfinder and this is what he is seeing. This is what helps the reader dissect what Oskar’s mind and thought process is. Like Demitra said, Oskar’s thought process is vastly different than the mainstream human population. He does not go through same thoughts that a regular person. He floats through many ideas without structure. Take the beginning of the book. He talks about a teakettle then microphones then jujitsu and then never speaks of any of them again. He jumps around because he is still a child and his mind is not fully developed.
Amanda R. takes our thoughts through a bit different of a path. She doesn’t pinpoint Oskar as a child or anything else she states that what the pictures mean is not really determined. She said, “The pictures really could be anything. Just like the mystery, the answer could be anything at all.” This brings up a point that connects the pictures to the story without giving them symbolism or forcing them to represent anything independently. This made me think in a completely different way. Looking at the pictures as a whole instead of independently, I can completely agree that they could be anything, just like the mystery of his father and the note.
And one thing more that I would like to disagree with is when Kelsey B. talks about Oskar’s grandfather’s journal only having one phrase written on them. She said, “This gives the reader the feeling that he is really loosing words, and is a quite person.” I do not believe that his grandfather is losing words. He cannot speak and he is writing his memoir in the place where everyday he writes down things he cannot say. It just shows that he is a real person. Just like I believe the pictures do with Oskar. The simple sentences like “Do you know what time it is?” (125) demonstrate that his grandfather really didn’t speak and that his entire story is true. Otherwise, this could be the story of anyone’s grandfather. His little phrases and sentences give it a character and voice.
I agree with Anna F P, some of his pictures in his "Stuff That Happened to Me" book are random. Like the ones on pages 56, 57, 60, 61 and 64-67. However, I also agree with Molly R P that some of the pictures also have some significance. These pictures would include the one on page 53 (because he has a key and is just missing a lock), 55 (because it is from Hamlet, a play he has a part in), 58 (because his family ran a jewelery business), and those are just to name a few.
I think the author uses the photographs to help us as readers understand certain parts of the text. I have noticed that a majority of the time, they have something to do with what is written on the next page. On page190, he is talking about cats and how they can survive falling 20 floors, and on page 191 it's a picture of what looks like a flying cat. Also,on page 198 it's a picture of a rotating door and on he next page, Oskar is talking about how he met a doorman. So while some pictures can be totally random, most have significance to the plot.
I think that Molly said it perfect when she said that Oskar is just a child. The pictures don't necessarily make sense to us because we are older ahve a different thought process than a child would. If you were to show a young child these same pictures they could most likely make perfect sense of them.
However, like Gabriella said, some of the pictures have a direct connection to events in the story like the revolving door and the doorman. I think that maybe all of the pictures will eventually ahve a direct connection, we just may not see it until the end of the book.
Another connection with the words and the story is emptiness with Anna. Whenever Anna is mentioned, blank spaces or pages follow. Emptiness must be the feeling that whoever wrote the letter gets when he hears anything about Anna.
While I believe that all of the posts have been very insightful and unique, Amanda R’s post really made me rethink the meaning of the nonverbal elements in the novel. Amanda R. says that, “Just because something seems to have only one solid connection or answer, that does not mean it will be the only answer.” This sentence really made me consider why, if everyone connects to photos to something different, Foer chose to use them? Wouldn’t his point be clearer if he used something that had only one meaning? The point I believe that he is trying to make is that the world is made up of different views and ways of seeing things. Oskar is a perfect example of this. Oskar best understands the world through pictures and visual aids. He documents his life in photographs. Oskar’s grandfather, on the other hand, lives his life through words on a page. Whether in books or in his own notebook, (example on page 19) Oskar’s grandfather best understands and feels comfortable with written words. By using opposite ways of comprehending the world, Foer shows how not everyone sees things the same way.
What is ironic about this is that our discussions mirror that thought. Meagan B. believes that the photos contribute to the novel. Casey R. disagrees. The thing is, they are both right. It all depends on how the person views the world and how they best respond to it. The characters in the book are the same way. They all have their own perspectives and ideas. By making his characters use different elements to understand the world, like pictures or words, Foer shows the reader that there is not only one way of seeing something, as Amanda R. stated earlier. Another thing that I believe Foer is trying to get across is to accept the differences of others.
I have a question about a connection I saw to the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime. For those of you who have read it, I was wondering if you believe that the non-verbal elements in that book are similar to those in this one? Personally, I think that the pictures in Curious In. are different from Foer’s. While both Foer and Haddon (the author of Curious In.) use pictures to show the reader the minds of their characters, I believe that the characters are not that much alike. Chris, in Curious In, sees the world in a very straight and simplistic way, therefore his pictures are simple. Oskar, on the other hand, questions everything about the world. In correspondence to this, his photos are debatable and detailed. I find it interesting how two characters that express their thoughts so similarly can be so different. The more I read this novel the more I question communication and the role nonverbal elements play within it.
Alex P. has brought up a very interesting point. All the time that I have spent doing my blogging, I want to call Oskar, Christopher. These books are very similar in the way that their narrators approach the world, yet, like Alex P. said, they are different because of how they see the world.
Both of the characters approach the world with an “I can do anything I want” attitude, yet Oskar sees things that Christopher probably would never notice and wouldn’t care about. Alex P. said, “Chris, in Curious In, sees the world in a very straight and simplistic way, therefore his pictures are simple. Oskar, on the other hand, questions everything about the world.” Christopher’s pictures are graphs and charts and are all related to math and/or science. Oskar’s pictures are complex because his mind is more complex. Although it was never stated in the novel Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time, I believe that the character, Christopher, was autistic. That is why his mind is so simple. Oskar is a normal child and therefore his mind jumps all over the place. While Oskar takes a more complex view of the world, he is also more understanding of the situations that he is in and he thinks more into the situations. Christopher doesn’t really focus on more than one thing at a time. He also overreacts to certain situations. He yells at his father for not understanding or keeping something from him while Oskar pretends that he says these things all while keeping it inside him. Christopher never understood the concept of “keeping things to himself.” He let out his feelings to the world instead of just keeping them to himself. Also, Christopher’s non-verbal elements are used to help him explain things more to himself, while Oskar’s non-verbal elements are random and are expected to help him explain things to the reader.
Everybody who bloged recently mentioned the pictures as a non-verbal element. Why are the pictures the only moon-verbal element? Things not written are "non-verbal." The author (Foer) made one infer what is not in the text many times. Would that count as non-verbal elements?
Like on page 40 when Oskar recieves a letter form Ringo Starr (it does not say Starr) and all it says is he loved the shirt and he laminated the letter. "I laminated Ringo's letter and tacked it to my wall." he seems more interested in the lock than a letter from Ringo. Also it says in the letter "I have to confess, I've never thought too much about giving lessons..." That means Oskar wanted drum lessons from Ringo though the book does not say it. Oskar does not say he is dissappointed in this. Is this because he is used to dissappointments or because he expected it? Is it because he was not dissappointed? Why is that the only reference to Oskar's desire to learn the drums from Ringo? It is the only mention of Ringo. Is he better left unsaid?
Another example of a non-verbal element is the message (five) on page 280. The reader has to infer what Oskar's father is saying. Those unsaid seconds count as non-verbal elements.
The pictures are a non-verbal element though. I think the only important pictures are the ones in the very back of the person falling up. This is Oskar's only wish. The other pictures have meaning but these sum up the whole story. They symbolize Death, the opposite of life; up, the opposite of down.
I want to add to megan's thought when she says "The pictures don't necessarily make sense to us because we are older have a different thought process than a child would." This thought totally makes sense within the story. afterall, the story is told from oskar's point of veiw, and so it should reflect alot of what is going on in his head. Perhaps Foer uses the non-verbal communication in his novel to assure he will connect with a wider range of people. Think about it-different words have different meanings to different people. with this in mind, there are many possible meaning behind an configuration of words. This being said, i want to point out that pictures often hold a much more universal meaning. I believe foer used pictures to not only unite us the the novel, but also to the many other readers of the book, so that we are more likley the get the same meaning out of it.
I have to strongly agree with cassandra w, with the fact that the pictures are not the only "non-verbal" elements! The pictures are a big part of the non-verbal elements, but Foer also puts in the letters from different people to oskar, and code writing in part of the book. Foer uses every aspect of different types of communication to get the story across.
Foer does use the pictures in different ways though. He uses them to show you certain things that happened along the way with Oskar and he uses them to help explain what oskar is talking about during some of his rants. Like what anna f said on pages 48 and 49, these pictures are there to kind of make you feel like you are in the story with Oskar, and to help explain what Foer means by the "...person wrote the work 'black' in red pen."(44)
With all of the non-verbal elements though, they all are connected to an emotion. All of the letters that Oskar recieved back led to disappointment. Like the same letter he keeps recieving from stephen Hawkings(12, 106, 200), he never gets anything different. Or the letter from Jane Goodalls(199). All the letters form these people that Oskar looks up to lead to dissapointment.
In the end Foer added the non-verbal elements to help the readers interact more with the book and to help us get a better understanding.
Cassandra and Katelyn have developed a new aspect in this topic in saying that pictures in the book are not the only non-verbal elements. Katelyn says that "Foer also puts in the letters from different people to Oskar," which is a very important thing to consider. But there is a purpose for these random chapters in the book that has gone unsaid.
Throughout the chapters that consist of the past tense Oskar narrations, a reader can easily analyze what kind of kid Oskar is. Through verbal communication we can realize that Oskar is picked on at school, he grieves so much over his father that he accuses his mother of not caring or missing him enough, and that as a whole, he is very imaginative for his own age. With Oskar narrating, we can see who he is. But what about the people he knows? These random letters that Foer places in the book create a dominant impression of non-verbal elements.
Foer is able to make us feel just like the nine-year-old Oskar. The reader is confused at times wanting to piece things together as they are given to us. But like Oskar's key investigation, we are forced to wait. We can force a conceived solution in our mind, but the truth is not truly told without every piece of the puzzle.
Non-verbal elements such as the random letters that seem to be irrelevant to a reader's sense of time, we find ourselves confused and just as vulnerable as a nine-year-old in world full of secrets and things bigger than himself. Foer successfully keeps a dominant impression of suspense through these chapters that simply reveal hints and clues not ready for interpretation. However, the non-verbal elements DO perform as a very important tool for further investigations, just like Oskar and his key.
Cassandra W’s had a great idea when she decided to try and branch the conversation away from only pictures. This being said, I do not quite agree with her interpretation of non-verbal elements. Cassandra mentions how “one [might] infer what is not in the text many times.” While this is true, it is not necessarily a non-verbal element. Analysis in itself is about reading what is not blatantly written. It is about noticing the underlying points of a story without the author directly saying them. Non-verbal elements on the other hand tend to be almost visual in a way, like the pictures or letters.
One element that we have not really discussed is the three pages of colors and names on pages 47-49. What do these colors mean and why are they all included? This is a hard one for me. The one connection with color and the rest of the novel is that, like the pictures, color can be interpreted in many ways. Also, I think color is a way to show emotion for Oskar. Again, it is another form of communication that does not involve speaking. I think that the three pages of names show how everyone thinks differently. We all use different colors and write different things. By using color, the people on the pages communicated a little bit of who they really are to the world. For example, if someone wrote in blue, that could be their favorite color or they could be feeling a little sad. Either way they have expressed a little of themselves to the world non verbally.
Another non-verbal part of the novel that I would like to address is on pages 270-271. Here, 0skar’s grandfather communicates entirely through pressing buttons on the telephone. This shows how non-verbal communication sometimes is not understood. The communication between Oskar’s grandfather and grandmother is lost, as shown by his grandmother not understanding. It also explains how people have decided that only their way of thinking is correct. Today, society will not bend to the idea that there is more than one way of doing something. Foer is saying that people only see the world in one way and have lost the ability of connecting with others. On another note, has anyone actually translated the number conversation?
Alex P. brought up a great point about the colors on pages 47-49. Oskar is looking for clues at this point in the story, and looking to see if black meant anything. When he sees his dad's name on the papers, he gets jumpy, and starts running around the store looking for his dad's name on other display papers. He finds the name everywhere and really gets excited about all the clues. I think the colors are supposed to let the readers know what Oskar is thinking. Like Alex P. said, it shows how everyone is different. This is what Oskar thinks all the time and that's why he gets along with everybody. He can connect with them in the simplest of ways, and even by the colors they write on the display paper he can understand them, just like he understands his father by looking around the store. He can figure out what his father was thinking and figures out the black clue.
Cassandra W. asked if the details about the letters that Oskar receives are better left unsaid. I don’t think that this has any type of relevance to the story. Yes, Oskar does receive letters from many people and they are all very blunt and straightforward. However, the reader does not need to know exactly what Oskar wrote in his letter that made the person reply the way he did. I believe that these letters are there to show us that Oskar is curious and he is ambitious and would stop at nothing in order to find everything out that he can.
I really believe that Foer is more likely to have put the pictures in the novel to give the reader an opportunity to think whatever they want to think about it rather than give everyone the same picture and we will get the same meaning. Molly R. said that Foer used pictures to unite the readers to the novel and also “so that we are more likely [to] get the same meaning out of it.” I really do not think that, with all of the diversity and imaginative writing that is in this novel that the author would expect us all to get the same thing out of the same picture. I think that Foer wanted to highlight not only the complexities of the human mind, but also the diversity of the human race. By incorporating pictures into his novel, he gives the reader a black canvas to which we would all splatter our thoughts and ideas onto. The pictures are there so that the reader can imagine more. If we were told, purely in words, that something happened this way, we are going to imagine it in our heads exactly how it was written on the page. However, if we read those words and then two pages later there is a picture that could be related to what we just read our minds will go racing to try to connect those two elements. One of those elements is verbal and solid, and the other is non-verbal and leaves more to the imagination of the reader. I think that if this book was all words with no pictures whatsoever we would have gotten a completely different idea of what the story ended up being. The pictures caused us to think “Is this related to what happened on page 129?” “Does this have anything to do with his father?” “Why is this picture in here? Does it have a meaning?”
I want to discuss what Alex P. brought up about the pages of colors. She said, “I think color is a way to show emotion for Oskar . . . By using color, the people on the pages communicated a little but of who they really are to the world.” I cannot disagree with this at all. Alex P. hit the nail directly on the head. I believe the people who wrote their names or the color of the pen they were writing with were trying to show their emotion when they wrote it. This could be completely subconsciously. I think that people of the world, when given a choice, are more likely to gravitate to a color of anything that surrounds them that they associate with the mood that they are feeling. Alex P. said that it would be like a person picking up a blue pen if they were sad. As a society we are taught to associate certain colors to certain emotions; yellow equals happy, blue equals sad, black equals moody. Therefore, whenever we are forced to choose something, our eye immediately feels comforted by the color that is associated with the mood we are in. It allows our bodies and our minds to be at ease because they are surrounded with comforting colors allowing them to know that it is okay to feel that way. That is one of the reasons I believe that Foer placed the color sheet in his book. He was letting his readers know that it is okay to feel however they feel. There were so many colors on those pages, did you look for your favorite color, did your eye gravitate to a random color, or did you flip over the pages with barely a glance? Colors are extremely important in our world and I believe that Foer knows that and that is why he placed those pages in his book.
The non verbal elements in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close are especially related to the story. Leafing through this book, you would see many pictures that have nothing to do with anything. You soon come to realize that you have to take your time reading because Foer uses context clues in many different ways throughout the story.
The effect that the non-verbal elements have on the story is that they add to the characters personality. By seeing the randomness in the pictures, you can tell the way Oskar portrays himself. The non-verbal elements show that Oskar understands things more when he sees them, meaning he is a kinesthetic learner and depends on visual aids, and physical things to help understand his dads death.
I think an author would put words into his novel because he/she wants to reach the reader in a different way. An effective author would actually be extremely smart to include pictures and non verbal elements in their novel because it can appeal to a larger spectrum of understanding. For some people, pictures help them understand the character better, and for others not having pictures improves their imagination. Foer did an amazing job of having an equal set of both pictures and words.
In my opinion I think the non-verbal elements detract from the story. All the pictures detract me from the actual story and what my imagination led me to believe.
In the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Foer likes to use pictures to express the main characters thought process and I think this helps lead you through the story so much better because a lot of what Oskar says needs a picture to explain things in more detail. All through pages 53-67 are pictures of random things that Oskar has printed off the internet and put into a folder titled "Stuff That Happened To Me"(53).
Oskar expresses many of his thoughts and feelings through all of the pictures that he talks and shows you. This obviously takes place with the picture of the man falling down from the twin towers, and having not read to far into the book it's hard for me to tell but I do think that this picture shows what Oskar thinks happened to his Dad.
One point that other bloggers were pointing out is that all the pictures leading back to the art store when Oskar is looking for clues with the key are in color. Well being non-verbal, these sure do express a lot in the book. He's making a point to everything that he has written, like when using a green pen, your brain connection automatically makes your hand write down green.
Foer shows many pictures, and yes, while just leafing through the book you think that they have nothing to do with anything, but when you actually gain more facts from the story, everything clicks more with these "Non-Verbal" contents. These elements are a HUGE part of the story being told.
At first glance, most of the pictures from Oskar's folder seem really strange. It made me really confused and wonder why none of them connected to the story. However, after reading further along I realized that the non-verbal elements in the novel lead to future events and made everything seem more real. When looking at the massive amount of keys on page 53 I could truly understand how Osker felt, knowing that there was a never- ending supply of locks. His pictures make the story seem non-fictional and can really bring in the reader. The photo of the elephant on page 95 really got to me. I could picture myself there with Oskar and Abby looking at it and thinking, "Is it really crying?" His album brings the novel to such a reality that I could grasp his emotions and feel sympathetic for Oskar and other main characters. The life-like qaulities of Foer's non-verbal elements make a great representation of the title: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The elements made me feel that I was closer to and more understanding of the theme in Foer's book.
Like everyone else has already stated, I think that the nonverbal elements of the story do add more to the character. Oskar is a 9 year old kid, and because of that he sees the world in a much more fantastic way than we do. (For example the inventions that he comes up with) and the best way to see the world from his eyes is to include pictures that he would most likely feel connected to. I think Brooke W worded it well when she commented on the picture of a thousand keys, "I could truly understand how Oskar felt, knowing that there was a never- ending supply of locks." Yes the pictures can be distracting, like Jamie C said, but isn't Oskar slightly distracted himself?
I think the non-verbal elements really do add to the book because they give it that extra special something that is unlike most other novels. Not only is the writing style unique, along with the characters, but also the way the book itself is arranged is unique as well. Jonathan Safran Foer stated in an interview with BookPage, "A book is a little sculpture. The choice of fonts, the size of the margins, the typography all influence the way the book is read. I consciously wanted to think about that, wanted to have the book really be something you hold in your hands, not just a vehicle for words." This shows that the author really wanted to add an extra dimension to it that would really make it pop for the reader. I think not only to the pictures enhance the plot and characters, they also grab our attention. What this novel is very good at is adding a touch of reality that we can connect with, what better way to do that then with pictures?
I think Lauren brought up a very important idea when she mentioned the fantastic inverntions oskar often comes up with. To me, they are also a sort of non-verbal element to the novel.(they are not always spoken out loud to another person, but more are ideas that oskar has in his thoughts. They give us this picture in out mind that oskar and only oskar has ever concieved. The very first example of this is on page 1, when he is thinking about the teakettle, and the many totally impossible things he could "invent" it to do. I think in these inventions, we are often reminded that oskar, though he has been through a horrific tragedy, is still a child. I think the world often assumes when a child is put through something like the death of oskars father, they automatically become mature. I believe that foer is using these inventions to remind us that, desptie everything, oskar is still the imaginative, sometimes impractical child that we all once were.
There has been a lot of discussion over the pictures throughout the novel, especially those on pages 53 to 67. Looking at even just those pages, I believe there has been much overlooked. In her post on 6/20, Casey R. said “Most of the pictures in the story never reveal their purpose and have no relevancy to the story.” I do not agree with that. In fact, I have to disagree completely with everyone who has used the word “random”, or one of its synonyms, to refer to these pictures. While they are incredibly subtle, every single one of these pictures has a direct connection to another place in the story. We must remember that Foer chose to place these pictures as a part of Oskar’s Stuff That Happened to Me, and would not waste valuable page space on supposedly random pictures.
Sometimes it is only a line, sometimes it is an anecdote, sometimes a scene, but the connection is always there. All the keys on page 59 can relate back to Oskar’s visit to Walt, the key man. Oskar tells, “He showed me a rack that had a ton of keys on it . . . I touched all the keys I could reach, and that made me feel OK” (39). Others have mentioned the connection between the picture on page 55 and Oskar’s production of Hamlet, but the skull scene in Hamlet also appears very early in the book in a much more interesting sense. According to Oskar’s interpretation of what he read in National Geographic, “if everyone wanted to play Hamlet at once, they couldn’t because there are not enough skulls” because “there are more people alive now than have died in all human history” (3). The paper airplane pattern reminds Oskar of when he and his father “spent an entire afternoon trying to design a paper airplane that [they] could throw from [their] apartment into [his Grandmother’s]” (70). The stacked turtles is from Steven Hawking’s A Brief History of Time, and the woman who believes that “[t]he world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise” and that underneath the turtle “it’s turtles all the way down” (11). The word Purple written in green is reminiscent of the woman in the art store who says to Oskar, “it’s not easy to . . . writ[e] the name of one color with another color” (46). The tennis player is a picture that was in the newspaper “that night, the night before the worst day” (12). Oskar remembers, “[t]he front page was spread over us like a blanket. There was a picture of a tennis player on his back, who I guess was the winner” (13). The fingerprints are Oskar’s own, from when his mom was “so cautious about [him]” after 9/11 and “[took him] to the police station to be fingerprinted “ ( 52). The final picture, the astronaut, shows a man who has physically been where Oskar often feels emotionally, “in deep space . . . everything [is] incredibly far away” (36). While I have only found the connection for a little over half of the pictures, I am also only a little over half done with the novel. Some of the pictures, namely those related to 9/11, I could see a general connection but did not have an exact line to relate them to. Perhaps there are things I have not read yet or I missed completely. Hopefully others can fill in the gaps I have left.
Each one of these connections could gratify a large discussion of its own as to the meaning of both the picture and the passage, so pardon me for merely mentioning each quickly. What is more important is that the text and the images are working as one, complimenting and building upon each other. Foer is using the pictures to force the reader to become active within the novel, not read passively over sections he believes have deep meaning to the book, and life itself. He offers so many thoughts, concepts, and themes at his readers, and utilizes every medium available to him to emphasize them. This is not only an excellent method, but if a reader is active enough, it is incredibly effective at selecting for the reader some of the foremost ideas Foer wishes to emphasize.
First off I would like to point out that unlike Anna F P stated, pages 53 to 67 actually have a lot of correlation with the rest of the novel. Kristen W F, reminding us that “We must remember that Foer chose to place these pictures as a part of Oskar’s Stuff That Happened to Me, and would not waste valuable page space on supposedly random pictures,” did a tremendous job of identifying those connections and therefore I feel no need to list all of them again. Some bloggers have proposed that the pictures represent something symbolic. Amanda R W mentioned that there is more than one way to make a connection. It can be compared to something known as 6º of Kevin Bacon, Ken Jennings, etc. There are a million ways to connect any two things and most things can be connected somehow. Alex P W’s ideas of the representations are very interesting but I think that the reader should look at this in a less analytical light. I think one should view it more as a memory book verses a novel. For instance, if one was to look at my personal memory book, one might find pictures such as white giraffe, an empty room, a china doll, etc. Looking at these pictures alone, one might believe that they were random or pointless and just page stuffers, but when added to a narration of my own life story, the same effect demonstrated in Foer’s book is achieved. The pictures are inserted as visual (non-verbal) elements to add a different sense to the story. They are part of Oskar’s story; they are visual memories. In more simple terms, I think that the pictures add flare and originality to what could have been a typical novel.
Another thing I want to discuss is the reaction the reader has to the non-verbal elements. I think that all of these elements create sort of a scavenger hunt for the reader. When one attempts to put them all together they seem confusing, but when added to the remainder of the novel, you get an incredibly intricate story that enslaves the readers mind long after they put down the book. I know that I found myself constantly trying to add up the clues and pictures and characters and understand exactly what is going on in the novel. So many characters are hidden in shadows when they are first introduced: the renter, the man who cannot speak, (who ironically happen to be the same man) the woman he meets, and Ron. All of these characters are people we learn about like we would in real life, one step at a time. Another thing that makes me think that the novel creates a scavenger hunt for the reader is things like the red pen, the envelope, even some of the things that create Oskar’s own scavenger hunt.
Do all of us as readers actually find the big X? If the novel is a scavenger hunt, what is the treasure, and what, ultimately is Oskar’s treasure in his final scavenger hunt?
The non-verbal elements in the book create a sense of imagination and creativity. As the pictures turn the wheels of the reader’s imaginations they also illustrate Oskar’s thoughts. Although the pictures and blank pages seem irrelevant, as Casey R said, the reader later discovers what they symbolize. For instance, when you first see the door knobs and locks, they are more of a confusing element than anything of much importance. However, when you read on, you find that the locks are Oskar’s connection to his dead father through a key he found in a vase he broke. Casey R states, “I do not believe that any of the non-verbal elements in the story are necessary for the reader to understand it and get the full meaning out of it.” I could not disagree more. Megan B makes an outstanding point that argues Casey’s irrelevancies. She mentioned that since the story is unpredictable, the pictures clarify a lot of what Oskar is thinking or saying. Without the pictures, the reader would have no clear visual image of what it is that Oskar is trying to convey through his thoughts. Also, I agree with Alex P and her statement about having a more emotional connection with a picture of somebody falling out of a building than a written explanation of somebody falling out of a building. Ultimately, I think that the pictures and blank pages add to the verbal elements in the story and help depict the characters and create a stronger emotional bond between the reader and the book.
When I was reading through the book, I found myself constantly waiting for a picture to appear. The pictures gave me something to look forward to in the novel. It kept me on edge, and when a picture did come up, I was excited about it. The pictures in the book helped me bond with the book emotionally. It creates a stronger connection with the reader and the book. Personally, I found that the picture helped me understand what Oskar was thinking and telling us in the book. There were some parts in the book where I could not picture what Oskar was describing and then a few pages later, there was a picture of what he was explaining before. They were all meaningful and all had a purpose for being in the book. The pictures are there to help the reader understand what is going on in Oskar’s mind and they would not be in the novel if they did not have certain significance. Like Katie W said earlier, Foer “would not waste valuable page space on supposedly random pictures.” They are there for a reason.
The non-verbal elements are not only the “visual memories” (Lisa M W) of Oscar, they are his mind laid out for all to see. If he were to open up his brain and have the reader examine him, the pictures and words would show them his life as he sees it. This novel a story of a life; it is not seen, it is lived. A person’s life is not something a passer-by can steal and call their own. The only way for a person to truly know another person’s life is to live it. With this novel, the reader comes as close as possible to living Oscar’s life with the non-verbal elements. As previously shown, the reader realizes Oscar is a very visual person. He remembers things with pictures and objects and therefore we read this story with pictures and objects.
It is also believed that even the verbal elements let the reader look through the eyes of Oscar. I believe Oscar not only is a visual thinker, but a verbal thinker also. For what is a word but a combination of abstract symbols? Oscar can remember the many messages his father left him, word for word. On pages 208- 216 Oscar annotates a letter simply to remember certain words on the page. He thinks in words, so the verbal elements become non-verbal elements in Oscar’s mind. This is much like his mute grandfather who lived his life is words. His thoughts were in words, not pictures or images. He explains “I would take the book to bed with me and read through the pages of my life” (18). He lived on those pages.
So the reader now realizes every page in this novel contains the non-verbal elements needed to live as closely to Oscar’s life as possible; if only for the time they read it. As Rebecca N W says “They [the non-verbal elements] are there for a reason” and that reason is for us to live Oscar’s life. To walk in another’s shoes is to learn the life they live; that is exactly what Foer wants the reader to do – learn.
I have to agree with what Rebecca N said about the pictures. "The pictures gave me something to look forward to in the novel." I agree with this because I am personally a visual learner and actually seeing the items and pictures that are important to Oskar helped me to relate to him better. Like Lisa M said, it is almost like a seperate treasure hunt for the reader to piece together Oskar's hunt.
This novel has many twists and turns and becomes confusing with the changing of narrators. The inserted pictures and annotations help the reader to pick out what's really important and better understand the events of the story. Even the grandfather's thoughts and words all jumbling together into a black mass (284)is a visuall tool to show how confused his thoughts and memories had become.
Out of all of these visual aids though, I feel the most important one is the segment at the end of the novel. This series of photos show the man falling back into the building. This is important because of the emotional connection Oskar feels towards the pictures and should be understood by the reader. Oskar never really did find out exactly how his father died. With the possibility of him jumping from the building, playing the photos backwards brings everything back to a time where events in Oksar's life seemed logical. The impact the non-verbal elements have on Oskar definitely play a significant role in the novel.
As I was reading through the previous posts under this topic, I noticed that there are basically two general groups. There is the first group or "side" which consists of students such as Megan B and Molly R who agree that "The pictures don't necessarily make sense to us because we are older have a different thought process than a child would." This group also seems to think that the pictures are there for no reason in particular, or are there for Oskar's benefit. My question for this group is: Why would the author include pictures for the benefit of a fictional character when it is the reader he is concerned about?
The second group consists of students such as Katie W, Rebecca N, and Gina H who all basically agree that Foer (or any author for that matter) would not use a picture to simply take-up space and that they are significant. The pictures- to this group- represent something. The "something" they represent is arguable, but the base of each student's contribution is that the non-verbal elements exist for more than a break from the text or Oskar's benefit.
I stand in firm agreement with the second group. Not to sound horribly cliché, but "a picture is worth a thousand words" and 1,000 is a fairly large number. To put it in perspective, Foer uses about 70 pages of his novel to display about 70 page-sized images. That is around 70,000 words. Now I of course cannot speak for everyone, but I would much rather glance at 70 images to understand a point than read another 70,000 words. And I am sure that Foer (and by extent, Oskar) also finds it easier to simply pop in a picture than describe 70 examples at 1,000 words apiece. I am not however saying that the pictures are there out of laziness, I am simply trying to make their importance known and put it in the way I saw fit.
I continue my argument by re-stating my earlier question: Why would the author include pictures for the benefit of a fictional character when it is the reader he is concerned about? The first group argued that the pictures were there because Oskar needs them in order to put his experiences in perspective to himself. And while I agree that the pictures are there for perspective, I completely disagree with the idea that they are for Oskar's benefit. Oskar is not the one reading the story, we are and Foer is not re-telling Oskar's life to Oskar, he is narrating it for us, the reader. So, in conclusion, the pictures are there for a reason which I believe to be arguable.
This discussion has become very restricted to solely the images and other non-verbal elements in Oskar’s life. Although even my last post focused the connections between some of the pictures and Oskar’s memories and experiences, not all of the pictures relate back discuss some of the elements that are not related to Oskar’s experiences. The chapters alternate so that only every other one of them is written by Oskar. This leaves almost half of the book unexplored. In his graphic essay “Show and Tell,” Scott McCloud explains that there are many different types of ways words and pictures can combine, “perhaps the most common type” being where the are interdependent. In this form, “words and pictures go hand in hand to convey an idea that neither could convey alone” (McCloud 744). This is particularly true for “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” because each picture, or in this case non-verbal element, lends something new to the development of the story and requires exploration. Lisa M. was correct by stating that the novel is similar to a “scavenger hunt for the reader,” and any detective would be remiss to ignore half of his clues.
Among others, there is one pairing of elements and words, not at all related to Oskar, which I found incredibly interdependent. When Oskar’s grandfather is explaining in a letter the notion he and his wife created of “a Nothing Place” versus “Something” within their apartment, he mentions the door between the guest room and the hallway. He explains, “the side of the door that faced the guest room was Nothing, the side that faced the hallway was Something, the knob that connected them was neither Something nor Nothing” (110). Within the same chapter appears the front side of a door knob (115) and the backside of this same doorknob (134). These images are placed so that a reader could hold up those two pages and those in between them to create a resemblance of a door, with the front on one side and the back on the other. If these are taken to be the two sides of the guest bedroom door, then the pages between them would be “neither Something nor Nothing.” Almost exactly halfway in that span of pages are the blank pages (121-123) that Oskar’s grandfather sees when he intends to read Oskar’s grandmother’s “My Life” (120). With this in mind, “neither Something nor Nothing” takes on a new significance. Her written story is not Something because it is not actually any written words, nor is it Nothing because it is hours and hours of work on her part to compile everything she remembers. For her, it is Something. For him, it is Nothing. The images of the doorknobs and the blank pages compile to create an additional meaning for the story Oskar’s grandfather tells. Alone, a couple doorknobs and some blank pages would have no meaning. Still, the story Oskar’s grandfather tells depends completely upon the reader’s understanding of the double significance of those “blank” pages and this understanding is found through examining the images.
Did anyone else find any hidden meanings with these same images or others? I am interested in seeing what people have found on their scavenger hunt.
Source:
“Show and Tell,” while originally appearing in McCloud’s “Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art” (1993), was found in The Language of Composition, pages 738 to 750
Oskar, in general, has a detachment from how a normal child would act. He is way mature in some areas, and not in some. When you take those images, it's like a picture book. Maybe, that is how Oskar wants to communicate. In life, we learn by seeing things. The image put into our head by those images is the exact image the author is wanting us to see.
Maybe like a picture book. When a child sees a picture, it points to it and then will say, "Apple" or whatever is in the picture. This book had many of the little graphics, or short sentences on each word to make us see something. That something could be anything, but the author wanted those images, or words to be seen. It is interesting he used PHOTOS in a fiction story because typically a photo is used in a Non-fiction story. These weren't just "pictures" it was actual photography.
The short sentences was something that pulled an interest to me. I write in short fragmented sentences, and to me, it makes more sense that way. I as able to understand what the author was trying to get across.
The photos in the novel not only showed the reader how Oskar saw the world, but helped the reader to understand someone who wanted to experience and understand how the world around him worked. The first major set of photos, pages 53 - 67, help to create a visual for what is running through his mind.
In most of the pictures, I saw a connection to something. For instance, the keys (53) fall back to the locksmith and the mystery key in general. The snapshot of a play, Hamlet, in which he is acting in (55). The paper airplane could possibly connect with the airplane and the twin towers (56). The astronaut with a France patch on his arm, possibly relating back to his love for French culture. These images, in no sort of order, make it difficult to follow his thinking pattern.
Oskar finds the smallest things and makes them into something bigger which help to solve his mystery. On pages 47 - 49 he describes his experience in the art store where he finds his father's name written on a pad of paper in colored ink. The reader is able to see how Oskar's mind works once again as he talks to the clerk, and finds out that writing a color in another color is difficult. Through these experiences, Oskar gets a better understanding of who is father was and is able to appreciate him more than ever.
As Kristin W mentions that the doorknobs and blank pages is found through "examining the images." Along with this, it shows a thought process. The blank pages, numbers, and images are another way Foer chose to help the reader understand the characters in the book as difficult as they may be to follow at times. This furthers the mystery. As the cliche statement goes, "showing is better than telling," which I think is exactly what Foer was trying to accomplish.
I was thinking of how to describe Foer's novel; it obviously has its differences from a typical novel. I thought that 'eccentric' was a fitting description for this book. Eccentric is defined in one way as "deviating from the norm, as in conduct; odd; unconventional." (yourdictionary.com) The non-verbal elements definitely contribute to the eccentricity of this book. In most typical novels, there are not random photographs, visuals, pen marks, blank pages and such. These things found in Foer's story are definitely unconventional. They are also odd, because personally, they caught me by surprise when I came across the first one in the story on page 4, then the first full page photograph on page 29.
To Oskar, he is an atheist, so seeing is believing for him. Maybe these visuals and other non-verbal elements are comforting to him, as the reader can sense on page 52, when he says, "I pulled 'Stuff That Happened to Me' from the space between the bed and the wall, and I flipped through it for a while, wishing that I would finally fall asleep." For many little kids, they listen to lullaby music, or they get rocked when they have trouble sleeping. For Oskar, it is looking at these visuals that helps him fall asleep. With that said, perhaps these non-verbal elements in the book are sprinkled in there to give the reader a taste of Oskar; maybe Foer wanted the reader to not only imagine things in the book, but to see them too, and believe, just like Oskar. Kari P said something similar,"Foer chose to help the reader understand the characters in the book as difficult as they may be to follow at times... As the cliche statement goes, 'showing is better than telling,' which I think is exactly what Foer was trying to accomplish." That is just an idea.
I agree with Kari P F's idea that the photos in the book are Oskar's thought process. Instead of writing down everything running through his mind, Foer just inserts a picture as everyone has said, "a picture is worth a thousand words." I also think it's a good point when Kristen N P said, "...maybe Foer wanted the reader to not only imagine things in the book, but to see them too, and believe, just like Oskar." By having these pictures, we are feeling and thinking just like Oskar. And although it may take a moment to see how they connect to the story, they all really do make sense, it's just from a different perspective.
I also like what Lisa M W said about the photos being like a picture book. Normally a picture book is imaginative or a fantasy--they present things that do not happen. But in Oskar's book "Stuff That Happened to Me," it has all happened and he finds this lulling because for Oskar, as Kristin N P said, "seeing is believing." He does not believe in fantasy because there is no proof and these photos are proof that this has happened. Even in a fictious story, these photos prove what Oskar believes. And the photos are there for us to believe what Oskar does too.
Sorry to drag this conversation back to the pictures, but after reading Lisa F's response, I was reminded of a very interesting passage from "Cannery Row" by John Steinbeck. Lisa stated that "In life, we learn by seeing things. . . . Maybe like a picture book. When a child sees a picture, it points to it and then will say, "Apple" or whatever is in the picture.". This immediately reminded me of the infamous chapter two from "Cannery Row". Steinbeck writes:
The word is a symbol and a delight which sucks up men and scenes, trees, plants, factories, and Pekinese. Then the Thing becomes the Word and back to Thing again, but warped and woven into a fantastic pattern. The Word sucks up Cannery Row, digests it and spews it out, and the Row has taken the shimmer of the green world and the sky-reflecting seas. (14)
This passage is simply saying that our brains do not think in "words" so to speak. Our brains take in (or "hear") words, process them, and turns them into images. For example, when someone says the word "dog", the letters "d" "o" and "g" do not scroll across your brain. Instead, a picture of a dog pops up. The word becomes a "thing". This same process works in reverse when we are trying to speak. Images, instances, and even imagination take over your mind and your mouth rapidly converts them into words, phrases, and stories.
So, based off of a statement from Lisa and a passage from "Cannery Row", I believe that the pictures are there so that we can interact with Oskar. We see what he sees and are then better connected to the scenarios surrounding the image.
One non-verbal element I was drawn to the most was not an image. In fact, it was the three and a half very blank pages (120-123). The pages I am referring to were supposed to be Thomas Schell Sr.'s wife's life story. Instead, the clicking he had been hearing for years, was simply her tapping the space bar. My question is simply this: why? Thomas was expecting to read about when "she was born, her first love, when she last saw her parents," he
"should have seen her kissing somebody" (120), but instead, he saw nothing. All we know is that her eyes aren't "crummy", so it had to have been intentional. Was she looking for a reaction? Was it a search for pitty? Was she expecting her husband to speak? Or maybe she left them blank for him to fill-out? Maybe she wants him to write her life's story.
I’ll begin by going back to what Christen N P said about Oskar being “an atheist, so seeing is believing for him. Maybe these visuals and other non-verbal elements are comforting to him.” Everyone has ways of being comforted, whether it’s listening to lullaby’s, like Christen N said, or reading a book. Everyone is different and everyone is comforted in different ways. These pictures and reminders of what has happened in to him in his life are what comfort him. By adding in these photos, we not only see what Oskar describes to us, but we are able to emotionally connect with him on a higher level. Like Molly G states, “The photos are there for us to believe what Oskar does too.” The photos are also there to show the reader what’s important and also communicates to the reader on how Oskar’s mind works. When using words, the affect that the author wants may not be as strong as the author would like, so pictures are added to get the full affect and meaning across to the reader.
all of the previous posts on this page by this name are alexandra p w. thank you
I very much like the idea Rebecca N W portrays when she states “Everyone is different and everyone is comforted in different ways. These pictures and reminders of what has happened to him in his life are what comfort him.” I agree that Oskar is comforted by some of these images, but how much comfort can come from a flip book showing what could be his father’s death? I think the images are put in this novel to show the thought process of Oskar. I view this novel as more of a personal journal Oskar writes to himself. It is a way of expressing himself in ways he cannot do verbally; he needs his life written out on a page to understand how he really feels about things. He sticks pictures inside of this memory book to remember and understand the events in his life. Oskar has a thought process much like I do and I can relate to him on a very personal level. Someone like me has to organize and write everything they’re thinking down to deal with everyday life. This type of thought process is complicated to understand for anyone who tries to read every thought in someone’s head. That is why some pictures are not explained until later in the novel – it makes perfect sense in Oskar’s mind.
I do not think a journal of this sort would necessarily bring comfort to the person writing it, but it brings understanding and relief to get out everything that is on their mind. That is why his journal is titled “my feelings” (75). Oskar needs his feelings on paper so he can logically figure out what to do next. The images in this book also help with this way of dealing with things by literally showing and reminding him what to feel and do with his life. It is a very helpful tool for anyone needing to express themselves in ways they cannot seem to do otherwise.
I love Savannah M’s connection to “Cannery Row”. A word becoming a thing in our minds is a very important concept to consider when reading the words and looking at the pictures in “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”. Even in the interview with the author, Foer mentions how when he writes a word, each reader pictures the word differently. He says, “So when writing you use the word “tree.” Four letters. Very, very short word. Fits a couple millimeters on a page. But in the reader’s mind it becomes a kind of idealized version of a tree, and that tree is different for each person who reads the book and because of that a book is customized for each person”. Every person who reads this book is going to picture the events differently. This also connects to the pictures in the book. When we see a picture we can all see multiple meanings within that picture so how can we possibly agree on a single meaning? How can we even determine the significance of the pictures if we all see something different? Considering that Foer himself says that we will all interpret his book differently, there is not one meaning for the pictures. We all see something different and connect them to the story in our own way. It seems to me that Foer put the pictures in for this very reason. He wants us to find our own meanings and relate them to the book in our own personal way.
I completely agree with Rebecca when she says, "pictures are added to get the full affect and meaning across to the reader". This makes complete and total sense. When I was first skimming through the book, the pictures confused me. I was unsure how they would fit into an adult novel. My first thought was that I had not read a picture book since 3rd grade! As I began reading, I found that I would love to see more books that have this sort of non-verbal element tied into the thoughts and words. To me this is what made the book complete. Without this element, the story and the reader’s view of Oskar would be completely different. Foer used these pictures in a very effective way and even though at points they were confusing, they all tied in at one point or another. Although I would like to see more books like this, I am not sure if it would work as well as it did in this story with a young boy named Oskar. With his life and his thought processes, even the pictures that never seem to fit end up fitting.
Oskar is a visual learner. That's obviously why so many "photographs, cards, colors, pen marks, [and] white space" occur (Pruett, Webb, Friesen). The overall affect this has on the reader, although at times confusing, helps one understand how Oskar thinks as well as how he is dealing with everything that is happening around him. Without all these constituents, the story would be different. They make the story represent Oskar. They allow the reader to see exactly what is or was going through his mind as they read. In the novel, Oskar is putting together a mystery, and in a way, all the visual parts have to be put together by the reader to understand his mystery.
Although the "pictures never seem to end up fitting" (Christina W), they make sense to Oskar. They fit together and have a meaning in his mind, making it even more so his story. Foer didn't create most of these images for the reader to piece together like a puzzle, but so the reader could begin to understand Oskar. As the book goes on, the odd images become a part of the story. Without them, the story is simply not the same; not Oskar's. Whether they are understood or not, is not the point. They add an extra way to make the reader think, something that most books do not have, making it original, just as Oskar himself is.
Actually, I completely agree with Kari when she states, "The overall affect [the pictures, whites spaces etc.] has on the reader, although at times confusing, helps one understand how Oskar thinks as well as how he is dealing with everything that is happening around him...They make the story represent Oskar." I firmly believe that the pictures we see are supposed to be pictures directly out of Oskar's "Stuff That Happened to Me" (52) and Grandpa's journal. In fact, not only are we supposed to feel like we are looking directly at these journals, we are supposed to notice the progression in the series of pictures. The series of different locks and doorknobs (which we know that Grandpa took pictures of) occur on the very first page after the reviews, page 29, page 115, page 212, and page 265. The first, being a zoomed-in picture of a key hole progresses into a picture of the same lock only with a half-turned key in it, which then progresses into a doorknob with a key hole that appears to not lead anywhere, which finally leads to a doorknob without a key hole and back to a doorknob and key hole reversal. This is quite intriguing, the significance of the key hole, especially since grandpa offers to "hide in the coat closet and look through the keyhole" (276). The symbolism of a keyhole, either in tattoo art, or Middle Eastern rug art, appears to be that a "key" or answer is missing [(Zonis) and (What)]. Therefore, because there is no picture of a key fully turned and a door swinging open, we know that Grandpa never found his answer (at least not while he had his camera).
Another progression of pictures is that of the body falling, occurring on 59, 62, 205, 327, 329, 331, 333, 335, 337, 339, 341, 343, 345, 347, 349, 351, 353, 355, and 357. This series begins with a body clearly falling near the top of the page, the next picture is a zoomed-in picture of the body. Page 205 has a picture of the body closer to the bottom of the page. Then, from page 327 to 357, there are ten pictures of the body falling then either rising, or un-falling. If we consider the body is rising, we can assume that this is representative of the person rising, much like an angel or spirit, to heaven. However, because Oskar is an atheist and this is, after all, "Stuff That Happened to [Him]" (52), we must assume the body is un-falling. This might be able to be considered part of Oskar's mourning process. Instead of finishing the viewing of the body crashing to the ground and clearly dying, Oskar sees the body in reverse. The body comes to a certain point and instead of continuing its fall, it goes in reverse back to a time when Oskar's father was alive and all was normal.
My sources were:
What is the symbolism of a keyhole tattoo?
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_symbolism_of_a_keyhole_tattoo
Zonis
http://www.mostly-glass.com/Artists/Zonis/zonis_missing_key.htm
I would like to change the subject to the cover of the book since this doesn't seem to have been discussed very much. As we all have probably noticed, the cover of the book is set up to be a hand with the title and the author's name inside of it. The reader is made to wonder what the importance of the hand is or what this story could possibly be about. I personally chose to read this book over the other simply because of the cover. I know not to 'judge a book by its cover,' but the cover is what really interested me.
Last summer a few of us read "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time" by Mark Haddon. The cover of this book was a red base with a black poodle upside-down in the center. This cover really gets readers wondering what the purpose of that upside-down poodle is. We later find out that it is related to the story because Winston, the main character's neighbor's dog, was killed.
Getting back to our book, readers have to wonder what the hand could stand for. After reading the story, readers find the significance of the Grandfather's yes and no hands (17) (picture 260-261). On his left is tatooed the word 'yes' and on the right 'no'. While looking at the cover again, readers will notice it is a left, 'yes' hand. On the contrary, the back cover shows the same hand reversed to make it a right, 'no' hand. "I signify 'book' by peeling open my clapped hands, every book, for me, is the balance of YES and NO..." (17). The grandfather states this showing that 'yes' and 'no' have an important balance as opposites.
So what exactly is the purpose of the visual element of the cover? Is it the balance between 'yes' and 'no'? Could it also represent events in Oskar's life shown by the wrinkles on a person's hands? A picture is worth a thousand words afterall so its meaning could vary. I would like to see other readers' views on this topic.
Jaclyn S brings up an extremely important non-verbal element. I love her comparison to the grandfather’s hands, and it really got me thinking about the covers significance. The hands do seem to represent the grandfather’s hands, but like the pictures, they may have multiple meanings.
One of the main themes of the book is communication. This is being discussed on another blog, but it is very important when determining the significance of the cover. Hands are a main form of communication, whether you use them to write a letter, or in the grandfather’s case, to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. The grandfather uses his hands to write his words, and he also uses many hand signals that only the grandmother can understand. Hands are used to show that you can communicate through your actions, not just your words. The whole novel is centered around communicating in different ways. Keeping this in mind, when I look at the cover, I see the grandfather’s hands and his only way to communicate. It is almost as if the hands are holding the book together. Jaclyn asks, “So what exactly is the purpose of the visual element of the cover? Is it the balance between 'yes' and 'no'? Could it also represent events in Oskar's life shown by the wrinkles on a person's hands?” I think these two meanings can both be true. If the ‘yes’ and ‘no’ hands are holding the book together then what is in between? It may be both the wrinkles of Oskar’s life, and ‘yes’ and ‘no’ combined.
In this story, there are a lot of different forms of non-verbal elements. Obviously the pictures that everyone has been talking about are, but they portray other meanings than just being pictures in a book. Pages 63-67 are all pictures. I think they represent everything Oskar is thinking about and how he is dealing with it. The array of pictures show Oskar's knowledge about the world and everything around him.
Kristin T states that "It is almost as if the hands are holding the book together". This brings up a very interesting point and I agree completely with her. Throughout the book, Foer talks about hands all the time. The grandfather uses his hands to speak, write, and communicate.
I would like to go quite a ways back to one of Jaclyn’s comments about the flipbook segment at the very end of the book. Here we see several pictures that seem to create a man falling up towards the World Trade Center building. She said, “Playing the photos backwards brings everything back to a time where events in Oksar's life seemed logical.” I cannot agree more with this statement. I believe the non-verbal flipbook at the end of the novel is perhaps the cleverest way to end the book. On page 325, Oskar says, “I ripped the pages out of the book. I reversed the order, so that the last one was first, and the first one was last. When I flipped through them, it looked like the man was floating up through the sky.” Just as Keaton said, I pictured a spirit making its way to heaven. In a way, I believe it summarizes the story as a whole. Oskar is left to face the ugly unknown which is probably one of the hardest things to deal with. Not knowing how a loved one died would keep me wondering for the rest of my life. Foer places these pictures at the end of the novel on purpose in order to show the unbearable emptiness Oskar is left to deal with. It also concludes and informs the reader that not all stories have “fairytale endings.” Oskar invents this series of pictures because it is what he believes happened to his father on that day. This flipbook is used as a symbol of closure on his father’s death. The feeling of at least thinking he knew exactly what happened to his father was better than inventing unpleasant thoughts. The use of this non-verbal element is the perfect “slap in the face” to reality. The world is not a fairytale and tragedy is inevitable.
The series of pictures of a man “un-falling” (Keaton F) also allows us, as readers, to feel the sense of hope Oskar undergoes. Throughout his expedition, Oskar always had a burning desire in the back of his mind that there would somehow be a chance that his father was still alive. The flipbook denotes Oskar’s longing for the death to be false and is literally Oskar’s imagination wishing for his father to come back.
It’s very depressing that everyone except for Oskar has accepted the actuality of Thomas Schell’s death and are looking for ways to cope and move on from the situation while Oskar himself is still stuck in confusion between a world of fantasy and reality. He therefore denies the death and replaces the denial with hope, faith, and optimism. He refuses to believe that his father’s body is in the coffin. He screams, “It’s just an empty box!” (169). Deep down Oskar knows his father is gone, but by creating the flip book of the man falling upward it helps ease the pain and anguish of the fact that he is not coming home.
To be completely honest, the cover of this book has not even struck a chord in my mind until now. I found myself far too wrapped-up in simply reading this book and getting it over with than investigating it. And as ironic as it may be, the first thing i noticed about the book (being the cover), is actually the last thing I have decided to study. Jaclyn S wishes to know "what exactly is the purpose of the visual element of the cover? Is it the balance between 'yes' and 'no'? Could it also represent events in Oskar's life shown by the wrinkles on a person's hands?" and so do I.
After reading through Jaclyn's question(s) multiple times and doing some thinking of my own, I was in the highest degree of agreement. I believe that the book is indeed a "balance between 'yes' and 'no'". Foer’s novel is simply an extended answer. My though process was this: You can answer most of the questions under the sun with a simple "yes" or "no". However, those simple one-word responses still leave the questioner with many aspects to ponder. A scenario to personify my latter statement would be this: You are house-sitting for a neighbor. The owner calls you up half-way through the week and asks if everything is “OK”. You answer with a simple “yes”. While you know the exact condition of the house, your neighbor is in Bermuda wondering what you mean by such a short response. Said neighbor is curious to the condition of her plants, how often you feed the fish, if you have used the home for the setting of a shin-dig, etc.. So how do I apply this to the book? Well, for the sake of argument, let us just say that this novel is the answer to a question Oskar was asked. Let us just pretend that said question is “Are you coping well with the worst day of your life?”. Now Oskar has said “yes” with the cover (which is a left hand), “no” with the back cover (which is a right hand), and explained why his answers are “yes” and “no” with the story itself. The story addresses every question that could possibly be caused by a “yes” or a “no”. The story is a complete, detailed report of the condition of the house. The novel is a specific recital of the ficus’s leaves, a chart of fish feedings and the time they occurred, and a large lump sum of cash to pay off the damages from the party. Foer’s novel is what is left after an answer of “yes” or “no”. It is the epitome of “CSIQ”. In the words of Kristin T, “It is almost as if the hands are holding the book together”. The “yes” and “no‘s” of this world are what keep it spinning. They leave things open for interpretation, they create room for imagination, and they allow freedom. I also believe this is why Grandma “loves” Thomas so much. He is intriguing. He is a mystery. He makes asking questions fun because she can invent most of the answer (Some of his answers don‘t even make sense like when they are both communicating by pointing to previous statements in his daybook on pages I can‘t find to save my life . . .). In conclusion, I have found that the book is the three possible ways you can answer a question, “yes”, “no”, or “Your house is fine Mrs. Neighbor. I water your shrubs at both 7 o‘ clocks on the dot, I feed your fish after I give the greenery a drink, and I only threw a small get-together- Jimmy broke your vase, but I got him to cough-up the cash for it . . .”.
To talk about the book cover;
"We all have that burning question about what happens if we lose somebody we love, especially if we lose them tragically. We wonder what fear was going on, we wonder if we could have reached out and touched them, held their hand, looked in their eyes, been there."
I found this quote through a quick search that I did. I honestly think it connects right to Oskar. He lost his father tragically, and the cover of that book is reaching out to something. Oskar's hand maybe? Trying to reach to hold something. Stop his dad from what he's doing? Everyone who loses someone does always have that thought, "WHAT COULD I HAVE DONE." The answer most likely will be, nothing. Oskar in this book has trouble letting go of his father's tragic loss. I'm not saying in any way to forget the tragic loss completely, but at some point you have to move on from that.
My stepfather tragically lost his ex wife and two daughters 12 years ago in a horrible accident, and he was able to move on. He let go.
To move on and be happy, or to forgive, you have to let go, not forget, but let go. The hand on this cover is open, it's letting go of something. Oskar eventually excepts the fact his father is gone.
The idea that the hands could represent letting go (Lisa F), is probably exactly what is “holding the book together” (Kristin T). Hands obviously play a huge role in the novel and represent the struggle between “yes” and “no.” However, Lisa F’s point that they could be there to stop something, hold on to something, or reach out to something simplifies them. Throughout, Oskar is looking for something. He is looking for the not only the lock for the key, but to understand his father better; therefore, reaching out to something.
People often use their hands to communicate what they’re saying. This is not only seen in sign language, but when people talk with their hands. In this novel, Oskar struggles with communicating with his family and others. He is forced to step outside his comfort zone, just to solve the mystery. The hands could represent communication, his reaching towards it.
Oskar searches for answers. He wants to know the whole story, and he doesn’t want anything to come between him and those answers. He misses his father, true, but his main journey is to understand, not to think about what happened. The hands could represent his “letting go” and his “reaching out” (Lisa F) to something new. He grows as a character throughout, and the fact that the hands are straight-out, as if looking for something, is different than them being clenched in a fist. He is able to open up; the open hand could signify this. If it were in a fist or holding on to something it could represent him not being able to move on from this, or holding back.
Sometimes the non-verbal elements speak louder than the actual spoken words. I for one got goose bumps when I was looking through the blank pages that his grandmother wrote her life on. Even though his grandfather knew that there was no ink in the type writer, he let her keep narrating her story, haveing the expectation to someday read her life. It symbolizes that you sometimes have to look deeper into something to find what it's actually trying to say.
It is interesting to me that Oskar's grandfather, who is mute, can communicate better than Oskar. This relates to what Kari P was saying about the hands representing reaching out for communication. As a mute, Oskar's grandfather must be constantly reaching out to people. If he does not reach out, he cannot get his point across and he cannot survive. Oskar can speak perfectly, even in French, and he is the one who cannot reach out to people. This tells me that Foer believes that nonverbal communication forces people to reach out to others and is actually more effective than speaking out loud. When Oskar's grandfather is leaving his wife, Foer writes about the last exchange between the two of them, saying, "'Go to the airport,' she said, I touched her chest, then pointed her hand out toward the world, then pointed her hand at her chest, 'I know,' she said, 'Of course I know that.' I held her hands and pretended we were behind an invisible wall, or behind the imaginary painting, our palms exploring its surface, then, at the risk of saying too much, I held one of her hands over my eyes, and the other over her eyes, 'You are too good to me,' she said" (135). From this it is clear that Oskar's grandmother and grandfather can communicate far better than Oskar can communicate with other people even though Oskar's grandfather is mute and his grandmother has bad eyes. It appears that communication works best when people have a disability. This gives the two something to relate to, and therefore actually improves communication.
I would have to disagree with Anne A. "It is interesting to me that Oskar's grandfather, who is mute, can communicate better than Oskar...he is the one who cannot reach out to people." In reality Oskar reaches out to a multitude of people. For example, the first several listings of people with the last name Black. Mr. black, who becomes his friend and accomplice. His grandfather, who he reaches out to help him dig up his fathers grave. And most importantly his father himself. In the words of Kari P he reaches out to "understand his father better." The quest to solve the mystery was all an attempt to reach out and understand his father better. Reaching out is a huge factor in communicating, and Oskar has quite obviously done it.
Now it has been brought up that the cover resembles "letting go" and "reaching out." (Lisa F) Although I do believe this to be true, I cannot help but to ponder if the left hand being on the front and the right hand being on the back is at all relevant. The grandfather stated that, "I went to a tattoo parlor and had YES written onto the palm of my left hand, and NO onto my right palm." This being said the book seemingly starts with a "yes" and ends with a "no". Why would Foer choose to have the left hand on the front?
Cicily C brings up an extremely important question as to why Foer starts with a left hand on the front cover. The grandfather's left hand has the 'YES' on it while the right hand has a 'NO'(260-261). To me, it seems like any right usually seems like a 'YES' and any left seems like a 'NO'. So, why would Foer choose to switch them? Lisa F mentioned "letting go" and "reaching out". This could be somehow talking about that in the beginning of the story (the left hand) Oskar is letting go of anything he wants to forget. Then, by the end of the story (the right hand) he had reached out to many others in hopes of finding what he needed to. Starting with a 'YES' but ending with a 'NO' could also mean that maybe Oskar didn't exactly fulfill everything he wanted to.
Savannah M brings up a perfect scenario about just answering “yes” or “no”. These two words would not tell your neighbor anything if she asked how her house was doing. At one point in the novel, Oskar asks his grandfather why he chose to tattoo “yes” and “no” on his hands. The grandfather says, “It’s made things easier. Instead of writing yes and no all the time, I can show my hands”. Oskar asks, “But why just ‘yes’ and ‘no’? What about ‘I’ll think about it?’ and ‘probably’ and ‘it’s possible’?” (257). Oskar questions this because he knows that “yes” and “no” doesn’t really tell you anything. He wonders why there is no “maybe”. If “yes” and “no” doesn’t tell you anything, then what is the significance of the cover? If the hands on the cover are holding the book together, are all the “maybes” in between? I think that life is one big “maybe”. There is nothing about life that can be answered with a “yes” or “no”. The hands are hypothetically holding Oskar’s life between them so, is the balance between “yes” and “no” just a big “maybe”?
I would also like to point out the colors of the hands on the cover. The “yes” hand is a dark red color and the “no” hand is almost transparent. This makes it look like the right “yes” hand is over powering the left “no” hand. Any thoughts on why that is?
Many blogers have been tiring to figure out the meaning of the non-verbal elements right when they see them. Most of them are referenced throughout the book or reference a part of the book themselves. In the beginning of the novel Oskar talks about how his father would mark the mistakes in the New York Times in red pen (9). Later in the novel there is a letter titled Why I’m Not Where You Are 4/12/78 and this whole letter is marked up in red ink (208-216). This may seem random, but Oskar’s grandfather wrote this letter. Foer wanted to make a connection between father and son. Also is the beginning of the book the reader learns that Oskar’s grandfather got yes and no tattooed on his hands (85). This makes since because he is loosing all of his words, but later in the novel there are pictures of his hands (260-261). This brings the reader back to the beginning of the novel. Foer is tiring to keep the reader thinking about what they have already read. When Oskar visits Abby Black for the first time he asks for a picture of her, but she only lets him take a picture of the back of his head (98-99). Then when Oskar meets her husband there is a picture of the back of his head (294). Nothing is said about Oskar asking for it. This again brings the reader back to an earlier point in the book. Going back quite a few posts to Kristin W post where she talks about the doorknobs and the empty space in them. This is a very interesting point. All of the non-verbal elements seemed random, but when they were all put together, they made since. The reader just has to read farther to understand the real meaning. This seems to be true for most of the non-verbal elements throughout the book. Like Lisa M said, “The reader has to be the detective”.
It is very true that the reader has to do some dectective work to fully understand the story. the question is is where should readers look? This relates to Oskar's treasure hunt in Central Park at the beginning of the story. Oskar doesn't know exactly what he is looking for nor where to look for it. As a result he imporvises by digging up the metal objects. We as readers need to do the same to solve the puzzle of this story.
Relating back to the non-verbal elements of the novel, I would like to address the pictures of the Blacks' heads (98 and 294). Abby Black asks that only the back of her head be photographed. However, nowhere in the book does it say anything about taking William Black's picture. As readers we just need to assume that this is William Blacks picture because it would make sense considering his ex-wife's picture was taken earlier.
The question is though what is the significance of these pictures. Oskar had said it seemed like Abby Black was hiding something when he talked to her. Mabye by just showing the back of their heads it is keeping safe the scerets that Abby holds. The to heads could even represent the balance of yes and no like the hands. Readers can also notice the events that take place between these pictures. The heads could even mark the beginning and end of Oskar's search. If the heads had been closer together, it may not have taken eight months to complete his search. As I said before, readers have to do their own detective work and improvising to fully understand this story.
All previous comments by Jaclyn S V are actually Jaclyn S P. I don't know why my old account name was used
Continuing on the subject of the two pictures of Abby Black and her husband's heads, I liked Jacklyn's idea about how these pictures in a way symbolize the beginning and end to Oskar's search. Abby Black is only the second Black that Oskar visits on his search for the lock, obviously very early in his quest. I think after he met Abby Black and asked her about the key, is when Oskar completely devoted himself to finding the lock for it. And obviously after Mr. Black has explained to Oskar what the key was his search comes to an end. I am wondering what these pictures could mean, what does it mean that they are of the backs of the Black's heads and not their faces? Abby Black and her husband play a big role in Oskar's search so it makes sense that they are pictured in the book. But why would Foer choose to picture the back's of their heads?
I would like to adress the white spaces in the book. This technique appears to have many effects on the mood and time of this novel. These blank spaces effect the mood by giving the reader a feeling of nothingness. As if the writing on the page were a story all its own. It makes the understand what is going on in Oskar's mind.
In the blog about time in this novel, we were told to attept to find instances where time stood still. This reader finds this to be one of those times. The reader can visualize the blankness inside young Oskar's head with the voice telling him these things. The feeling of nothingness may also be an expression of Oskar's inner lonliness.
Everyone reads a book differently. We all create different mental images so of course the "Detective work" we do it going to be done so we can understand create what is needed to understand.
"All of the non-verbal elements seemed random, but when they were all put together, they made since. The reader just has to read farther to understand the real meaning"-Kelsey B
Random? No, no. Why would an author put in random pictures with no correlation to the story? That makes no sense. Every picture correlated with a sentence Oskar had at one point stated. For example: The picture of the turtles and when the grandma is talking,(pg. 83)"I took off my clothes.
I went to the couch."
It's all related.
A book like this the answers aren't just handed to you. Obviously you have to read into the text. A person could pull a different meaning out of reading different metaphors, similes, blatant comparisons, etc. I honestly think it depends on how the author takes all the talk into consideration.
It is true that everyone has a different perspective about the book. However, I have to disagree with Lisa F when she says, "Random? No, no. Why would an author put in random pictures with no correlation to the story? That makes no sense." In my opinion Foer uses the non-verbal elements in the beginning with no explaination for the simple fact that it keeps the reader interested. When I first saw the pictures on pages 53-67 I thought that they were a little strange, but they made me want to keep reading so that I could find out. i think that these elements are put in the story to spice it up and really bring the reader in so that they can gain a better understanding of the purpose and the theme of the story narrator. Anna F stated, "The non-verbal elements add to the story, it helps us better understand what the narrator is going through."
The blank pages and series of photos don't exactly make sense at first, and that makes it so much more interesting. If the author had not made the non-verbal elements into a mystery would readers still have the same interest in the novel? Would you get bored of Oskars story?
It is very interesting how Foer chose to began his novel with images instead of words. By placing the non-verbal elements in front of the traditional writing, he is highlighting their importance to the novel as a whole. Without the images, Foer’s story would not be as powerful as it is with them. As many have cited, the book cover depicts a hand, which later on in the story becomes connected to Oskar’s grandfather’s palms. The hand is a silhouette though, meaning it could be either a right palm or the back of a left hand. This ambiguity reflects the entire novel’s ability to cause the reader to constantly question the information given. Also, what caught my attention was how the words all fit within the hand, as if they are trumped by the image and of much less significance. By filling in the hand with the necessary cover information, Foer is emphasizing the hand as a whole, making it the focus of the cover. Even inside the covers, more images appear. In succession, there is a door knob, flying birds, and an apartment building. A reader must encounter these three photos before even reaching the title page, making them nearly impossible to miss. Similar to the photo of the 9/11 faller, these images appear more than once. The doorknob reappears on page 115, the birds on 165 and 166, and the apartment on 103. This repetition of images connects the entire novel back to the beginning, thus pulling it together as a whole.
Foer not only uses images and other non-verbal elements, but he also makes them the subject of attention from the beginning of the book. This focus is never lifted as the reader continues to search for the next image, the next blank page, the next splash of color, the next clue to help it all make sense. As I stated in my very first post, this keeps the reader active within the novel, instead of allowing him or her to become passive and ignore what could possibly be extremely important.
I would like to once again address just one of the pictures shown in the novel. This picture is of 'the flying birds' shown before the story and once again on pages 166-167. The flying birds is a very peaceful and uplifting picture. Seeing them fly emitts a feeling of happiness and freedom. Since the birds are shown before the story, it is possible that this is how Oskar felt before his dad died and he got 'heavy boots'.
The next time this picture is shown is when Oskar turns up Mr. Black's hearing aids and the flock of birds fly across the sky outside his window. This is another time when a character feels free and as if he could fly.
As we already know, the guest room in the grandparents house was a nothing place. The first picture in the book is of the door knob outside of the room which is the separation between 'something' and 'nothing'. The next picture is the flying birds. Could this show that this picture and all others after the door knob are 'nothing'? I would like to see other reader's views about this.
I agree with Kristin W when she says that non verbal elements keep the reader engaged in the novel. An example I found of this is the "Why I'm Not Where You Are" letter from April 12, 1978 (208-216). This letter is the one that is marked in red pen. What is interesting about this is that according to Oskar's grandmother, her son only received one letter from his father that prompted him to find his father. Oskar mentions that his father could find mistakes in everything and this letter had many. The red markings suggest that this letter is the only one that was ever received by the younger Thomas Schell. It speaks of the horrible fate of Dresden in World War II, being bombed to the ground. What confuses me, though, is that this letter would be the one Oskar's grandfather chooses to send. There are other letters that are not nearly as frightening and honest, yet the letter that is sent tells of one of the most brutal acts of violence in the book and even mentions how he won't be able to send it. In the letter, the elder Thomas Schell writes about how if he could have spoken and told Oskar's grandmother about how he refused to love everything, "maybe that would have made the impossible possible" (216). By telling his son about why he had to leave, it makes it possible for his son to understand why he had to leave, but he is not forgiven. The letter proves that because the words, "I love you, your father" are circled in red, meaning that there was a mistake in facts.
Brooke, yes the author had no explanation to the pictures, but eventually the pictures used correlate, to a sentence, a fragment, or a paragraph in the story. You're interested to keep reading because the pictures are interesting I was curious he would choose THAT exact photo. My questions were answered. The pictures make sense.
Non-Verbal elements keep us thinking in the real world everyday. Of course we're curious in the meaning behind them especially in a book. We use books to read and not use them as "picture books." When a picture appears in a "big kid" book I think we all immediately understand we are supposed to look at that picture, and it has some meaning to the book. It is in there for a reason. The pictures Foer used were in the book for a reason. As I said, they are not random photos.
I agree with Lisa F on many of her statements posted. All of the pictures in this book have something to do with the story at one point or another, you just have to pay attention. Hince the title of Oskar's folder, "Stuff That Happened To Me".
The non-verbal elements in this story portray a lot to the meaning of the book and give you images as to what the character is feeling and seeing. They not only show feeling, but secrets. A lot of the elements shown are related to Oskars quest and give you a better image of what's happening, like the picture of the back of Abby Blacks head. I'm not finished yet but there must be a reason to not see her face.
All together, there would be no purpose to have the pictures in the book if they didn't have anything to do with the story.
Ali C and Lisa F both point out that the pictures have reasons to be in the book, I agree with this. Why would the author put random pictures in the book if they have no meaning? When the reader is shown the pictures in Oskars folder, Stuff that happened to me, you are shown images of multiple things. All of the images don't make sense to me, but if you pay attnetion to what Oskar is feeling and seeing and what some of the other characters say to Oskar, most of the pictures makes sense.
Throughout the book there a few random pictures, like the picture of people riding a rollar coaster. During this part of the book Oskar is taken to an amusment park, so he took apicture of the ride and put it in his folder. Another picture is of a man falling and there is a building on the side of the picture, Oskar points out that he found a picture that he thinks might be his dad. All of the pictures make sense is you really pay attention to the book.
I agree with Brook W about all the pictures having a correlation to the story. I think Foer added in the non visual elements because he wanted to give readers the visual opportunity to see what Oskar saw throughout the story. I thought the pictures also allowed the readers to get a better understanding and feel more connected. The visual-aids, (for me at least) normally help readers get a better understanding of the book, and allow the unspoken words to be spoken.
I found the picture on page 253 to be my favorite, just because I have never been to New York, and that particular view has always been something I have wanted to see. However; I found the pictures at the end of the book, which are also shown throughout the book, the most interesting. Almost all of the pictures that are in the book were explained somewhere in the story even if it was very brief. The ones that were not really mentioned still made sense when you thought about them. Now I’m not saying the pictures did not fit in, because they definitely did, but they allowed each individual reader to interpret the pictures how they wanted to see it. Oskar did not even know what it was out of the building which makes the readers come to their own assumption. I really enjoyed the pictures and even the color. I do not recall reading a chapter book with color and pictures in a long time.
There are many non-verbal elements that add to the story. I agree with Alex P when she talks about how the pictures show what is going on in Oskar's head. It shows us rather then trying to describe what is going on. The pictures in "Stuff That Happens to Me"(53), I think are sometims random and other times they actually help ehance the story. I think some are just random things that Oskar thinks about. Others actually have meaning in what is going on in the story at that specific time. Another non-verbal element is on pages 279-284 the words start to squish together as Oskar's grandpa is trying to write everything on the pages. As it gets closer together and eventuly overlaps itself it is as confusing to us the readers as it is for Oskar's grandpa who is writing it. It is a confusing part in the book and i think Foer is trying to protray that to the reader. The non-verbal elements can enhance the story in some places and not do or mean anything in others.
I have to disagree with Corrie S. Yes I am sure that some of the pictures have a meaning to what is happening in the book, but they all do not have to mean something specific. We have to remember that Osker is only nine years old. I think Foer also put random pictures in with the pictures that mean things to remind people that Osker is only a curious, adventurious, nine year old who has a great mind and is trying to understand things that are happening in his life and just trying to find out about what he hears around him. In several cases when Oskar is visiting a Black, he hears something that he does not understand and tells himself that he will "google" it when he gets home.
Another non-verbal element is writing. Writing can mean so many different things in so many ways. One writing in the book in Oskar's “Stuff That Happened to Me” is on page 63 which says "Purple" but is written in green ink. This is reminding him of his father's name at the art supply store. Also it is foreshadowing the enveolope that says "Black" in red ink.
Another writing example is how Oskar's grandfather talks to other people. He can only communicate using worlds. Only reading words can really take away from the conversation. You are not able to hear the tone of the persons voice and tell how thay are feeling. Since the grandfather does not talk we can only tell how he feels by what he writes.
I am going back quite a few posts to the discussion about the cover. Many people have said that the hands are representing yes and no and letting go. The question about why the hand is brighter on the front than on the back was also brought up. The left hand, the “no” hand, on the cover is bright red. At the beginning of the story Oskar is very mad about his fathers death and is not ready to let go of it. At the end of the story Oskar has found closer in his fathers death and is read to let go. On the back cover the right hand, the “yes” hand, is a very faint outline. In short the hands symbolize Oskar finding closer for his fathers death.
Kristin T also brings up a great point about how in between no and yes is maybe. Oskar’s life is full of questions that cannot simply be answered yes or no, but some could be answered by maybe. Maybe also is like a mystery. When someone says maybe a person does not know the real answer and it leaves a person guessing. Throughout the novel the reader has a lot of maybes, or unanswered questions. Kristin T has a very good point about the novel being a big maybe.
Visualizing things in a book is a very important way to understand what is happening. When Foer uses the pictures he is not using them to just fill up the empty spaces. They all mean something to the book. Everyone has a different view on the pictures, though. This could mean that maybe the book says something different to every reader. To me, the hands are a way to communicate, the pictures are how Oskar feels and what he knows, and the white space shows that communication is vital to understanding things.
I love what Kristin T says about how "life is one big 'maybe'." No matter what you do in life, nothing is ever perfect or the way you want it to be. I think that the red hand on the cover could symbolize imperfection. In the beginning of the story, nothing goes the way Oskar wants it to go. Then by the end, with the almost transparent hand on the back, Oskar starts to realize that he can't make everything perfect but he can get as close as possible.
First off I want to point out that as much as all of us want to disagree with one another, every one has a different way of connecting emotionally with upsetting events. While Casey may connect better with words and Sara may connect better with picture, neither person is right or wrong. For some people the pictures help them understand the emotional aspect of a death, and some people need the words to get it. And still others need both.
Oskar’s grandmother’s life story is another interesting example of non-verbal elements. Because there are no words on the page it cannot be verbal communication but yet those countless blank pages communicate so much. The fact that her life story is blank shows how she doesn’t see significance in her life. This is very important in her relationship with Thomas Sr. because her life is one of their nothing spaces. Foer tells us about how they had spaces that were nothing spaces, spaces where nothing existed and one could be invisible. She feels invisible in her life because she feels she has done nothing significant.
I believe it was Savanah M W who mentioned a connection to Cannery row. I’ve also noticed that the way the book is organized is almost parallel to that of Cannery Row. The way the chapter’s alternate form current narration to other stories is about the same in both novels. I think that in both novels the way the book is organized is a very important non-verbal element.
I would also like to applaud Keaton F F for noticing something I would have completely passed over. The progression of the door knobs is a very subtle form of non verbal communication that is very important to the novel.
I would like to post a response to what Kelsy B said about the cover hands. I believe she was mistaken by saying the left hand is the no hand according to page 17 and the picture (260-261). It could be easily mistaken that the left would be the 'wrong' to the right (or no to the yes) because that is what human society is used to. This book for some reason seems to reverse the roles (which is fine for me because I'm left handed)!Due to this, this would mean the front cover would be the 'yes' and the back the 'no' as I said in a post a couple of days ago. The front 'yes' hand as we've noticed is red and stands out better with the back hand fading into the background.
If I were to be asked my thoughts on the hands, I would say the front hand representing yes shows the time before the story where everything was right in Oskar's life. My question is though is why the no hand is at the back. it seems like over the course of the story Oskars life is slowly approaching that 'yes' state again.
However, there is the possibility that the hands are actually palms up and showing the right on the front and left on the back. This would make more sense to end the book with a yes, but I feel the hands look more face down like they are actually holding this story between their fingers.
the aspect that caught my eye the mast was the difference between the three story tellers, Oskar, Thomas and Grandma.
Thomas has no room for spaces n his writing. There are no indents, no lines saved just for dialog. He lost his voice so now he must write everything. There is so much he has to say that eventually, his letter to his son becomes nothing but a blur of black from so many unsaid words written over each other. There is so much to say that it becomes nothing from the sheer quantity of all other things unsaid.
Grandma is the opposite. She starts out with space, awkwardly putting to much space between her sentences. Deeper into her letter she feels the need for even more nothingness in her story. Her sentences become incredibly short, no more then fifteen words long, for the most part. And after ever sentence, she starts a new line, as if the last line had been contaminated by her words.
Oskar seems fairly normal compared to his grandparents, and certainly his writing format itself is fairly normal, but his context stand him apart. All of his pictures in his Stuff That Happened To Me book. Everything from the crying elephant to his grandfather's old, strong hands, to the man falling, then flying through the sky.
In most books I read all I am reading is words, put out in front of me no questions. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close a lot of what you read is in the pictures. Some of the pictures are acutal things he has seen and are just a visual aid just as the pictures on pages 47, 48 and 49. Some pictures such as the ones in the back of the book of the man "falling upside down" from a building you can kind of relate to the story but you have to look a little closer. Is it his dad falling from the twin towers? Why is going up and not down? Then there are pictures such as the ones on pages 58 or 66. You can guess what they might have to do with the story but there a million possibilites.
Also the repeating picture of the door knob made me realize that this book is tied around that picture. The secrets behind the door. For me the visuals and non-verbal elements make this book more engaging and interesting.
Theres always a chance that the book might just have the hands on it because that’s the hands you use on each of those pages, but it might have to do with the falling man out the building as well. Oskar really does want everything to be reversed in the story. At the end of the book he has the man going back up to the top of the building, so the hands could be right to wrong because he wants everything reversed if that makes sense. If we went back to the beginning and he could take it all back we would be at home with his dad. But another thing to look at is right after the front cover the other hand it right there cut in half. So as I said before the hands might not mean the yes and no as everyone said, I guess it just depends on how the reader wants to look at it. I don’t believe there is a right or wrong answer.
I was looking at the beginning to look at what I thought the front hand meant and I skimmed the pictures before the story begins. Maybe the door, the birds, and the apartment have a major significance all together? Maybe Oskar thinks of the birds as the victims of the incident. I guess it’s just an idea though. It could be unlocking the door to reveal secrets about his father to understand his grandfather, or something along those lines. Just an idea though, I might be way off.
After finishing the book and having thought a lot about the pictures within the book, and the plot itself I have come to the conclusion that without these pictures, the story would be a boring mess. These pictures explain so much about the character, and his thought process. I was mistaken before when I said that the pictures have nothing to do with anything. The pictures are tied in with the book, and without the pictures I'm not sure the reader would completely understand Oskars thought process.
Oskar is an inventor, an inventor that only wants to help and save people. Oskars thoughts of inventing life-saving materials became more prominent when he realized how many people could have been saved if only they had a "birdseed shirt" (2)When Oskar thinks of these crazy inventions, he is trying to express the things that are most scary to him, and that is part of the reason why he can be so random.
The saying "A picture is worth a thousand words" is so true for this novel. By looking at just one picture, it can tell you all about Oskar, or all about the Author.
I believe that an author would not use words in his novel because these pictures and these paragraphs that are covered with errors tend to conceal more than the reveal.
As we all know, the images used in this novel are important in the story. However i would say differently than Jamie C when she says that "without these pictures, the story would be a boring mess" and that the reader would not be able to understand the story without them. I believe this book would be perfectly fine without these non verbal elements. However, the story may not have had as much substance as it currently does WITH the pictures.
I say this because all the images are there for a reason. They all help us understand what Foer wants us to understand about Oskar and his life. Without the images, the story would still make sense, and be complete, but many of the metaphorical elements of the novel would be gone. But we would still in fact have a complete story, though it might be dry and somewhat pointless.
Addressing the white spaces that Foer chooses to put in the pages of this novel, I am wondering what he wanted us to feel when we saw these empty spots. Did he want us to feel empty ourselves? Or are they there to allow us to add in our own thoughts about the story? What did these blank spots in the book make you think?
I agree with Ericka M that even if the book didnt have pictures it would still make sense. the pictures added more depth and perception on the true thoughts of the characters but aren't really nessesary, like the frosting on a cake, the frosting makes the cake taste better but it still tastes good without it too.
So even though the pictures are all supposed to mean and represent something there were two pictures that i couldnt find a purpose for: the picture of the back of the womans head(pg.98) who i think is Abby Black, and the back of the mans head(pg.294)who I think is William Black but i dont understand why he would take a picture f the backs of thier heads, so if anyone knows let me know.
'I think is William Black but i dont understand why he would take a picture f the backs of thier heads, so if anyone knows let me know.'(Robert G W)I was confused by this, also. I have a few ideas about it, but i think that they are fairly non sequitur and have next to nothing to do with EL&IC. My ideas are that it dose not matter what a person looks like, but what their minds can think of, that can change the world.
One thing that truly baffled me is pages 208 through 216. All of the different circled words and commas, i just don't get it. 209 through 214 seem to be circling commas that should be periods, and thats all I've gotten out of it. Does anyone else have clearer interpretation?
The non verbal elements of this story are just as much a part of the novel as the writing, although at times they can be misleading. I agree with Cristina W on how at the beginning all thy did was throw you off. The placement of them threw me off also because it seemed the pictures that go along with one certain thing wouldn't show up until the next couple pages. Also it seemed as if some of the pictures didn't even belong, and that they were randomly placed in parts of the story. With all the complicated and intricate inventions Oskar comes up with, I think that the inclusion of some of those would of been helpful on understanding the full outcome of what they would do.
In my opinion I think Foer's uses these non-verbal elements too enrich the subjects that are directly written out in the novel. He uses them to bring out symbolism and some of the characters thoughts. The effect from these elements on the novel is a intricate and more enlightening way to see into the hidden meanings of the story. For example, the section of photos between pages 53 to 67 show the elaborate journey in which Oskar much find himself. Also they symbolize the depth and complication to what Oskar must comprehend.
I am going back to one of the questions that Erica M focused upon where she asks, “Addressing the white spaces that Foer chooses to put in the pages of this novel, I am wondering what he wanted us to feel when we saw these empty spots. Did he want us to feel empty ourselves? Or are they there to allow us to add in our own thoughts about the story?” After thinking about these “empty spots” and staring at the “blank pages” I came to the conclusion that Foer wanted us to feel the isolated sensation that Oskar’s grandfather deals with after loosing the ability to speak. The way Foer created this novel in order for its reader’s to get the most full-filling experience out of it, I believe he added the numerous pages with almost nothing on them to express the abandonment and loneliness the grandpa copes with. The one that strikes my interest the most is on page 34 where there is a solitary word all by itself. Ironically, this word written on the bare page is “HELP.” To me, I see the grandfather literally reaching out for help in the only way possible—through writing. It brings a very sad, gloomy feeling into the book because, we as readers, know that there is nothing anyone can do to help him. It wouldn’t have given the reader the same effect if the word “help” was incorporated in with all the rest of the pages. Foer uses this technique to separate the significant material from the rest of the novel in order for the reader to get the most emotion from the characters.
As for Jacklyn’s confusion on pages 208-216, I think I came to some sort of interpretation as to why Foer circles all the commas and random words throughout this excerpt. These pages talk about the tragic event of the bombings in Dresden and the first thing I noticed was the use of the red pen. I think he used red in order to symbolize the death and violence that was happening at this time. On pages 209-214, there are multiple commas circled that Jacklyn stated, “should be periods.” Foer left out the periods and replaced them with commas because he was trying to show how fast the tragedy happened. There was no time to think or pause. Foer formed this section with no periods to have the effect of everything occurring in one breath; one sentence. I thought this was very clever of him to do, because the reader really is able to experience the chilling and terrifying emotions that the people of Dresden might have felt.
By looking at the pictures in the book, the reader is able to see the world through Oskar's eyes. Jaime C makes an excellent point when she says, "These pictures explain so much about the character, and his thought process. The pictures are tied in with the book, and without the pictures I'm not sure the reader would completely understand Oskars thought process." Since Oskar has a complicated thinking process, the pictures make the story less complicated as welll as more interesting. All the pictures are connected to the book and Oskar's way of thinking. The pictures are also connected to important themes that apear throughout the novel. Pictures make the story easier to comprehend. Some of the pictures protray Oskar's way of thinking. By just reading the book the reader doesn't really get a clear understanding of what is going on, but the pictures provide a mental image. By looking at the pictures, the reader gets a better sense of waht is going on through Oskar's eyes.
After reading Jaclyn S P's comment about the pictures of flying birds all throughout the novel the thought of the importance of animals in the story came to my mind. No one has really addressed these non-verbal elements yet I think they have an incredibly important role. Not only are they literally silent and non-verbal, but I also think the symbolism placed in them displays important themes and emotions also characterized in the humans of the novel.
Buckminister, Oskar's cat, is probably the most famous animal in the novel and could possibly represent Oskar's neglected understanding, however I would like to focus more of the birds of the story. When you think about it they almost appear more than Buckminister, but in more secretive ways. When Mr. Black's hearing aid was turned on birds came (166-167). In the very first pages of the book there are birds. Birds are involved in the birdseed shirt Oskar makes for his grandma. When the Grandmother made love for the first time "Birds were singing in the other room (84). The birds obviously represent freedom and escape, but I have also noticed that they are only brought up with elderly people (correct me if I am wrong). I think this may mean after reflecting on all their lives the flying and fluttering of birds is like them releasing all of their past and guilt and sorrows. But since the birds are not invisible the still serve as a reminder of the past the onlooker has let go of. I think the best example of this is when the grandmother is making love for the first time and the significance of the birds being in the other room (84). Usually one would think that singing birds equal happiness, but in this case it represents her past and what she never can be (Anna). It symbolizes her carefree love of Thomas being set free and her losing her real identity and pride in order to be loved (the "love birds" are not present- they are most likely in a nothing space-symbolizing/predicting the future and stature of the relationship). I believe this could be a very interesting discussion and I would love to hear everyone's input on this idea.
Erica M brought up an interesting idea about the white spaces in the book. In retrospect I believe that they were used to try and emphasize the subject matter just like the pictures. In relation to the journal entry that Oskar's grandfather makes, I think that by only writing small phrases like “I'm sorry.” (pg. 264) We really pay attention to what is being said. There are only a few words written, but they are important words none the less. We are really given a sense of what it is like to be this man who has lost his ability to use language through the use of non-verbal elements. I agree with katie w when she says "After thinking about these “empty spots” and staring at the “blank pages” I came to the conclusion that Foer wanted us to feel the isolated sensation that Oskar’s grandfather deals with after loosing the ability to speak." Isolation is a reoccurring theme, and with empty spaces, the character's emptiness is not only written about but it is visually demonstrated for us as well.
Going back to the most recent comment by Lauren E she says, "Isolation is a reoccuring theme, and with empty spaces, the character's emptiness is not only written about, but is visually demonstrated for us as well." I think that the author uses these non-verbal elements as a significant part of the story. Without these blank pages, numerous pictures, and numbers that are "the sum of my life," the reader wouldn't be able to capture how these character's feel. I agree with Katie W when she stated, "The way Foer created this novel in order for it's readers to get the most full-filling experience out of it, I believe he added the numerous pages with almost nothing on them to express the abandonment and loneliness the grandpa copes with." To actually see and feel the condition of Oskar's grandfather changed my outlook on the story. Not only do I feel more sympathy for him, you can kind of understand how he feels having to write out his entire life.
After the pages of numbers starting on page 269, I began to really feel bad for him, knowing that Oskar's mother on the other line had no idea idea what he was saying. She coldn't understand the constant beeps on the phone, while at the same time they were really something much deeper. Foer introduces the concept of "life without words." You can't really explain everything a person has been through, but you can understand something when you begin to feel it.
I think one of the most important nonverbal elements in the story that we haven’t touched on is what simply isn’t there. There are many things that Oskar goes right out and tells us, but there are also many things he leaves unsaid. We never know how Oskar learns that Thomas is his grandfather. We also never really come to understand what the Schell family knows about their past and what is kept a secret. For instance; what does Thomas Jr. know about his father and how he left. Considering he never gets any of the letters his father so wishes to send him, he could very well have never known anything about his father. Yet, wouldn’t one think that a thirty-year-old man with a son would have asked his mother at some point? Or did he maybe just know that it was better left unsaid?
Another element left unsaid is why Oskar acts the way he acts. Similarly to Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, in which we can assume but are really never told that the narrator has autism, we can assume that Oskar may have some sort of OCD or something. We know that Oskar is a very quirky character with a very interesting way of viewing and interacting with the world but we never find out why he is this way.
Earlier I stated that I thought the book was a scavenger hunt for the reader. This goes along with not knowing things about the novel. The ambiguity of so much of the history and plot of the story makes it incredibly interesting to figure out. One minute you think you’ve got it figured out and then Foer throws the reader another encrypted message. I almost felt like I should have been wearing a Sherlock Holmes hat and brought in Watson and the pink panther to help me put the jumbled pieces together.
Going back to what Jackie S P said about the cover, I am somewhat stumped as to who to agree with about the cover, in my mind the hands are so generic that its almost impossible to determine whether it is palms up or the opposite. Maybe the point to the cover was that the writing on the cover is like Thomas Sr.’s hands. When he cannot find anything to write on, he writes on himself. The text to the cover is all written on the hand. This is just a theory but it was very interesting to me.
One of the most confusing and enticing use of Foer's non verbal elements is the last pages of the book. These pages show a man falling up which is completely impossible but also entirely perfect in fitting into the ideas of the novel. These pictures show the complex and tragic mind of Oskar and what he is coping with. Also these pictures show how time is flipped throughout the novel.
Going along with what Lauren E said about the white spaces emphasizing the subject matter like the pictures, I also believe these spaces were placed to show in thier own way the depths and consequences of time. The spaces would show up in conversations or even just after narratives. As many people have said these spaces represent isolation, but also i believe these spaces represent the isolation of everyone. Which almost is like them representing companionship through isolation. It makes it seem when everyone is isolated and alone it can bring them closer and together with fellow people.
'I thought this was very clever of him to do, because the reader really is able to experience the chilling and terrifying emotions that the people of Dresden might have felt.'(Katie W W) All I can say is thank you very much. That makes perfect sense to me, I had been so caught up in wondering that the red circles could mean, it never once crossed my mind that it might be to enhance the feeling of urgency.
As for the blank pages in the grandfather's story, I think it helps connect him to the nothingness that Anna feels rules her life. It helps connect them in a way that they can't put in words
A non-verbal element was when I was reading the chapter “Alive and Alone” the part where Oskar discovered the renter in the guest bedroom. Oskar started talking to him and when time progressed Oskar started to notice jesters that the renter made that remind him of his dad. “He shrugged his shoulders just liked dad use to” (238). “He didn’t look at all like Dad, but he reminded me of Dad. He was left handed like Dad” (245). These started to make me remember that his grandpa wasn’t dead and that he left. So when Oskar noticed things that reminded him of his Dad that made me wonder if the renter was his grandpa. Once I kept reading it made more since that the renter would be the grandpa. But then once I kept reading I find out that the renter is Thomas Schell (273). Then this made it more clearer, Thomas Schell, my first thought was that I had died. “He leaves behind a wife and son,” I thought, my son, I thought, my grandson, I thought and thought and thought, and then I stopped thinking… (273). I figured this out with out the book telling me.
Through reading the interview with the author it becomes apparent that Foer is not trying to just write another novel but craft an experience. Foer says, "Books aren’t just vehicles for print. If you believe that, then you read books off the internet. Or e-books, or whatever they are. I really like books as objects, as a little intimate sculptures that you have a real interaction with". By adding non-verbal elements Foer creates new depths that his book can reach. The non-verbal elements that are added take the reader away from simply reading a story and towards actually interacting with the book. This creates a much deeper novel-reader connection than could otherwise be achieved.
Another quote from the interview struck me. Foer explains why a book is so different than other artistic medium, "So when writing you use the word “tree.” Four letters. Very, very short word. Fits a couple millimeters on a page. But in the reader’s mind it becomes a kind of idealized version of a tree, and that tree is different for each person who reads the book and because of that a book is customized for each person in a way a song never could be and as a painting never could be." If the word "tree" can take on so many different meanings imagine what a picture can do. Foer takes this concept and applies it in the novel. Whether Foer utilizes text or non-verbal elements he leaves out just enough details to allow the reader to imagine and personalize it within their own minds.
That being said the one letter that Oskars Dad recieved from the grandpa strikes me as being particularly powerful. Oskar's dad goes through the letter searching for errors, which seems pretty odd considering that it is a letter from his lost father. The red pen truley shows the indifference Thomas takes while reading through the letter. He treats it as though it's the newspaper or some other object with little significance to him. This feeling of indifference peaks with the circling of "I love you, Your Father". That final line perhaps doesn't show the indifference of Thomas as much as it represents the climax of emotions he experienced throughout the letter and the transformation of the indifference into resentment.
I disagree with what Jeff B says about Oskar's father marking the letter in red pen showing his indifference. Oskar states in the book that his father marked up everything he read. He said that he could find a mistake in everything and looked for them. When he marked up the letter, there is no proof that he was indifferent, only proof that he was not. In the letter, Oskar's father circled "writing another letter I know I won't be able to send, no matter how hard I try and how much I want to" (Foer 216). This sentence shows a mistake in facts. Although the older Thomas Schell writes that he will not be able to send the letter, he does. His son recognizes this and points it out, if only to himself. He proves to himself that his father cared enough about him to do something he was sure he could not.
Perhaps you are right Anne A, the passage does not suggest indifference. Indifference was the wrong word choice for me to make. When I read this letter I picture an upset man reading a letter written to him by his father with a red pen at the ready. Through reading what he circles it is clear that he is angry at his father for having abandoned him. He circles statements such as "my child" and "you can't love anything more than what you miss" showing that he feels no connection towards his father. What I called "indifference" would more appropriately be deemed "the absence of love". He cannot force himself to love this character, a character whom has had no part in his upbringing, as a father.
I liked the idea about what hand is displayed on the cover. I automatically connected that hand to Thomas’ hands, tattooed yes and no. I don’t think we are supposed to know what side is pointed toward us. I think it depends on the reader, if they are feeling optimistic or pessimistic. But that also means that no one is right and no one is wrong. If we are not supposed to know than it could really be either. A lot of the unexplained themes of the novel, in my mind, are not supposed to only mean one set thing, or have one set answer. As I stated (much earlier in this blog), I do not think the pictures all have one thing they are supposed to represent or connect to, I think the hand is just supposed to be there for the reader to connect it to what they will. I think Foer left it all up to the reader.
The non-verbal elements in this book seem to be stronger than the verbal elements, in my opinion. The last time that Thomas Shell Sr. sees his wife, he is still not using any words, but just using his hands. He doesn't quite say that he loves her, but I think that the way he almost says it so slowly is very powerful. "I told her how I felt, this is how I told her: I held her hands out to her sides, I pointed her index fingers toward each other slowly, very slowly, moved them in, the closer they got, the more slowly I moved them, and then, as they were about to touch, as they were only a dictionary page from touching, pressing on opposite sides of the word "love", I stopped them, I stopped them and held them there." [135]
As Erica M brought up, the blank spaces seem to have some kind of meaning, and I agree with what Katie W says about how "Foer uses this technique to separate the significant material from the rest of the novel in order for the reader to get the most emotion from the characters."
I think the blank spaces could help support what Brook W said: "You can't really explain everything a person has been through, but you can understand something when you begin to feel it." If there were no blank spaces, everything would be going faster, and you wouldn't have time to really think about what is being said, meaning you could have more time to understand, even if you can't explain it.
I also agree with what Erica M says when she says that the book would be fine without pictures, but that it adds the extra spark. To me, it shows how much Oskar misses his dad, as most of the pictures are connected to his father. [The keys, on page 53, the paper airplane, on page 56, that Oskar and his dad would make to send to grandma, the man playing tennis on page 64, that Oskar and his dad saw in the paper on page 13, etc..]
Like Cara T brought up, the birds in this story have some kind of significant meaning, which I had noticed, but couldn't quite figure out. I strongly agree with what Cara says about how the birds show that the adults in the story are "reflecting on all their lives the flying and fluttering of birds is like them releasing all of their past and guilt and sorrows."
I was looking through the story once again and i stop on page 269 where all the numbers begin to pop up when the Grandmother and Grandfather are on the phone and he tries to talk to her. The first thing i did was pull out my phone and begin to text the numbers in there. The first thing he says is "Hello." then he asks, "Is it really you?" twice. He then types in "help". Thats as far as I got so far, but I think just that alone shows a lot of emotion and expresses that the Grandfather wants a way back into her life but doesn't know how. Sometimes the easiest way to admit something, is by admitting it in a way no one really understands, which in a sense is what he did.
About Samantha S's phone topic, ive been curious about what he said for awhile but havent gotten around to doing it myself. I think your right that the conversation the grandfather is trying to have has a lot of emotion, the first time i looek at it i thought he was just trying to tell her he's back, he needs a ride, asking if she lived at the same place, thatsort of thing but now im pretty sure he tries to apologize.He just starts listing to her all the things he's sorry about and regrets, like leaveing her while shes pregnant, never writing, never meeting their child, he probably asks how he died and other things about him but the grandmother doesnt understand which to me was no surprise because how could she be able to distinguish words or even spaces out of a bunch of seemingly random beeps.
Erica M P makes an excellent point when talking about the blank spaces in the book. I definitely agree with Katie W W when she said:
"After thinking about these “empty spots” and staring at the “blank pages” I came to the conclusion that Foer wanted us to feel the isolated sensation that Oskar’s grandfather deals with after losing the ability to speak. The way Foer created this novel in order for its reader’s to get the most full-filling experience out of it, I believe he added the numerous pages with almost nothing on them to express the abandonment and loneliness the grandpa copes with."
Like how several people have already commented I strongly believe that the blankness does add more of an emotional effect to the story, just as the pictures did.
However I have noticed just about every single comment on the whiteness of the pages is connected to the grandpa, yet I feel the most striking example of it is the Grandma's autobiography. Pages 120-123 are completely and starkly blank, which I thought was the most moving emptiness of all. After reading these comments I have come to question who has it worse? The grandpa who has experienced about the same experiences as the grandma but cannot speak it, or the grandma who is able say it but does not have the life or courage to. Is it better to have a life of silence or a life of nothing--that means nothing? Is it better to only care about yourself or only of those around you?
I am not sure just because the grandfather cannot speak means he has it worse. The grandmother's whole life has pretty much been formed by her dead sister, who still controls her feelings. Maybe the grandma never married Thomas because she loved him. Maybe it was because it was what her sister needed and has left to do and she felt like there was so much missing she try and fill in it--for her own sanity's sake. And it takes almost her whole life to realize that she is not Anna and she cannot fill in what has never been there.
Or maybe she has it worse because she is the only thing she really has left, not even her husband is with her. What kind of feelings does she has because of trauma and how does it affect her life?
Who's emptiness and blank pages are worse? (Who has it worse?) I would like to know everyone's opinions on this matter because I think it could go either way.
Cara T asked whether or not the grandma or grandpa had it worse in terms of silence/nothingness in accordance to their letters, and the non-verbal elements that are hidden in them. It is my opinion that both are on equal terms in this sense. The grandfather has lost his will to communicate aloud, but he still essentially tells his wife what he thinks. This is shown in many instances, like where he demands on pg 94 that they do not have any children. On the other hand Oskar's grandmother still speaks, but lacks the will to say what she truly means. I believe they balance each other out. They are in a very ironic sense a perfect match for each other, both are "looking for an acceptable compromise." (pg 84) to fill the emptiness that they have within themselves (that is demonstrated by the blank space) So in the end I think that Foer really did not intend for one character’s sorrow to overshadow the other’s.
Non-verble elements throughout this novel are numerous, but one of the most important pictures that I saw was the sequence of photos of a man jumping off the building and since early on in the novel Oskar thought that may have been his dad because the man looked like he had on glasses.It is interesting because at the end it seems even though he found peace his father is still largely in his thoughts and Oskar imagined his father doing everything backwards that day and being safe in the end, this leads to the pictures at the end of the book where the man that jumped of the building is shown in reverse going back up to the top where he is safe.This at the end seems to be a powerful statement and its very visual as to what Oskar was talking about and is also the end of the book. To me it is a statement saying that we all wish we could turn back time to before the tradgedy and hold those people dear to us safe, this in turn is a powerfull ending that satisfies Oskar and the reader at the same time with the theme of the tragedy being turned to safety in the minds of the readers.
Maybe the birds are Oskar’s wish. Is it possible that the birds represent the way he wishes his father could have taken flight and flown away to safety on “the worst day”. On page 2 Oskar says, “there are so many times when you need to make a quick escape, but humans don’t have their own wings, or not yet, anyway, so what about a birdseed shirt?” While I never really understood the concept of this shirt I think it is Oskar’s way of showing that he wanted more than anything to have his father back.
As to what Cara T W asks about who has a worse time, I believe the grandmother has it worse, but the grandfather comes in as a close second. While it is very difficult for the grandfather with not being able to talk but the grandmother has the capability and yet cannot put her words together. Somehow she cannot figure out how to put her emotion into words. This is one of the hardest things to do.
The last thing I would like to say is to reiterate how important the non-verbal elements were in the novel. They make the book an interesting scavenger hunt for the reader and kept me on my toes for every single page.
I agree with Lauren E's post. Niether the Grandma or the Grandpa have it worse than the other, they have both lost the same things, however they handle it differently. I like the idea that they are the perfect match for each other, it does seem as though they complete one another, however if they were the perfect match for one another then why did they separate, why did the Grandpa run away? There are some stark differences in how the Grandma and Grandpa live there lives the most profound of which appear on pages 174 to 186. The quote that struck me the hardest was on page 181:
"He wrote, I do not know how to live.
I do not know either but i am trying
I do not know how to try"
This shows both how the Grandma and Grandpa are different and why they split up. The Grandma is trying to salvage her life, make it worth living. The strongest action she takes towards that is getting pregnant. The Grandpa, on the other hand, cannot and will not ever get over his losses. The Grandpa is too terrified to love again and cannot cope with having to love and care for a child. He is unable to flip his life to the next page.
The Grandma does seem to have difficulty expressing her feelings to the Grandpa, even when their relationship depends on it. On page 181 she says,"There were things I wanted to tell him. But I knew they would hurt him. So I buried them and let them hurt me." By burying her feelings she practically lets the Grandpa slip away. As the novel progresses, and the Grandma attempts to move on in her life, it seems as though she slowly becomes able to express her feelings again and thus completes herself. Are the letters to Oskar not filled with her feelings and emotions. She proves her ability to tell her feelings and proves that she has found reason in her life at the end of the letter to Oskar:
"I said, I want to tell you something
She said, you can tell me tomorrow.
I had never told her how much I loved her.
She was my sister.
We slept in the same bed.
There was never a right time to say it.
It was always unnecessary.
The books in my father's shed were sighing
The sheets were rising and falling around me with Anna's breathing.
I thought about waking her.
But it was unnecessary.
There would be other nights.
And how can you say I love you to someone you love?
I rolled onto my side and fell asleep next to her.
Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you Oskar.
It is always necessary.
I love you,
Grandma"314.
I apologize for quoting nearly the entire page but i felt that it is a beautiful statement and it deserved to be shared in its entirety.
To go along with and add to Jeff B F's comments about the ways of living life and which way really is the right way I would have to comment upon the letter he included first. The words in the letter say, "How can you say I love you to someone you love? Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you Oskar.
It is always necessary. I love you,
Grandma" (314). After reading this a second time I came to realize this is almost exactly like the last night before the death of Oskar's father. And at this point in time in the book we have seen Oskar's transformation and experiences and see that this letter almost corresponds to how Oskar has changed to the more hopeful and optimistic side. I think the words "It is always necessary" best wrap up Oskar's experience. I also think experience and feelings are the single most important non-verbal lessons in life.
Many times one can hear the advice of Elders and grandparents, however it is the true experience that creates an impression. This is exactly true with how Oskar learns he must overcome the fears in life to be able to truly enjoy and accomplish it. After Mr. Black's death Oskar says, "I wish I had known that I wasn't going to see Mr. Black again when we shook hands that afternoon. I wouldn't have let go. But I didn't know, just like I didn't know it was going to be the last time Dad would ever tuck me in, because you never know" (286). Here, Oskar tries to share his life advice with us, although unless we have lost someone dear suddenly, we will most likely not take it to heart.
I also have to agree Jeff B F when he says, "The quote that struck me the hardest was on page 181:
"He wrote, I do not know how to live.
I do not know either but I am trying
I do not know how to try"
This conversation here shows the thin line between living in fear and living in love. As both Anna and Oskar's grandpa say, "Life is scarier than death" (322). This is where the two grandparents and Oskar are truly separated. The grandma has overcome her fears of not being loved and being the only one left in her family and in return she has been blessed with Oskar, who completes her and provides her with the love she has been missing.
The grandfather on the other hand is too afraid of loving and becoming happy that he lives in miserable silence and isolation.
However, it seems to me that Oskar has transitioned from being like the grandpa to being like the grandma. The feelings and experiences he has reluctantly embraced, despite his fears, have given him the completeness and closure that he has needed. In order to gain everything, one must lose everything and grow from it.
Jeff B said in his post "I like the idea that they [the grandparents]are the perfect match for each other , it does seem as though they complete one another, however if they were the perfect match for one another then why did they separate, why did the Grandpa run away?" To answer this question, I think Foer wanted the grandparent's relationship to be very ironic, they compliment each other; both have such a sense of hopelessness that has its source in the person they lost: Anna. However, they do separate as time progresses and they find that they want different things out of life; Grandma wants a family and Grandpa is still trying to find himself. Although the two of them are both looking for an alternative in the other person to fill a void in them selves, I agree that the reason they split up like Jeff said is that "The Grandma is trying to salvage her life, make it worth living." This is a very realistic scenario, because in the real world two people who fit together flawlessly at first, often can find as time passes that they really are different individuals with different objectives. I think although the grandmother appears to be even more needy in the beginning of the story, (for example on page 84, where she is trying desperately to persuade Thomas to fall in love with her.) she ultimately ends up being the stronger because she moved away from her past by having her son and Oskar to love. Grandpa does appear to catch up with her finally as the renter, who helps Oskar on his journey. So essentially, I think the two walk the same path, but just in slightly different time frames but in the end they have the same destination.
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