Monday, June 9, 2008
Extremely Loud--Time
Consider TIME as a theme in the novel. How does time affect how people (individuals and groups) react to situations? When is time not a constant (Can it speed up, slow down, stop, or reverse? Does it ever disappear?). Is time linear, circular, or overlapping? Published in 2005, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has been labeled the first 9/11 novel. In your opinion, is this an appropriate time to begin addressing and discussing this tragedy? What is the value in doing so?
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As the first to post on this topic, I’m not quite sure where to start off. I should start by noting the obvious mix in time frames. The book consistently shifts between Oskar’s point of view, his grandmother’s letter, and his grandfather’s. When I first started this book it was difficult to adjust to these switches, but this technique without doubt was a defining mark that made this book stand out from many of the other books that I have read.
Extended time frames throughout the book seemed to make things easier to deal with, to put it simply. Oskar had been continually writing to Stephen Hawking for two years and Oskar finally received a response two years later. It also took Oskar eight months to complete his search for the lock, and when he did, he didn’t find anything close to what he was expecting. This even depressed him as much as missing his father, because he wanted to give himself a bruise (295). He had spent so much time looking for nothing.
The time Oskar had with his father ended abruptly, it disappeared. After the fact that his dad died, Oskar began to think the time with his father had gone by to fast, which it did. This shows that time seems to speed up. The time spent missing his father was long and painful. His time missing his father will last through his life time making it linear.
The time between Oskar’s grandmother and Grandfather had stopped when his grandfather left, but when he came back to his Grandmother the time started to reverse. His grandfather still felt the same about Oskar’s grandmother, not being able to appreciate her for who she was, and did more sculptures of her that really weren’t of her, they were of her sister, in essence repeating what had already happened before.
For this being the first 9/11 book I don’t think anyone was ready, but people knew it was necessary. The value in this book is it gives a small picture of what it was like to have a love one killed in 9/11. It gives an idea of how kids tried to get over one of their parents death. It helps people who weren't directly effected by the tragedy understand the thoughts of people who were directly effected by it. All the 9/11 books I think brought our country closer and stronger as a whole as the books tried to spread the feelings of the hurt.
Time affects people in this novel because time makes them grow attached. An example is of Oskar’s grandparents. When they met for the second time the longer they were together the more attached they got. The problem of there first romance was that time stopped in the “nothing places” they had. Which meant they could not grow attached to one another. It is also true for Oskar’s mom and Ron. The more time they spend together, the more they grow attached. Oskar’s mother stops worrying about him. “I’m going out…it could be extremely late.” (pg.288) His mother lets him wonder New York by himself.
Time seems to be overlapping in this book. The points of view switch along with the time of the book. Therefore time seems to be jumping back and forth but it all forms together giving the impression of the time overlapping. It tells you of the romance between Oskar’s grandfather and his great Aunt, and without this information the reader would not understand the relationship of Oskar’s Grandparents. Anna F P says “His (Oskar) time missing his father will last through his life time making it linear.” I agree that Oskar’s time missing his father will last throughout his life which would make his time linear, but for the time in the book and not just the time for Oskar, it is overlapping.
I believe it was an appropriate time to address the tragedy of 9/11. It could even be addressed earlier. The pain and sense of loss it brings links all of America together. There is no need to wait, by waiting it will make some people forget of ignore what happened.
I think that time is a very big part of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close because in the beginning of Oskar’s life it came to an abrupt stop when his dad died. Oskar thinks that the time with his dad was short and that he wants to know more about his dad so he goes off on “quests” to find out more about his dad.
While still dealing with his dad’s death Oskar’s mom has decided that it was time to move on with her life and to meet another man or have a guy friend “Ron.” Oskar thought mom was being unfair to dad and forgetting him. (p.35) It wasn’t fair to Dad, and it wasn’t fair to me. I buried it all inside of me. I think that Oskar is not letting go of his dad, and his mom is trying to move on. I think every time that his mom and Ron are together Oskar gets a little frustrated with his mom. Another reason why I think that Oskar and his mom are at different points is when they go and collect his dad’s things at the garage/storage area. Why I think this is because when they are going through his dad’s things they disagree of what to throughout. With his mom’s life moving on and Oskar’s life at a halt there individual lives are at a different point.
In this book, time is overlapping they go back and forth between real life and the past. The reason I think that time is overlapping is when Oskar finds the key that was in his dad’s closet and I am thinking by the time that he finds what the key goes to it will overlap what his dad did with the key. I think that the time is overlapping when the book goes to past and tells us about his grandparents relationship and how they met and when his parents met.
Over time, many people are able to change and adapt to different situations. A year after his father's death, Oskar was still not able to move on from the tragedy. "Mom was with Ron in the living room, listening to music too loud and playing board games. She wasn't missing Dad"(36). Oskar can not grasp the idea of his mother being able to have a good time without Oskar feeling that his father was being forgotten or pushed away. “There is nothing wrong with someone needing a friend… Oskar, but it’s true, I need friends too… Don’t you think Dad would want me to have friends”(70).
When Oskar and his mother drove to New Jersey to collect his father’s belongings, Oskar was emotionally attached to his father’s things and did not want to throw anything away. “We got in a fight about his razor…it should go in the throw it away pile…I told her it should go in the save it pile” (102). This shows that Oscar’s mom is able to let her husbands things go and forget about the past. Oskar is angry, confused, and frustrated by his father’s death that he does not want to lose any aspect of his dad.
I agree with Anna F P when she says “The time Oskar had with his father ended abruptly, it disappeared.” Not being able to see and talk to his father ever again gives Oskar a feeling that his time with his dad has ended. This aspect is also true when Oskar can not find the reasoning for the key. Every letdown from trying to find the owner of the key makes Oskar feel his father is disappearing.
Another aspect of time I would like to bring up are the often-mentioned time intervals between the messages Oskar's father left him. They are: "Message one: 8:52 A.M., Message two: 9:12 A.M., Message three: 9:31 A.M., Message four: 9:46 A.M., Message five: 10:04 A.M." (68) Oskar also mentions that there is another call at 10:26. These time frames are very important in the book because they affect Oskar throughout the entire story; in this case time controls wether Oskar's father will live (if he can be rescued before the building falls), if he can speak to his family before he dies (if Oskar will call him back or pic up the phone) or if he dies, and no one knows what happened to him. Based on the clues he hears in the messages, Oskar begins to "invent" all the ways in which his dad could've died, as well as the approximate time of his death. Needless to say, the image of his father's final hours will be in his head forever, and it troubles him. After listening to the messages again, he becomes very troubled. "I invented. I gave myself a bruise." (69) The reason Oskar wants to hurt himself upon hearing the messages is because he didn't have enough TIME to react and save his father. He says "I thought about calling Mom. I thought about grabbing my walkie-talkie and paging Grandma. I went back to the first message and listened to them all again... I thought about rushing downtown to see if I could somehow rescue him myself. And then the phone rang. I looked at my watch. It was 10:26:47." (68) Because time in this book controls when someone will live or die, it affects how people will react, which is important.
Also, I think that 2005, which is 4 years after the attack, is an appropriate time to begin to discuss a tragedy of this magnitude for several reasons. First, four years is a good amount of time to let victims' families begin to heal. This is not to say that they will be over it, but by then they should be willing to talk about it. Also, it allows ample time for the events to be studied and sorted out, so people actually know what happened; it's enough time for at least some of the truth to reveal itself. If you are basing a novel on a true story, you need to know the complete facts, of course. This helped the author create a more realistic picture of the way his characters coped with the attacks.
The theme of time in the novel is apparent Oskar's life, as a couple other people said, with the messages his father left as well as the time his father died. However time sort of skips around in the novel. We see it change from the novels present time and Oskars story to the time when his grandparents met. Also things come in to the story at times when it doesn't qutie fit. An example of this is page 197. The letter is from the assistant of the woman that researches elephant calls, this letter, however should have been placed on page 96 where he tells Abby about the letter he wrote to the scientist. Another example of this is the first time we hear about Oskar's grandmother asking Anna to watch her and Oskar's grandfather kiss, but we see the actual conversation on page 182. I don't know why Foer uses these time intervals, but perhaps it is to make us recall certain sections of the novel to insure they are not forgotten. I think time in the novel is circular because it often goes back to discuss things it has already stated.
I think the 4 year time interval was an appropriate time to write the novel. The attacks on 9/11 caused alot of changes in every American life, and the changes needed to be addressed sooner rather than later.
Time is a very important theme in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The novel jumps around in the idea of actual time. Oskar goes from telling the story in true time to reading a letter that describes a time twenty years ago. Sometimes Oskar even describes a time when his father was alive. Oskar talks about his father as if he is in the present but also as if he is in the past.
Oskar starts the novel with the last day his father is alive. This is how the whole story starts. The relationship between Oskar and his father near the end of his father’s life is very important and comes up many times in the novel. On the last day, Oskar refuses to pick up the phone when he knows it is his dad calling, he is frozen with terror when he tells us, “I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was him” (15). The significant part about this scene is that the time is very detailed. Right before Oskar’s father calls him he tells us that, “It was 10:26:47” (15). Oskar becomes more aware of the time and that is when it slows down. When Oskar describes things in seconds time travels very slowly in his mind. When Oskar describes something in a matter of months, it goes by very quickly and is described very little. Oskar’s reaction to his father’s message is described in detail while most of his adventures with the Blacks were very vague. Time is also not a constant near the end of the book. It goes in reverse. He describes the last real connection that he had with his father nearing the worst day in reverse. Oskar says, “He would’ve walked backward to my room, whistling ‘I Am the Walrus’ backward. He would’ve gotten into bed with me . . . He would have told me the story of the Sixth Borough from the voice in the can at the end to the beginning, from ‘I love you’ to ‘Once upon a time . . .’ We would have been safe” (326). Oskar makes his story travel in a circle. That is why in this novel, time is circular. It starts exactly where it began: his father was alive and safe, and nothing bad could ever happen to Oskar. I am surprised that no one had brought that up.
In accordance with Oskar not finding what he was looking for with the key, I still believe that he found it. With that said, I have to disagree with Marika S. when she said, “He had spent so much time looking for nothing.” I don’t believe that Oskar wasted his time looking for something that in the end had nothing to do with his father. I think that deep down, Oskar knew that the key had nothing to do with his father, but he was holding on to it so he could stay close to his father without giving him up completely. It is also interesting that Oskar spent eight months looking for the lock and then gave up. Then the key came to him. It’s like he had spent so much time looking for the key that the universe felt he was ready to have the lock (and at the same time have closure on his father’s death). It came to him at the appropriate time. However, I do not agree with Dana K. when she said, “Every letdown from trying to find the owner of the key makes Oskar feel his father is disappearing.” I don’t believe that Oskar’s connection with his father is hindered at all by being letdown by any of the Blacks. Yes, he feels like he is letting his father down and he wants to hurt himself, but he also realizes that by finding this one wrong person, he is closer to finding the right person. Oskar tells us that he feels closer to his father after all of his search than when he died when he says, “I miss my dad more now than when I started, even though the whole point was to stop missing him” (255).
Besides the end going in reverse, the relationship between Oskar’s grandparents also has a way of repeating itself. As Anna F. stated, “[Them seeing each other again was] repeating what had already happened before.” I think that instead of just repeating it was also their way to start a new relationship without all of the complications that hindered their relationship from going further way back when. Nathan S. stated that “the longer they were together the more attached they got.” I think this would happen to any two people who have a true connection with each other. In fact, it does happen. Unless you totally cannot stand a person, if you spend more time with them, you are bound to connect on some levels, and find out what you have in common with that person. I believe that two people who spent many years together and had a close physical, emotional, and sexual relationship with each other in those years, like his grandparents, would reconnect no matter how much time they spent together.
One subject that was brought up was the time of Oskar’s father’s messages on the day of his death. Anna M. stated that “The reason Oskar wants to hurt himself upon hearing the messages is because he didn’t have enough TIME to react and save his father.” I don’t really believe that there truly was anything that Oskar could have done for his father. It was inevitable that he would die in the events of 9/11. Besides, even if Oskar had called his father that morning and said “Don’t go to the building for your meeting” his father probably wouldn’t have listened to him and would have convinced him he was being irrational. Because Oskar’s father’s death was inevitable, I do not believe that Oskar had a problem reacting and thinking that if he had more time he could have saved his father. I do believe that he thought he could have saved him, but he realized that there wasn’t anything he could do after his father left the messages. The reason Oskar feels guilty is because he didn’t pick up the phone to talk to his father during his last phone call. He even tells the renter his story about the Empire State Building. While he is in the building, he imagines what it would be like if it was hit by a plane and he was in the same position as his father. He says, “Which would I choose? Would I jump or would I burn? I guess I would jump, because then I wouldn’t have to feel pain, On the other hand, maybe I would burn, because then I’d at lease have a chance to somehow escape, and even if I couldn’t, feeling pain is still better than not feeling, isn’t it?” (245). By saying this he wants to feel what his father felt, to be in the same shoes as he was in that day, but he still cannot fully relate to him because it is not the time or place. He feels guilty for not being able to feel his father’s pain.
As for this being the first 9/11 novel, I believe that a novel could have been done sooner, and could have forced America to move on, but the timing of this particular novel was perfect. It was not so much time that America didn’t have a place to go with their thoughts on the event and they didn’t have a place to relate to someone. It wasn’t too little time that people were still suffering from a sense of trauma that comes with a tragedy. Anna F. stated that, “I don’t think anyone was ready, but people knew it was necessary.” I agree with this because no one would admit they were ready to move on. That is what happens with a tragedy. It is so hard to move on sometimes that no one wants to admit any change from what happened before the incident. This novel was released at a very good time. However, I disagree with what Nathan S. said about people perhaps ignoring or forgetting what happened. I don’t think that you can forget something that strikes a whole country like this did. It brought the whole of America together in so many different ways that we were united more than ever. For people who would, as Nathan S. put it, “ignore what happened” I believe that those people don’t want to admit what happened and wouldn’t have read the book anyway. I believe this novel was for people who wanted a proper outlet to help them grieve and move on, much like Oskar finds in his search for the key. It was his healing process, and this is ours.
Time is a very important theme in the novel. In some parts of the novel time acts as a character. I think Anna F P said it perfectly when she said, “The time Oskar had with his father ended abruptly, it disappeared.” The time Oskar had with his father did disappear, but it also returns to the story when Oskar listens to his father’s messages and looks through his things in his closet. The time with his father is almost like a ghost character that disappeared so quickly with his father’s death, but revisits Oskar pretty frequently throughout the story when he does things that remind him of his father. Time in this story is like a character because it goes away and comes back, unlike in other stories where time is just in the background. Time with his father disappeared abruptly and comes back for visits, which are things only tangible objects can do.
To go along with that, time also functions as an object in the novel. Time can be rearranged. There are letters from 1963 mixed in with chapters written in the present tense. It is almost as if someone took Time and smashed it and put the pieces back together but in a different order. Like Allie M W pointed out, there are letters that Oskar receives from authors and scientists that are not where it seems like they should be. There are pictures on pages with no explanation of where or when they were taken.
It seems as though this story is written the way Oskar perceives time. Maybe after he tells a story about his present life, he reads one of the old letters. Or maybe as he is telling a story in present time something he says reminds him of a letter he received from someone and he puts it in the story at that point. Just like how sometimes when people are having a conversation something comes up that is seemingly random but they were reminded of that in their brain. It seems as if this is what Oskar is doing and it seems weird to readers but that is just how his mind is working.
I agree with Courtney W when she says "It seems as though this story is written the way Oskar perceives time." I think that may be a good explanation for the shuffled timeline of the story. However, even Oskar's own stories are out of order, such as when he tells his fantasy of smashing Jimmy Snyder's head with the skull. I pull the skull off my head... I smash it against Jimmy Snyder's head... It was twelve weeks earlier that I'd gone to visit Abe Black in Coney Island." (146) I think that things like this make time overlapping, because it depends on your point of view. For example, when Oskar was talking to William Black at the end, he finds out that William Black was Abby Black's husband. " 'Someone was in the other room while we talked.' 'A man?' 'Yeah.'... 'That man was me.' " (293) he had seen him at her house, and he had spent this whole time looking for him when he could have found him right then, if Abby had said anything to Oskar. Oskar even says "Don't you think it's weird that we were in the apartment together eight months ago and now we're in this office together?" (295) That just shows how time brings people together and apart in the book. It brings Oskar and Mr. Black together, Oskar an all the Blacks together, but it brings Oskar and his father apart due to his death. Oskar fights against time as he struggles to get closer to his father although he is a memory, which he keeps alive against the wears of time.
When referring to time as a character in the novel, Courtney W. said, “It goes away and comes back, unlike in other stories where time is just in the background.” I think that this is a very good way to view time, but there is one major flaw in her theory. For time to go away and come back that means it would have to disappear altogether, and I don’t believe that that happened in this book. While others may see this differently, I think that time can never disappear. Even while someone is explaining something, they are still in time. Time is a very interesting ideal to view as a character because that character would have to be present all the time. The year 1963, in which the letters were written is, was a time. The Worst Day was a time. Reading the book was time. It was time out of the context of normal time because it jumped all over the place, but in the end, it came back to where it started.
Anna M. pointed out that time brings people together in this novel. She also noted that because of time, people can be brought asunder. I disagree with this statement as a whole. Yes, people can physically be brought together in time, but their reunion does not always rely on time itself. For example, Oskar’s grandmother and grandfather had been apart for many years, and then they were reunited at the tragic event of their son’s death. That is not really time and the years bringing them together, it is the tragic event. I don’t think that time can bring people together or apart, I believe that time can heal and help with the understanding of certain situations. We saw it with Oskar when he healed over the death of his father. He went from lashing out at his mother to seeing that she is really the only one who can understand exactly what he is going through. He goes from being an irrational, naive child to a more mature young adult by the time the novel has come to a close. He recognizes things that his brain would not have processed before. Time cannot be erased or used as a mechanism to bring people together, but it can be used in the healing and maturation of the characters in the book.
I disagree with Casey R W's statement: "While others may see this differently, I think that time can never disappear." Oskar is the marrator of this story. While his grandmother or grandfather are speaking, Oskar's time has dissappeared. Other people take his place as narrator for a short time and their time is existing then, not Oskar's time. When they switch off, the other's time dissappears, just like the narrator. So while time is still present to the reader and the author, it is not present to the characters, whose story we are in, whose time we live through.
Time in this story is always changing. One minute could take up a whole page (about two minutes to read) or one paragraph (about ten seconds to read). Time is never constant in life or this book. Like while one sleeps, it could feel like two minutes when it has really been six hours. Time in this book helps it relate to time outside this book. Both seem to be variable rather than constant.
While Cassandra W. has a very good point about Oskar’s time disappearing, I was speaking in the sense that time itself can never disappear. Oskar’s time and his grandparent’s time, his father’s time, and any other character’s times may be portrayed separately in the novel, but time itself can never fully disappear. I believe that Foer is perhaps not trying to make us see the story in the different times of the characters, but that he is trying to make the reader see that time is irrelevant. No matter how much time Oskar’s grandparents spend apart, they can still come back and have a connection. No matter how much time Oskar has without his father, he will always recall what his father taught him and how much he cared for him. No matter how much time any character in this novel lives through, they will always have a connection to the book. Foer has us believe that characters always have connections with each other no matter how much time they spend away from the plot of the story. By this I mean that while the story of Oskar’s grandparents appears irrelevant to the plot, it helps develop who Oskar is and how his father’s life was.
I would like to bring up a new topic on the subject of time. Oskar’s life seems to be split into two parts of time: the time when his dad was alive and the time after his dad died. Oskar calls the day his dad died “the worst day” (68) and this day seems to be what his entire life revolves around. He talks about things he used to do with his dad and it almost seems like he is talking about something that happened in a different part of time than the rest of his life. Obviously the time spent with his dad happened in the past, but it seems to be separated from the rest of his past. There are things that happen yesterday or a week ago or eight years ago that are all in the past to other people that just feel like part of their past, but it seems that Oskar has two separate parts of the past. While things that happened a week ago to Oskar are in the past, those things are put in a different part of time than things that occurred before his dad died.
The idea of two separate parts of time is conveyed through the tone of voice Oskar uses when telling stories about his the time with his father and the time without his father. On page 8 he says, “He shrugged his shoulders, like he had no idea what I was talking about. I loved that.” It seems as though Oskar only uses pleasant words and describes happy emotions when describing time he spent with his father, but he only uses sad words and describes unpleasant emotions when describing time after his father’s death. An example of this is on page 171 where Oskar writes that he is “extremely depressed” and “incredibly alone” after talking with my mother. Oskar recalls the time in spent with his father as a positive time and sees the present and past since his father’s death in a negative light. This suggests he sees them as two separate parts of time.
Time seems to play one of the biggest roles within the novel, because there are two different times in which the story is written. Now not only are there two different times, but there are two different stories within this one book. Everyone seems to be writing about how time affects Oskar's life, and yes this is a large part of the story, but what about the story that his grandparents are writing as well? Time plays a huge part in that, because his grandparents knew eachother when they were little, but if they had not forgotten about eachother and been reunited, Oskar's dad would have never been born, and ultimately, Oskar wouldn't have been either.
Time does play a large role in Oskar's story though, also. He says, "I know that it was 10:22 when I got home, because I look at my watch a lot" (14). Also, the passages that he restates about the phone massages that his father left the morning of the attacks, he makes a point to tell us the exact time, like many have already stated. I agree with Courtney when she states, "Oskar’s life seems to be split into two parts of time: the time when his dad was alive and the time after his dad died." This is true, because in the story he never mixes the past with the present. He has a whole chapter called "the sixth borough," and Oskar isn't saying I remember when. . ., but instead he makes this chapter seem as though his dad is still alive. Then, when he is looking for the key, he doesn't really refer to the memories he has with his dad.
In some parts of the novel, time speeds up leaving gaps of time where we don't know what happened. For one, there is a big gap between his father's death and finding the key not giving much information between those two events. Another place where this happens is when he is talking about the play and then he says "It was twelve weekends earlier that I had gone to visit Abe Black" (147). In these parts of the book, it makes time overlap because he refers to it after it has happened, but tells the story as if it's happening now. The phone messages are like this too because Oskar can still hear his Dad's voice which makes it seem as if he is alive even though he's not. Oskar if affected by these messages and "affects him throughout the story" (Anna M P June 26). He even keeps the phone hidden in a box so that the messages won't be erased and so maybe he can figure out a way that could have saved his father because he has an inventive mind.
Johnathan Safran Foer uses time very specifically in Extremely Loud. Oskar says that "it takes a normal person seven minutes to fall asleep" (73). The phone messages are also very specific. This makes me think of "102 Minutes" by Jim Dwyer and Kevin Flynn. The two authors have done research and have documented phone messages just like Oskar's Dad. Time is very specific when they talk about people because "At 8:46:30, an impact had knocked [Diane DeFontes] off her chair." Time is very important to both novels because the fact that the twin towers were hit at specific times have impacted both. The North tower was hit at 8:46 am and the South tower was hit at 9:02:59 (102 minutes). One book is fiction while the other is non fiction, but both present time in a similar way.
Another part of time in the book is when Oskar is in Mr. Black’s apartment and they are up looking at his bed and then Oskar notices nails in the wooden bed. Oskar asks why there are nails in the bed. Mr. Black tells him that he has nailed one nail each day to get through the day since his wife died. “I’ve hammered a nail every morning since she died! It’s the first thing I do after waking! Eight thousand six hundred twenty-nine nails!” (161) I think this is like what Oskar is going through but Mr. Black is dealing with the pain of his wife’s death differently than Oscar’s dad’s death. Oskar tries to find the key to pass by the days and Mr. Black nails a nail each day to pass each day.
I think that Jonathan Safran Foer wrote this book at the appropriate time. Jonathan did not want to upset anyone by writing this novel and to show the world and how this affected people and how it made us stronger. I also, think that he has started something because after he wrote this book 2 movies came out about this tragedy. (Reign Over Me and World Trade Center) And there are probably many books about the World Trade Center tragedy to show how this changed some people’s lives.
I do not understand some of the time shifts in this book. The time shifts between Oskar and his grandmother. Soon I began to realize how she soon fit in. It was amazing how well Foer made everything fit right into place. The way how Oskar's grandmother would talk to him about his grandfather. Then after awhile Foer would have his grandfather show up in a coffee store (16). Then it would go back again to a point in Oskars' life that was a real big part of the story. In a way I guess it kind of related to what previously happened with Oskar's grandmother, sister, and his grandfather.
Marika S is right when she says, "it was difficult to adjust to these switches, but this technique without doubt was a defining mark that made this book stand out." It is very true with the way it changes back and forth between what is happening with Oskar and his grandmothers' life; but it makes something stand out thats makes you want to read more and more of the book. With its exciting yet confusing time shift you want more and more of the book.
Time can do many things for people. Over time people can forget, forgive, change, or even find closure. I think that time is addressed so frequently in this book to show Oskar's journey in finding closure with his father's death. It takes you through his journey and shows just how time can heal.
Thinking about sometime when time is not a constant, one thing that comes to mind is in our memories. When you think back to experiences you've had, whether they were good or bad or dull or exciting, as you replay them in your mind time is not constant. For instance, if you had an experience in which one certain detail stuck out to you in particular, then that moment in time seems to slow down for a while. You think about this specific detail and you wonder about it. As you replay other experiences in your head that may not have been as meaningful to you, time seems to speed itself up again and you fast forward right through the insignificant memories. If there is a certain memory that you have that was so incredibly amazing, when you think back to it your mind can replay it over and over again, letting you relive that exciting time. This relates to the story as Oskar thinks back to the day his father died. Oskar thinks about that day again and again and replays what happened in his head. His mind rewinds and fast forwards through that day and time seems insignificant to him as he is thinking.
Erica M brought up the time shifts that occur throughout the book. It seems like in the parts of the story Oskar tells, time is chronological, and in the parts of the story made up by the letters, time is in cycles.
Although some parts are left out and he recalls memories with his father from the past, when Oskar is narrating, time is in order. He tells his story in order and only a few things happen twice. He says that he listens to the messages from his father more than once; this is the only event that seems to repeat. So time in Oskar’s story is mostly chronological, with a few gaps and repeats.
Time appears to be in cycles in the letters Oskar’s grandparents wrote. On page 267, Oskar’s grandfather tells about when he returned to Manhattan and is trying to talk to Oskar’s grandmother by writing letters and her responding by writing on the window. He ask himself, “for how long could it go on?” which leaves readers to wonder that maybe this “game” could go on forever, like a circle. Also, when Oskar’s grandfather returns to New York it seems like he has never been gone. There is a feeling of awkwardness between them but there is still the same sense of no boundaries that has always been there. Before he left there were so many something and nothing spaces that they seem to blend together and it “became difficult to navigate” (110). When he returns things still blend together when they are together. He says, “we were getting closer or farther apart” (274). He can’t separate things when he is with her, no matter how long it has been since they have been together. The idea that they share the same feelings many years later makes their story seem like it is in cycles.
When Courtney W says "He says that he listens to the messages from his father more than once; this is the only event that seems to repeat," it made me think about the importance of the messages. Why are they the only things that repeat? And why do they have exact times (probably because every message machine has times but I am not sure) and play by plays of each moment? I also wondered through the whole book why he did not pick up the phone to speak to his father one last time. Was he to immature to know his time was limited with his father or was he sure and he just did not want to make it harder on them both?
All that has been talked about is the shifting of time, but what about the limits of time and where they appear in the book? Like Oskar's father's Death. Oskar's time with him was limited. "We (Oskar and Mr. Black) had been searching together for six and a half months when Mr. Black told me he was finished, and then I was all alone again and I hadn't accomplished anything, and my boots were the heaviest they've been in my life." (p.234) Oskar did not realize his time with Mr. Black was limited. Each time he meets the end of a time he gets sadder and sadder. I would think the "worst day" would make his boots the heaviest in his life but the "Death" of someone still alive is harder for him.
Cassandra's post is pretty intense. The whole idea of someone's time being limited is very true. A person will never know when it will be the last time you see them, or the last time he/she will be able to do something. It stresses the idea of having to make the most out the time we have. Oskar is not one to get right to the point. For example, when he is talking to Ms. Black, he knows she knows something about the key but he just won't get her to tell. It is wasted time. Our lives are just ticking clocks to the end. Oskar needs to realize it and go after what he wants faster.
First off, I would like to apologize to the other students posting on this topic for entering into the discussion at such a late time. However, I do find time to be a fascinating component of this book and would like to share my thoughts on it.
Time in this novel is a tool, a stylistic component, and a mystery. Jonathan Foer never fully reveals his motives behind incorporating time the way he does in the novel because he wants us to interpret his words and his story in our own individual ways. There is no right or wrong explanation for how it is used. I think that all of the students are correct in some point of their blogs. I would agree, as Cassandra W says, "Oskar did not realize his time with Mr. Black was limited. Each time he meets the end of a time he gets sadder and sadder. I would think the "worst day" would make his boots the heaviest in his life but the "Death" of someone still alive is harder for him." I also think that Nathan S is correct when he says, "Time affects people in this novel because time makes them grow attached." However, I really think that it is more than all of this. Yes, time overlaps. Yes, it gives us a better understanding of characters' personalities, pasts, futures, interactions, and relationships. But, despite all of this, I really think that time in the novel is meant to comment upon time in real life. It is supposed to make us realize how time and past and present and future affect all of us and shapes who we are but I also think that in a backwards way, Foer uses time in the novel to connect to 9/11. I think that using time the way he does is his way of commenting on the questions that the last part of the prompt raises. When Foer wrote the novel, he knew that there would be critics that would question his timing of writing this novel.
The use of time in this novel is partly Foer's way of explaining the writing of the novel. He uses the overlapping of time and the connections between past, present, and future to comment that 9/11 is something that needs to be examined, revisited, and analyzed. Yes, it was a tragic event but through his use of time, Foer suggests that perhaps 9/11 is something from which we can gain a better understanding of our society, each other, and our own personal motives behind our actions and behaviors in our every day lives. He uses his novel and his characters and their experiences to try to open the eyes of the world to the possibilities of gaining a better understanding of each other so that maybe, we might in turn gain a better society in which tragedies like 9/11 do not exist.
Another thing Foer points out is the connections of time, past, present, and future. The first page begins with Oskar as teh first character. We'll call any point in time that Oskar is experiencing the present. So it starts out in the present. Then it says, "I thought about that (a conversation with his father) my second time in a limousine, when the Renter and I were on our way to dig up Dad's empty coffin." (p.7-8)That is a glimps into the future, still unexpierienced by Oskar in the reader's point of view. On page 16 it then switches to the past. At first it is unclear to the reader who is speaking, Oskar never mentions his grandfather. Later it becomes clear. At first they are scattered and unrelated, but later they become one story instead of three.
I love how Erica M explains time. "Time can do many things for people. Over time people can forget, forgive, change, or even find closure." This is so true for the characters in this book. This book takes place in Oskar's world over a period of time of at least eight months (the time it takes to solve his "mystery"). His letters are dated, and readers can see that Oskar's grandfather's letters are written over a long time. Through these windows of time we see what happens in these peoples lives. So much happens.
Time is strange. In the last pages of the text, Oskar reflects on his last night with his father backwards. As I was reading this, I was thinking: time does not give you any clues what will happen next. It is not like a novel, where the reader can find passages of foreshadowing in the text. It is always a surprise; time never gave any clues to Oskar that that night was going to be the last night his father would ever tuck him in.
In response to one of the original questions, whether this book was appropriate or not to address in 2005, I have some mixed feelings. My family feels very connected to the September 11th tragedy, as my dad's best friend was one of the pilots of one of the planes that hit the WTC. Of course, my family grieved over this close family friend, but I think that 4 years was enough time to give for this book. People may never be able to mentally heal from some of the losses of that day, but I do not think that that aspect makes it inappropriate. In fact, I kind of like how open this book was to the tragedy.
I would like to add to what Christen was saying about Oskar reliving his last night with his dad backwards. This part of the book was interesting to me because what it is basically saying is that if time moved backward instead of forward, everyone could always be safe. I reread the last part a couple of times, but with the time moving backwards thing what really got my attention was the flipbook of the man jumping from the World Trade Center. To be completely honest, I was creeped out when Oskar first brought up his book with the pictures in it. What surprised me was that there were pictures of the jumping man mixed in with astronauts, paper airplanes, tennis players, and that odd picture of the human-apes. But when I got to the end of the book, read, "I ripped the pages out of the book. I reversed the order, so the last one was first and the first one was last," and saw that series of pictures, it turned out to be my favorite part of the book (325). There is such a fantastic dark optimism in the way that Oskar changes a man committing suicide into a man bouncing back into the building and back into life. It is just this one change, reversing time, that shows how Oskar has hope despite all and can change the universe just by moving "a single grain of sand" (86). It shows how in the future, Oskar will be okay because he has such an imagination that time is just a small detail that can be changed and ignored.
I absolutely loved Annie A's way of interpreting Oskar's view of time and how it becomes a small detail of life. I had really never interpreted time as a factor in a novel as small. But she is correct in saying, "It shows how in the future, Oskar will be okay because he has such an imagination that time is just a small detail that can be changed and ignored." People make such a big deal about time, as evidenced in questions of whether or not enough time was allowed between 9/11 and the writing of the novel. However, as Annie says, time really means nothing to Oskar. This is evident in the way he looks at death when he says to his mother, " 'Because what if I die tomorrow?' 'You're not going to die tomorrow.' 'Dad didn't think he was going to die the next day.'" Unlike most people who fear death and run from it, fearing that they will not have enough time left to do all the things that they want to do, Oskar embraces and really thinks about his inevitably impending death unusually often. However, unlike most people, he is also not stuck in a monotonous routine where he feels like he is wasting his time and really does feel like there is not enough time left for him. This is all in spite of the fact that he is a student, just like all of his other classmates. Unlike them however, he has no problem taking entire days to do whatever he wants to do: in his case searching for the lock that goes to his dad's key.
In short, because Oskar does not waste his time on things that do not matter to him because he feels obligated to do so, he does what he wants to do. This is partly related to the fact that he has a mother who seems to be completely unconcerned for his safety, letting him wander around a big city alone and due to the fact that he does not connect with very many people and thus does not feel obligated to do things for and with them. However, all of these things which would normally be construed in a negative light really are the key to Oskar's freedom and thus, he treats his time like the valuable asset it is and therefore does not worry about running out of it. He has no need for more time than he has already been given because he uses what he has wisely. Thus, the idea of dying tomorrow is completely irrelevant to him and time itself in turn becomes a trifling matter.
To comment on what Courtney W. said about Oskar seeing the time that he had with his father and the time after his father’s death as two different times, I would just like to point out that they are different times. It doesn’t matter that he was sad if he talks about anything after the attacks because he has the right to be sad—he is grieving. It really makes no sense for anyone person who has experienced something that phenomenal to not view it as completely different before and after. There are plenty of things in my life that before they happened I was a completely different person. I look back at that time now and I either think “Wow, I was really naïve,” or “I have really changed.” Every time I sit down to actually think about my past, I get lost in it, and start feeling emotions that were there before whatever significant event happened. I’m not saying that it has to be a death, but if you think about death, the advice that is given in the most clichéd way is to “Think about the happy times that you spent with that person.” And what is wrong with Oskar thinking about the fun, happy times that he had with his father. Yes, he died. Oskar knows that he died. He also knows that he loved his father and they had a lot of experiences together. Of course Oskar sees the time before his father’s death and after his father’s death as different times; they are very different for him. His emotions have changed and he has grown from the experience.
The expression “time heals all” is very significant to this novel. Oskar and his family are going through time and with what Oskar tells to the reader, it appears to be very scattered. Because Oskar’s time is not in order, it is very difficult for him to find the time to heal. He doesn’t really have a method to dealing with the pain besides distracting himself. That really isn’t the best way to get over something. Completely ignoring a major event will not make something go away. Oskar realizes that the night that he decides to go dig up his father’s coffin. Even though nothing is inside the coffin, seeing the coffin, and touching the coffin are enough to make Oskar realize that his father is actually gone and he can gain closure from the experience. Marissa A. discusses the difference between Mr. Black and Oskar’s healing processes. Mr. Black took the initiative to hammer nails into his bed once a day everyday since his wife passed away. Oskar doesn’t really know how to cope with his father’s death and he doesn’t know how to deal with the fact that he is gone so he just distracts himself. With that said, I have to add that I also agree with Erica M. when she said, “I think that time is addressed so frequently in this book to show Oskar's journey in finding closure with his father's death.” I believe that the journey is all incomplete until almost the very end and that is why Oskar cannot get his time straight in the novel.
I just wanted to try to answer some of the questions that Cassandra W. proposed (even though they may have been rhetorical). She asked, “Why are [the messages] the only things that repeat? And why do they have exact times and play by plays of each moment?” I think that this all happens because this is the only real part of Oskar’s post-accident self that he strives to forget. Because he is working so hard to forget what happened, ultimately, he remembers everything better than anything else that happened. He plays the messages again and again that day, so he plays them again and again in his head. This causes the memory to only focus on that. Sure, Oskar may have remembered other details of that day, but his mind focuses in on the messages because he knows that they are the last thing that his father left for him. That is also why they have exact times. Oskar knows the details of the messages so well because he was there, experiencing it, and it has become so difficult for him to forget it. By the end of the novel, he doesn’t feel like he needs to forget it any longer. He wants to have the messages because they are his father in his last couple minutes alive. Oskar learns to cherish that because it is something that he will never have again—his father’s voice.
I have noticed that Oskar groups his father’s time into basically three timeframes: when he was living with him, when he was dying, and after his death. Oskar seemed content with his life and having talks with his father at night, but after his death, Oskar worries about if he is going to die when he asks his mother, “ ‘Because what if I die tomorrow?’ ‘You’re not going to die tomorrow.’ ‘Dad didn’t think he was going to die the next day.’” As well as when he is talking to Mr. Black he worries about the time that he has when contemplating riding the ferry, “What about while I’m on the ferry? What if it sinks…There won’t be a tonight tonight.” (240). Foer never mentions any of these worries while his father is alive, but as time went on he basically became more and more paranoid. Time helped him cope with his father’s death, but he also thought more about his father’s death as time went on. From what I have experienced with thinking about things too long is you start to concentrate more and more on the bad sides of the problem, and what might happen, even if it is completely ridiculous. Oskar’s grandfather also has this happen when he begins thinking about the bombing (281). His thoughts get so jumbled after four pages of illegible writing it is nearly completely black on page 284.
I would also like to point out how it took the entire book for Oskar to realize “the renter” was his grandpa. Time does not only “heal all” but likewise, time reveals all.
One last point is that Oskar and his parents looked for mistakes in the Times. Call me crazy, but that jumped out to me.
I have no idea why that last comment used my old account, but this the the right account.
I have noticed that Oskar groups his father’s time into basically three timeframes: when he was living with him, when he was dying, and after his death. Oskar seemed content with his life and having talks with his father at night, but after his death, Oskar worries about if he is going to die when he asks his mother, “ ‘Because what if I die tomorrow?’ ‘You’re not going to die tomorrow.’ ‘Dad didn’t think he was going to die the next day.’” As well as when he is talking to Mr. Black he worries about the time that he has when contemplating riding the ferry, “What about while I’m on the ferry? What if it sinks…There won’t be a tonight tonight.” (240). Foer never mentions any of these worries while his father is alive, but as time went on he basically became more and more paranoid. Time helped him cope with his father’s death, but he also thought more about his father’s death as time went on. From what I have experienced with thinking about things too long is you start to concentrate more and more on the bad sides of the problem, and what might happen, even if it is completely ridiculous. Oskar’s grandfather also has this happen when he begins thinking about the bombing (281). His thoughts get so jumbled after four pages of illegible writing it is nearly completely black on page 284.
I would also like to point out how it took the entire book for Oskar to realize “the renter” was his grandpa. Time does not only “heal all” but likewise, time reveals all.
One last point is that Oskar and his parents looked for mistakes in the Times. Call me crazy, but that jumped out to me.
I agree with what Marika says about Oskar becoming paranoid about death. He begins to over think each of his actions more and more. And when this happens he begins to invent life-saving devices to make him feel at ease. The ironic thing though is the fact the Oskar is walking aroung New York completly alone for most of the book seeking answers from strangers who may or may not be dangerous. Often times it is hard to understand exactly what is going through his head and if he really understands what he fears.
Getting back to the time theme, I feel that Foer makes time stand still in different segments of the novel. Some of these times include when Oskar sees his dad calling, (14) what Oskar's grandfather experiences during the bombings, (208-216) and even just the most breif moments like the sisters kissing (142) and when the coffin is lifted open (320).
There is also a lot of jumping around in time and breif changes in main characters. A reader could easily confuse the order of the book's events and forget who is narrating. Occasionally the main plot events switch to those of the grandparents or letters that a character has writen to another. The way events pass in this book and then 'rewind' towards the end makes the reader think; what is time, really?
Foer has a great way of changing times throughout the book with Oskar, his grandmother, and his grandfather.
Before his father's death, Oskar seemed to have things to do and places to see, but now that his dad is not there, time has stopped for Oskar, but not for everyone else. As Oskar's mom is trying to move on and have a friendship with Ron, Oskar is still having a hard time without his father there, and doesn't want to accept Ron. "Mom was with Ron in the living room, listening to music too loud and playing board games. She wasn't missing Dad." [36]
Oskar pays a lot of attention to time. He'll say how he looks at his watch. The first hint that I found to suggest that Oskar's time stopped was when he had arrived home on The Worst Day and had just listened to one message. "I looked at my watch. It was 10:26:41. I thought about running away and never talking to anyone again. I thought about hiding under my bed. I thought about rushing downtown to see if I could somehow rescue him myself. And then the phone rang. I looked at my watch. It was 10:26:47." [68] In all of these thoughts rushing through his mind, only six seconds had gone by.
I liked the idea that Marika S presented about Oskar "living in three timeframes: when he was living with him, when he was dying, and after his death."
When Oskar's dad was still alive, they would spend time together at night. And now, Oskar spends time at night thinking of inventions that could have helped his father.
I also think that 2005 was a pretty good time to publish this book because it gave people enough time to recover, so that people who were directly involved, like Oskar, could have easily read and finished this book without having to stop because of the constant reminders of "the worst day".
First of all, I did not even notice the part Elise D mentioned when Oskar checks his watch twice within six seconds. After she pointed that out, however, I thought about it and I do not know if I just missed this, but I wonder if Oskar checked the time so often before he heard the messages? While the book is written after his dad's death, there are parts of the story, such as the story about the sixth borough, that Oskar describes life before "the worst day". In those parts, there is no mention of Oskar looking at his watch. This leads me to believe that Oskar's obsession with time relates back to those messages. They all had a specific time and those specific times make up a timeline of the minutes leading up to the tower collapsing. It is as though Oskar is trying to continue that timeline by constantly checking the time, in a way continuing his father's legacy. One theme of this book was time, and throughout the middle of the book, time is constant, but at the end, Oskar thinks about time as if time is moving backwards. He is trying to reverse everything that happened by making the timeline go the opposite way than it did before.
Time and mood go hand and hand. The time lapse of a moment can differ due to the mood the person is in. For instance, Oskar and his grandmother get into a dispute with one another because his grandmother threw away the plate block that was necessary for his stamps. After yelling at her, Oskar says, "There's no reason to get another,' I told her, wanting to take back the last few things I said and try them again, being nicer this time, being a better grandson, or just a silent one" (105). If Oskar had been in an infuriated rage instead of just a little angry at that point in time, the situation could have gone a lot differently. He could have said more brutal things to his grandma, or maybe even broken something or hit her. His mood quickly changes from upset to guilty, which allows the story to continue on with a softer pace.
Another refference to time that this book often uses is "age." The age limit varies vastly from Oskar's age of nine years old to Mr. Black's wise old age of one hundred and three (197). There is quite the handful of elderly people displayed through out the pages of this book, as well as children Oskar's age such as the school boy, Jimmy Snyder. Time is necessary for age to occur.
Personally, I do not think that this book actually explains and addresses 9-11 very well. However, I am not entirely finished with this book so there might be more to come, I do not know. When I first began reading this book, I expected a story from a survivor of the 9-11 attack, and an in-depth explanation of everything that happened. I did not expect to read about a nine year old child who lost his father in the attack. Instead of focusing mainly on the event that occured, this book focuses on the emotional toll 9-11 took on people world wide, and I think that is just as important. It allows people to understand the emotional involvement that went along with the attack and to more clearly grasp the concept of how painful it was for the citizens of our country to handle. I think that it is perfect timing for this book to be published because it allowed time for our country to heal and now people are more willing to talk about what happened that day. I also think that this book helps teenagers such as myself understand what happened because I was so young when 9-11 occured, and I did not know much about it. Now thanks to this book, I have a more clear concept of what happened, and how hard it was on the families of those who were lost in the tragedy.
Time, I believe is a major theme in itself within this novel. There are times for nearly everything. There is time for Oskar to grieve, time for him to remember, time for him to search and time for him to just be. I believe that the saying "Time does not change us, it unfolds us" is a proper quote for Oskar because as the time that grows from his dads death, Oskar unfolds and changes and is being molded into who he really is.
I completely agree with what Anna M said, when she mentioned that the time on the message machines are affecting Oskar. As each message is played, it is letting know whether Oskar's dad is going to live, or die.
I would also like to touch on the way Foer introduces time. He never fully introduces it, because he wants each reader to analyze time in their own way. The way he put three different time frames within the novel is fascinating to me. Not only were there Oskar’s time, but his grandfathers and grandmothers as well.
Time can do great things for people. It can heal, it can give life, but it can also postpone life. For some, time is much too vast for them so they postpone their life. In Oskar’s case, time is healing him. He refers to the day his dad died as the "worst day" (68) but yet when he meets new people he realizes that over time, he can change people's lives. Take Mr. Black for example, Oskar changed his life drastically by taking him out of his comfort zone and into the world
Time never leaves, and it does not disappear. Time is constantly in motion, and there isn't a second that time is put on hold. Time can overlap, but only when Oskar relives the memories of his dad.
By addressing this tragedy, Foer has made it clear to America that we need to retrace time, and look back on the lives lost, and the wars that have begun. Just like Oskar, America has lost something very important too, its ability to forgive
When I first started reading, I got confused in the difference between the Oskar's story, and the grandmother's; that of which first appears on page 16. Although the date is listed, the writing style remained pretty much the same, therefore leading me to think that it was also Oskar.
Both time periods in which this book is written, deal with losing something. The grandmother mentions "losing" words and then having to write things down or hold up her right or left hand for yes or no (16-17). Mr. Richter deals with losing Anna, and can't seem to get over it. And obviously, Oskar is faced with the struggles that come along with losing his father. Both time periods are different but ultimately connect back to the idea of losing someone or something. Time plays a crucial part in this book. In a way, Foer is showing the reader that no matter how old you are, or what decade it is, losing someone or something can have an almost identical affect depending on the people. Although people deal with losing something differently, time doesn't matter. Grieving, letting go, moving on, and learning exist in both time periods making it cohesive despite the different situations.
Sarah F mentions that she didn't think "this book actually and addresses 9-11 very well." True, Foer doesn't address 9-11 as a major idea in the book, but this is because although Oskar's father did die in that tragedy, it's not solely about it. As important as this issue is, as it had a major affect on our world, this is Oskar's story. This novel reveals how Oskar handled losing his father and how many others might have dealt with losing a loved one in the attacks. It's his story, how he dealt with this time period in his life.
Time in this novel is used in a very abstract fashion to described just how connected Oskar, his father, and everyone else he meets are. Readers experience a flow of time not bound by traditional chronology or plot, but by the interconnection of lives across a breadth of space. This space, in itself, is timeless; it does not move in any kind of fourth dimension, but the existences within it are what propel time and life "forward."
Life is in its most basic form, experience. It is experience in multiples. When these experiences are strung together and recalled, we see them as the past. But for Oskar, a revolutionary thinker who's imagination keeps him from binding, time does not constitute a rational constant. Within his mind, he can very easily experience other times in an instant, and time is as easily controlled as electricity or a light.
For Oskar, this allows him the ability to re-live and re-experience those experiences that are most traumatic and most endearing but without the need to remain within a binded setting. He invents as a way to counteract this ability; he invents ways that his father may have been able to survive 9/11 if he had had them. "What about windmills on the roof of every skyscraper? What about a kite-string bracelet? A fishing line bracelet?" (323) His envisioning of impossibility leads him to his most impressive imagining yet, the playing back of his father's last day, in words to the reader, to end the book.
Time, as Jaime stated is a major theme within this book. It allows us to look into the time when his grandparents were first starting their story together, and it also allows us to look into the time surrounding September 11th. Oskar pays very close attention to time, but as the readers I don't think we're supposed to pay attention to the time of day, but the time in which this book was written. Elise makes a very good point when she says, "I also think that 2005 was a pretty good time to publish this book because it gave people enough time to recover." Although it may have just been coinsidence that the book was published in 2005 and not earlier, Foer timed it well, and allowed the public grieving to pass.
This book takes place just one year after the attacks, and Oskar doesn't seem to show the emotion that others were still showing after the attacks. Casey brings up a great point when she states, "Completely ignoring a major event will not make something go away." Although Oskar my be acting as though he is ignoring it, I believe that Oskar is not ignoring what happened, but he's rather overwhelmed and doesn't know how to handle his emotions in a healthy way. So, in the meantime, he chooses to occupy himself with finding the key. Oskar throughout the book keeps us updated on times in which he goes out to look for the key. for example, "It was twelve weekends earlier that I had gone to visit Abe Black" (147). The time he puts into the finding of the key, I believe is also time that he is using to cope with the 9/11 attacks, because the key sort of symbolizes his father, and what he left behind.
I have to agree strongly both with what lydia b w said and what ethan g w said. I liked ethans description of how within oskars mind time is easily controlled and that allows him to go back and pick apart traumatic events in his life. This is a great way to write a novel because we all do it; time doesnt really exist in our memories. I mean, none of us can really say, " O yea, this happened at precisely two o'clock on a saturday and it was daylight savings time can we?" The authors that are able to convey a sense of time into only parts of the book, and still delve into emotions deeply enought that time doesnt exists, are skilled ones. There are several instances that pop up that show how fascinated oskar is with time, but also how afraid he is of the concept, like his favorite book is A History of Time, but its difficult to finish, and some parts he's read but wishes he hasn't(11,86), or how he figured out the average person falls asleep in seven minutes, or even his calculations about how many locks there are, and how manny new ones are made(52).
As for Lydia b w's post, the publish date of this book could've caused a different range of emotions. Had it been published sooner after the 911 attacks, it would've been met with more anger and misunderstanding, simply because they are so fresh in everyones minds and its hard to read those events in the newspapers, let alone in a book. By waiting, whether on purpose or not; lydias right it did allow for more healing, so instead of causing more sadness when people read, it gives a sense of hope, and the sarcastic humor stuck in is more pronounced. Oskar is a sweet heart, who is simply trying to make sense of what has happened in in his life, just like we all did on 9 11. It is simply easier to read about others emotions when our own personal emotions aren't so upfront and painful.
Throughout the book, I too got very confused about the shifting narrators. The point of views through all the characters, Oskar, his Grandmother, and the renter all contributed perfectly the whole time. I agree with what Jamie C said about here being time for everything in the novel. Although Oskar was very close to finding the answer to his crisis the whole time, Foer made it seem like he wasn’t getting anywhere at all, when all along this journey he took helped him to grow emotionally and as an overall character in the novel. I believe Foer contributed the grandmother and grandfather’s point of views in the story to help to describe Oskar’s way of life, history, and also to try and tell the readers a little about the Oskar’s father, because even though he wasn’t alive in any part of the book, I still believe he was probably the most important character.
The timing of this book being published was probably a very important factor to Foer, as he knew it had to be enough time for people to grieve. Although I agree with the fact that the book wasn’t basely on 9/11, it was most likely a wake up call for readers who had not witnessed the traumatic attacks that day. With the book being published in 2004, I’m sure that there was time for grieving, and this book was certainly a way of showing a young boy’s reactions first-hand of what happened.
I think the book was published at a perfect time. It is soon enough that people haven't stopped caring about it, and it is late enough that it won't upset people as much to think about it and remember it. But with time itself in the book, I found only one thing interesting. The use of time and healing after a traumatic even, like the one that happened to
Oskar and everyone really in the U.S. or world for that matter. There is a movie called Memento, where the main character has no short term memory. He looses his short term memery when he is beaten and his wife is raped and murdered. So everyday after this incident, it is like he is waking up the day after his wife's murder and thats the last thing that he remember's. There is a part in the movie where he is talking about how this happens to him everyday, so in a sense he is living the same day(the day after his wife's murder) over and over again. So time keeps going, but for him it is basically not going. And so, if this is happening, how his he supposed to ever get over or move on from her death, because time is what heals someone from something tragic like that, but since he can't make new memories, and its just like waking up after the day his wife was murdered, then he can't heal. So my connection to the book is that how I found how time and the healing process operates differently with everyone in the book. With Oskar he is not healed yet from his father's death and he believes he can never heal and he thinks it would be disrespect to his father to move on. Where as his mother moves on rather quickly and his already sort of seeing a guy. Their healing is controlled by time. So if their lives are 'bruised' so to speak, then time controls their lives. Time is the most important thing. Sometimes you wish you had more time or less or you wish you could turn time back like Oskar wants to at the end of the book, but you can't. You can't control time, time controls you. This book shows that. Oskar wishes he could turn it back and atleast have answered the phone and and have said goodbye or I love you to his father, but he can't. So he must go on and through time heal, but only time will tell how he gets through. For the last time, this has been Stephen K W saying good luck and goodnight.
Time is an interesting theme in this novel, and I believe that starts with the time it was published. The 9/11 tragedies really wrecked part of our nation, and it needed some time to sink in before anyone wrote about it. But Jonathon Safran Foer does a good job of capturing some important elements.
In the novel time is very circular, starting with 9-year-old Oskar investigating his father's past, what happened in his life before he died. In this sense, he uses time to try and grow closer to his father. However, by becoming closer to his father, he also becomes closer to his grandparents through the history they have to share. They bring Oskar back through letters to show him time in a new light.
Time is also a major factor in conveying the panic felt by the people of New York and obviously Oskar as well, because even though he never claims to be panicked, he looks at his watch several times on what he calls the worst day. Time is completely valuable to him and he definitely shows that in his memorization of the times that his dad called.
Time could also be an indicator of his guilt that he never picked up the phone and spoke to his dad before his dad died. He had the chance, but he let the machine take the call, as if he was frozen in time. Indeed, he mulls over those phone calls several times later throughout the novel, as if begging for time to rewind itself.
I think what Stephen K is trying to say in his last blog is that time is a matter of perspective. This is where the saying "time flies when you're having fun" originates from. When you're at Six Flags with your friends, time seems to move much faster than when you are sitting in math class. The same is true for Oskar and all his family. Their perspectives differ and thus their perception of time does as well.
For Oskar, his life, and thus all of the time that he has left, centers around one event: "the worst day". Almost all of his time is consumed with either thinking about, reliving, or replaying that day or something related to it. This is evident with how much time he spends looking for the lock that goes to his key. It was his father's key and therefore directly related to the only event that Oskar focuses on from his father's life which is his death.
The way I see it, Oskar's father gave him a lot of perspective on life and once that perspective was gone with his father's death, Oskar's perception of time was lost as well. He is stuck in a state of timelessness. The key is his way of searching for a source of perspective and thus a way to realign his personal perception of time. The novel jumps back and forth from time period to time period to represent how lost Oskar is in a state of timelessness. I agree with Casey R when she says, "Every time I sit down to actually think about my past, I get lost in it, and start feeling emotions that were there before whatever significant event happened." This happens to everyone. However, I do not agree that emotions are the only thing that affect a person's perspective of time as Casey seems to argue. Emotions are only a part of it. You can think about an emotional event without getting emotional about it. You can look at it in an analytical way, but it takes both maturity and perspective to be able to do this and thus be able to gain back a realistic sense of time. Oskar has neither one of these things. Thus, he is lost. Whether it can be argued that he finds his way out of it by the end of the book or not, I do not know.
Time appears in a different way when Oskar’s grandma writes her entire life story. Wouldn’t this take her whole life to complete? Oskar’s grandfather tells us she was “putting all of her life into her life story” (119). She sits and writes out every detail of her life. This gives a weird perception of time because it seems like time is not existent. If she were really to write every single detail, she would have to constantly write and not live and experience anything, then she would have nothing to write about except the fact that she was writing her life story. It’s like time would have to slow down for a while so she could write down every detail, then it would have to speed up so she could have something to write about. Or maybe time is just not existent in her mind. Maybe she feels like time isn’t there because she feels like she will never run out of time.
Also, to answer the original question about whether time is overlapping, linear or circular, I think it is all of these. Time appears as all three of these at different parts of the story. I believe it is circular when Oskar’s grandpa writes the letters about how nothing has changed; linear when Oskar tells the story; and overlapping because letters from 1963 are mixed with a story that takes place in 2001. This seems to make the story more interesting and challenging.
Although many such as Elise D and Lydia B said that that "2005 was a pretty good time to publish this book because it gave people enough time to recover," we have to keep in mind whom this story is about. This is Oskar's story. This is how he felt a year after the attacks. True, September 11th still remains sensitive to many despite the time that has past, but the book is meant to show his feelings, his side. The fact that this book is suppose to take place one year after the attacks also says something about how time is should be perceived in this book. Although Oskar does miss his father, he pushes it aside to solve the mystery for a better understanding of his father. If this would have taken place five years after the attacks, Oskar wouldn't have been the same person; therefore, making it a different story.
This book is meant not to highlight 9/11, nor to make people remember all the sadness that came from it, it's meant to show Oskar's experience. Although his mind works different, and he doesn't understand why his grandmother is so protective at times, it is a year later for him too. He also shows a lack of trust which shows the type of pain he was feeling a year after; for example, when he says, "sometimes people who seem good end up being not as good as you might have hoped" (100). This ultimately gives the reader a glimpse of how Oskar, one year later, is learning to deal with what happened.
As many have addressed before, time is a complicated element in this novel. Foer plays with the ideas of time and space and how humankind can warp something so unchangeable. It is a very fascinating technique that makes the reader question his way of thinking. Foer knows what incredible things can come from someone questioning the world around them. Just look at Isaac Newton!
To accomplish these great feats one must start at the beginning. Foer not only presents time in obvious ways, like the letters from the grandparents, but shows us time in less obvious ways, too. For example, the grandmother and her “putting all of her life into her life story” (119) is a great portrayal of time and its warped view in this book. As Courtney W W states “If she were really to write every single detail, she would have to constantly write and not live and experience anything, then she would have nothing to write about except the fact that she was writing her life story.” Time is obviously much more complex in this novel than in real life.
Foer’s purpose in using the idea of time was not to confuse the reader, but to enlighten the reader about Oskar’s feelings. I believe time is used to show how Oskar views life – everything is blurred into the present. Since the “worst day” it seems the world is crashing down on Oskar. Everything is closing in and the only way to escape the suffocating grasp is to understand what is going on. He does this by writing it down in a journal that I believe became this book. Time has fallen on top Oskar and that is why it is such a complicated element for the reader to explore. They are digging through the rubble of Oskar’s mind when he is in such a fragile state.
I have to agree with what Kari P said about the time being right for this book to be published. I also feel 2005 was a good time to start discussing the 9/11 events. For Oskar though, he was still reliving it and the pain was still fresh a year after the event.
When a friend or family member dies, there are fives stages of the healing process the loved ones go through. They are shock, disbeilef, anger, realization, and moving on from the expierence/ closure. To make it through these stages and to recover from a loss takes time. During the course of the novel, Oskar seems to be moving through all of these stages, though it may be slow-going.
What Stephen K said about time standing still for Oskar seems to be very accurate. He keeps reliving 'the worst day' and the only thing that seems to make time move foward is the search for the lock. This scavenger hunt that takes place every sunday gives Oskar a reason to keep living. It is like closure for Oskar and his dad sine they didn't get to finish their central park treasure hunt.
After the coffin is filled with the letters, the Grandfather and Oskar finally have their closure with the bloved dad and the son he never knew. So then at the end time continues, in a different way then time was shown in the body of the story, and the characters can finally move on with life.
The more time Oskar experiences while mourning his father, the more he begins to realize (albeit very slowly from the reader's perspective) just how important the time he had spent with father was. Oskar envisions a world where his father did not die where "we would have been safe" (326). He feels that despite losing his father in 9/11 that he is still in his life, because of his search for "Black" and his search for the lock. It is empathy far this quest that is seen by the various Blacks, by The Renter, by his Grandmother (even though she does not know the truth precisely) and it is that empathy for Oskar that transcends the time that elapses throughout the novel. This is just one of the devices common to both Oskar and his Grandfather that eclipse temporal attachment and binding.
Oskar and his grandfather both experience time as fleeting. Oskar's "hopeless" search for his father is simply one way for his trying to reach out and grab on to the fleeing time, whereas his grandfather writes the letters in an attempt to create "lost" time. Time floats and turns and dives and whirls away from the two of them, one looking for time and the other creating it. It simply requires the two of them, working in unison, to tie the time back together; to fix time as to how it should have been.
Time as a dynamic construct within "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" signifies the ability of an individual to influence time. Although the perception of the reader may not be affected, the reader is viewing the novel as a constant, and therefore is subject to the author's expression of time rather than the true impressions received by other characters. It is in this way that Foer allows a boy and an old man the ability to shift and bend and reconstitute time for themselves and for others.
I have to ask Ethan G exactly what he means when he says, "It simply requires the two of them, working in unison, to tie the time back together; to fix time as to how it should have been." How exactly do you define "as to how it should have been"? All of the students on this blog seem to be focusing on one "way" that time should or shouldn't be. I really think that there is no right or wrong on this topic. What do we mean by "should"? I think a big part of this discussion is what is the definition of time? How do you define, label, and put time into a box?
Time is not the hands on the clock moving or the number of days in a week, weeks in a month, months in a year, or years in a century. I think that time is a very personal thing. Everybody uses their time differently and everybody perceives it differently. For example, doing what I may see as a very valuable time commitment, you may see as a waste of time. Or, I may feel like my day flew by and felt like an hour and you may feel like your's took years to pass. Everything is based upon perspective. For example, spending time finding the lock to the Black key is the most valuable way that Oskar could spend his time, in his eyes. Others could see that as the most impossible thing to do and a very big waste of time.
People's lives and the way they experience their lives differ so much that there is no excuse for judging people or the way they see the world. For instance, I think that oskar is a very judgmental person. He thinks that he is simply being brutally honest but what he doesn't realize is that not everybody sees the world the same way he does. For example, when he judges his mom for spending time with Ron, "'Why are you in love with Ron?' 'What?' 'You're obviously in love with him so what I want to know is, why? What's so great about him?' ' Oskar, did it ever occur to you that things are more complicated than they seem?' 'That occurs to me all the time.' 'Ron is my FRIEND.' 'So then promise me you won't fall in love again'" (171). Oskar does not and cannot understand his mother's relationship with Ron because he is so caught up in his own perception of time. To him, spending time with Ron seems like a waste but to his mom, it seems like the best thing she could be doing with her time.
Time is all a matter of perspective. It has no definition. It cannot be put in a box and labeled. However, if we as people could learn to respect each other's view of time and respect that it is different from our own, we might get much further with understanding each other.
I want to know what my fellow students think. Am I wrong? Can time be defined? How do you all view time?
Oskar is planning his future by his past. You can't do that. In this book you have Oskar planning his years out by visiting people to see if they know what this "key" is given to him by his father. The key is in the past, his dad is in the past. To move forward in time you must think about the future, and what is to come.
There is no SPECIFIC meaning to time. You could however easily say; Day-n: A period of twenty-four hours. But those hours in the day that seem like minutes, and minutes that seem like hours, that is time. You calculate what time is to you. I can't decide for any person in this whole world if they think their days were worth it. Nevertheless a day is usually mostly misspent.
You could stand around for hours asking questions and trying to find answers like Oskar, or simply leaving questions unanswered and go on living. Oskar I think is just prolonging his fathers death by making his days longer with more to find out. The more information you find out, the more you think. It either makes perfect sense, or it becomes to become overwhelming and make no sense at all. Oskar does the "make no sense at all" when he calculated to see every person with the last name Black around him.
"The clock talked loud. I threw it away, it scared me what it talked." This random quote shows, people are scared of time to pass. They don't want the seasons to change because it means time really is moving forward. There are some people who want time to stand still, and keep them in the state they are in. Time is precious, that's why you hold on to those moments where you feel infinite.
The passing of time for Oskar's mom seems to be okay to me. She lost her husband but is spending her time to see beyond the grieving bullshit. She finds a new "boyfriend." Tries to make herself happy. I believe this can be done. Kudos to Oskar's mommy.
I find time to be something we take for granted. One minute Oskar's dad was there, the next he wasn't. The moment the author started discussing his father's death I think was the appropriate time to talk about 9/11. This book IS about that day anyhow, so who's to actually decide when it should be spoken about? The authors.
"Until you value yourself, you won't value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it."
How does a a young boy value himself? I don't have a clue, but Oskar does. He is doing something productive with his time, but it's living in the past. You live and learn; something I think Oskar should have done before his hunt with his key.
In response to Amy S's question:
The 'movement' or 'passage' of time is a figurable constant; time is simply another dimension, one that describes the eventualities and possibilities that accompany objects in motion. Particularly massive objects in motion (stars, planets, black holes) project gravity around them in proportion to their mass (and relative density). Those objects then affect 'nearby' objects in proportion to their distance and the adjacent object's massiveness. To observers in the third dimension, such as humans, moments are linked together in a succession that appear vaguely separated by something and the something is characterized as time. Now, the speculation is supposedly that the perspective of individuals' time is variable, and by the nature of time, it is. Because individuals occupy different locations in space they are inherently experiencing time variably, but time flows at "the same rate." It is only with the application of space-time, or the interconnection of 4 dimensions that true "perspective" can be realized.
Because time is so inherently variable by means of movement, an individual observing time can only rely on their personal perspective, because anyone else's would be inherently different. I simply speculate that perhaps Oskar has the ability to perceive time and impart that perception in an abstract manner; that he is isolated within his mind from probability and reality and is imagining time as it could have been or "should have been." It is that search for a "fixed" time that connects Oskar to his grandfather and allows him to resolve his father's death for himself.
We’ve talked about this in class; time is hard to put an exact definition on. Time isn’t always what’s on the clock or on the calendar, as Amy S suggests. Time has to be compared to your life. What you have time to do, what time you have to be somewhere, or what time something is over at. It’s not something that can be measured. Oskar’s use of time is spent trying to solve the mystery. Because it means so much to him, he puts all the time he has into it. True, it’s easy to say, his idea of time is different that most peoples’. But is it really? You can’t ever fully understand how someone else thinks of time or how often they think of time.
There is no right or wrong way to think of time. Lisa F says that you can’t plan your future by your past. Although this does have some meaning and could be seen as the truth, it doesn’t apply to Oskar. Oskar isn’t like most, he does things different. However, his doing things different doesn’t make or break anything. He finds a way, and that’s all that’s important. It may not make sense to some, but it makes sense to him. Who’s to say its right or wrong?
9/11 wasn’t spoken about to an extreme level in this book because it wasn’t necessary. It was there to set the stage and tell the reader the time period in which the book took place. Although not spoken about a whole lot, it still played a huge role. That says a lot about how time can make its way into something without it having to be said over and over again.
I found what kari p said interesting. She said, "we have to keep in mind whom this story is about. This is Oskar's story." In many cases that's true, but in reality this is Foer's story. It's been said that 2005 was the perfect time to release this book, because it "was a pretty good time to publish this book because it gave people enough time to recover," (Elise D).
In reality, Foer must have started writing this book at most six months after 9/11 (which is funny because he would've been writing the future as if it were past tense) because it takes at least six months to get a response to a publishing request, and at LEAST a year to get an accepted book through the publsihing process. I speak from expierence. I think Foer may have wanted the book out in the stores sooner than it did, because this book (in my oppinion) isn't for people to read after they've recovered but to heal those who haven't completely recovered yet. That's why Foer may have writen this... at least that's my interperitation.
I may be wrong here, but that's how time works in the life of an author, and it's my beliefe that Foer worked really hard to get his book in the stores when he did.
My answer to Amy S:
Time, in my opinion, is inexistent. True, ancient cultures found a pattern in the way the sun rises every 'day' and how seasons change, but is that really time? Or is it a pattern observed in the motion of life? It's all extremely opinionated and philosophical.
Time is just a man-made tool to measure, just like value. The value of a diamond or gold is just a man-made tool to measure. That's all time really is: man-made.
So this man-made tool called time measures things in the motion of life. How we age, the way seasons change, how the sun rises every morning and sets every night. We use numbers just like we use numbers for everything in life. We number the days that pass, the number of the month (which we kindly gave names to), the number of years that passed. The number of today's date. There's a culture in Africa that uses just the opposite. Instead of numbers these people use events, such as the reign of a ruler or a terrible drought. Does time exist the same way for them?
Like I said, time is a tool, and wouldn't exist if humans didn't exist. All there is is the motion of life... which is still extremely opinionated and philosophical.
Time isn't just a man made tool like James P said. In his post, he says that "time wouldn't exist if humans didn't exist." However, while time is an abstract idea, it does in fact exist whether or not humans do. The idea of time includes minutes, seconds, and hours, but it also includes growth and succession. If no time passed, no one would grow or change. The earth would be frozen in time. Even when people are isolated and can't keep track of time, time goes on. Oskar's grandmother proves this when she is writing him the letters about her feelings and she tells him about the murderer's letter and how he wrote, "I don't know how long it's been. We don't have calendars. I keep lines on the wall with chalk. But when it rains, the rain comes through my window when I am sleeping. And when I wake up the lines are gone. So I don't know how long it's been" (77). The murderer tries to keep track of time in the way James P said would not exist if humans did not. This method of keeping track seems to show that time can be erased, but in reality, it is only the organization of the time that has been erased. After time has passed, people age, grow, and break. Oskar's grandmother writes, "He had gone in as a young man. When he wrote the letter to me he was old and broken" (77). If time did not exist, the man writing this letter would be young, the same man that went into prison, but the man that writes the letter is old and broken. Time must exist even if humans do not. Without time, there would be nothing.
I found it fascinating how Jonathan Safran Foer was capable of blending the different time periods together so smoothly. Jonathan blended many different times, he brought in the time period of the heroshima bombing also the time period of Oscar's grandparent's younger years. Using these different time periods helps to give background knowledge for the characters in the book. These flashbacks tell parts of the story you wouldn't know without them. It connects the story and makes it whole and complete.
As Anna A said, time is only an abstract idea. I agree with this idea; time is only what we believe it is. If no one marked time or kept track of it, time would not exist, the only thing we would know is the events that happen to us but not when they happen.
Jonathan Foer blends the time periods so well that while reading you have to stop and think about who is speaking and when the event is taking place. Jonathan makes time almost nonexsistant.
Time is defined as "the system of those sequntial relations that any event has to any other". With that said, time would infact excist with out humans. Even if we weren't here, there would still be events happening. The earth would still spin and age as it goes. Even though people used to think that the sun riseing was just a freak thing that happened, it indeed had a cycle that it followed, meaning time has to excist.
Time holds onto guilt. That is what I have seen from the grandmother and Oskar. She says,"I can't take back the things I never did" because they never happened and she wishes that she could have made them happen (309). She is saying all this because words that are not said are just as effective when they are. She wishes she could have said I love you to Anna, but "there was never a right time to say it" (314). Time passes and with time comes knowledge and she learns that saying I love you is always necessary when she tells her grandson.
The reversal of time seems to always be thought of when death is present. The grandmother and Anna are an example and so is Oskar and his dad. Everyone wishes that they could say I love you one last time, but you never know when the last time will be.
Oskar wishes to reverse time so that his dad would still be alive, but "Bad news never had good timing" (John Mayer: The Heart of Life). Oskar learns that coping with death is the only way to move on instead of live in the past when he still thinks that his dad is still alive and close.
I agree with what Haley is saying that when an death occurs the reflex is to want to reverse time. I also believe that the reflex could be to speed up time. The emotional victim of the event has come to terms that the person is gone and would just want the pain to stop.
I think the mother would be an example of this. Of course she mourns the loss of her husband but she has had to move on to be strong for Oskar. She has her friend Ron who helps her but I think she also has him so Oskar has some sort of father figure he can lookup to. It sounds harsh and like she wants Oskar to forget about his father but he never will and we know that. I think that this, over time, could help Oskar.
"Oskar learns that coping with death is the only way to move on instead of live in the past when he still thinks that his dad is still alive and close."
I'm pretty sure this goes for everyone. It may not be done, but it's a definite. I guess I agree with Haley. Oskar however doesn't believe his dad is still alive? Or were you trying to say he understand his dad is dead?
Ya, that part is confusing to me.
I think what Haley was trying to say is that it is better Oskar doesn't yearn for the past and think so much about how happy he was when his dad was alive. He needs to move on and think about the future, but not forget about the past.
i wanted to discuss the definition of time. I think that there are different perceptions of time like Brittany W F thinks time is none existant and Jeremy M P thinks it exsists with or without humans. I dont think that Oskar thinks time is relivant at all. Even though it will take him almost two years to meet every Black he wants to do it anyway; no matter how long it will take he's willing to do it. also Oskar never sleeps. He counts the hours he doesnt sleep but it doesnt seem to bother him too much. In the letters time doesnt seem to exsist. They have "nothing places" where time stops or moves on but it doesn't matter. I think that in the book, the length of time is not important, but what the time is used for is.
I also think that there will never be a point that 9/11 wont be a sensitive topic. It doesn't really matter when Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close was published because there's always going to be people who it will hurt more to think about than others. I dont think the time is important beacuse it's something that happend and we cant change it. It had an affect on everybody, but to different levels. Talking about it, no matter when, wont change anything. It just depends on the person and their experiance. I hope that makes sense.
I believe 2005 was a good time for Jonathan Foer to publish Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. James P P brings up an interesting point when he says, “I think Foer may have wanted the book out in the stores sooner than it did, because this book (in my opinion) isn't for people to read after they've recovered but to heal those who haven't completely recovered yet.” Although I do agree with this statement, the novel itself doses not target the specific tragedy of 9/11. Fore barley touches on the subject of 9/11 and as Kari P said, “This book is meant not to highlight 9/11, nor to make people remember all the sadness that came from it, it's meant to show Oskar's experience.” This book was written to show Oskar’s side of the story and how he recovers and remembers his father. This book also shows us many emotions form all of the characters and how they all react and process the situation differently.
The value in creating a story based on 9/11 but writing more about the emotions and experiences surrounding the event gives the story more meaning. Everyone knows all the facts surrounding that tragic day where many innocent people lost their lives. What people do not know about, is how the thousands of people handled and processed the event. This book takes you into the life of one of the thousands who suffered, and explains every detail, experience, and emotion through the eyes of a little boy.
I think the word 'recover' is overrated. Provided I know nothing of recovering from a loss, but reading Oskar's expierence I found that recovery can have a very negative affect on people, it's not always positive.
When Oskar was asked to "destroy" his jujitsu teacher's privates, he can't. He explains to the class, "I'm a pacifist... I don't think it's right to destroy people's privates. Ever." (page 2)
Oskar hadn't 'recovered' from his father's death then, and it would be a long time thereafter before he did. Later in the story as he searches for the Blacks, time passed and Oskar seems to forget his pacifist side. When he's performing his school play Hamlet, he begins to rewrite the script in his head, having a daydream of verbally assaulting a bully named Jimmy Snyder on page 145.
Then as time passes from then as Oskar talks with the Renter, he explains what happened between him and Mr. Black. When Mr. Black says he can't help Oskar anymore, Oskar explains to the Renter how he wanted to kick the door and shout in Mr. Black's ear, but instead Oskar shakes Mr. Black's hand. (page 254).
Even though Oskar never did anything bad, he wanted to, and that's a result from his recovering.
So if Oskar had taken his jujutsu lesson after he had 'recovered', would he have been able to 'destroy' his teacher's privates?
Just for clarification there are 5 steps one takes when recovering from a loss. It doesn't have "a very negative affect on people" as James P stated. It is completely necessary and normal. These steps are as follows: 1. Denial. Not accepting or even acknowledging the loss. 2. Anger. Wanting to fight back. 3. Bargaining. Praying for them to come back. 4. Depression. Feeling frustration, lack of control, feeling numb. Perhaps feeling suicidal. 5. Acceptance. Realization that the person is gone, and staying with fond memories of the person. (www.essortment.com/all/stagesofgri_rvkg.htm)
Everyone goes through this, maybe not in this order, but it is inevitable. He demonstrates anger when Mr. black explains that he cannot continue to help anymore, Oskar imagines screaming in his ear. (page 254) Or depression when he continually gives himself bruises and has "heavy boots" and acceptance as he digs up his fathers grave and finds it to be empty. He stays with fond memories of his father in the end as he recalls him telling the story of the Sixth Borough. This novel in a whole is just telling the story of Oskar Schell's recovery.
This book begins with Oskar wishing that the "teakettle would read in Dad's voice" (1) and ends with him wishing that he could rewind time and hear his dad's voice telling him the story of the Sixth Borough.(326) Time is circular.
I've thought of an analogy for Anne A to better understand my philosophy:
Life is like a car, speeding along a road. Time is the man-made tool to measure this motion of Life... time is the speed gauge.
Time I feel for Oskar is non-existant. There are many episodes in this book where he imagines himself performing an action that in real life he would really do. For instance there is the segment during the play he imagines attacking Jimmy Snyder (145-146). There is also the time he pictures himself yelling at Mr. Black for stopping his search (254).
This relates to books like The Sight by David Clement Davies in which the main character sometimes becomes lost in their own thoughts or images and doesn't notice the passing of time around them. This happens to Oskar occasionally and makes readers wonder how time really affects him or if he even sees it as important.
All previous comments by Jaclyn S V are actually Jaclyn S P. I do not know why my previous account's name was used.
Jaclyn S brought up an interesting point about time. She said “Time I feel for Oskar is non-existant.” Also Jordan B said, “I don’t think that Oskar thinks time is relevant at all.” Both of the statements make me wonder if Oskar really feels like his father’s death was almost a year ago or if he feels like it happened yesterday or a week ago. Time is warped in the story, as some people have mentioned. In the story and in real life time can seem to drag on or speed up depending on what is happening to you. Foer never seems to mention how Oskar feels about time.
Also, I think that this novel was published at an appropriate time, although it could have even been published earlier. This just seems like a story about a child whose dad died, which is a timeless story. The attacks are brought up in the story, but Oskar never really tells people that he died because of the attacks. When Oskar tells William Black about his dad he says, “He’s dead so you couldn’t know him now” (293). I wouldn’t expect Oskar to bluntly explain why his dad died, but the attacks are not talked about that much in the story. Therefore, I believe that even if this story was published earlier it would have had the same effect because it is just about a child whose father died.
I would like to point something out relating to what Lisa F said that you can’t plan your future on your past. You also can not dwell in the past. It has been brought up about the time it takes for Oskar to get over his father’s death. In all of the section having to do with Oskar’s grandmother or grandfather they are concentrated on the past and what they did wrong and what they wish they would have changed. But, when these people ar incorporated into the sections that Oskar is narrating, these people are less dwelling than being proactive. Oskar helps his grandfather and his grandfather helps him in digging up the grave. But without Oskar they are stuck just remembering. In one chapter his grandfather starts off the chapter remembering where the shed used to stand (208).
I would also like to bring up that there are circles around all of the commas by the end of the chapter with all of the red marks in it by his grandfather. Commas are a braking point, a pause. Every comma makes the story of the bombing longer, even tough to him it all happened and was over in a very short period of time.
Marika S has brought up an interesting point about the Grandfather's letter. She said, "Commas are a braking point, a pause. Every comma makes the story of the bombing longer, even tough to him it all happened and was over in a very short period of time." I find this to be very true. The commas are pauses and almost like a chance to catch a breath. The interesting thing about this letter though is that through pages 210-213 there are almost no periods. Most of these pages consist of run on sentences. It's almost like if commas represent a pause in time, could periods be a stop? Perhaps if there had been more periods in this letter, the grandfather would have died.
As Stephen K W said at the beginning of his post, "I think the book was published at a perfect time. It is soon enough that people haven't stopped caring about it, and it is late enough that it won't upset people as much to think about it and remember it.", I completly agree. The book itself was published at the most perfect time. Although it seems to have been a very long time ago, the world trede center tradgedy almost nine years ago, I bet if you were to mention it to someone who had a loved one involved or was there, they would most likely take offense or get upset.
Time in the book offers two things from Oskar. One, Oskar was the real Oskar and the normal Oskar when his Dad was alive and able to be his best friend. Two, the time after his Dad died showed Oskar he needs to step up and reach out of his bubble. I think time is represented by Oskar's constant feelings and changes he experiences. For example, as soon as his Dad died it almost seemed as if time went by faster, and each day only lasted the amount necessary, before his Dad died, at the beginning, the book started off really slow and boring. Once Oskar was alone without his best friend and father time went by faster because he was finally living his own life and not having his father live it for him. As time progresses Oskar grows up and becomes more wise. Oskar's lonliness in time, goes by faster then time spent with his most loved one.
I believe that Foer shows a very interesting view of time continuously throughout the novel. I believe that Foer is showing that time controls what happens in our world. Emily K W says, "I think time is represented by Oskar's constant feelings and changes he experiences." While a believe Oskar's feeling affect how time feels to him, I do not believe that his feelings are a representation of time.
In the story of the sixth borough Oskar's father says, "They're frozen mid-trot. Flea-market vendors are frozen mid-haggle. Middle-aged women are frozen in the middle of their lives. The gavels of frozen judges are frozen between guilt and innocence. On the ground are the crystals of the frozen first breaths of babies, and those of the last gasps of the dying" (223). Here time is seen as the difference between life and death. A split second can change a persons life forever, just as it did in Oskar's life. Foer is showing that although people try and pretend like time does not exist such as in the "Nothing places" of Oskar's grandmothers house, every second is the same and continues forever.
According to Merriam-Websters Oline Dictionary time is defined as, "To set the tempo, speed, or duration." This is the definition of time used as a verb. This seemed more appropriate because throughout the novel, people such as Oskar's grandmother and grandfather seem to believe that they can stop time and cease to exist. They seem to set the speed at which they live their lives. The sixth borough seems to be a place where people can go to remember and to freeze time. Foer shows that this place is not real when Oskar says, "I know there really isn't a sixth borough. I mean, Objectively" (220). However, Foer does show that people need a place where they can pretend to stop time, and become nothing.
When Cicily C says, "This book begins with Oskar wishing that the "teakettle would read in Dad's voice" (1) and ends with him wishing that he could rewind time and hear his dad's voice telling him the story of the Sixth Borough.(326)", this is true; however, I would have to say there is a lot more in between these two thoughts that open and close the novel. Everything from the letters written by Oskar's grandmother before she gave birth to Oskar's searching of New York City to find details about the key to his meeting the Blacks appear in the novel in sequences that are a little odd, at times, but they also help the story to make sense in the end. Time tends to overlap because of this, coming together when Oskar meets his grandfather, "the renter". I can see how time appears circular through some parts of the novel, what with Oskar continually listening to the five messages his dad left on the day of his death, but there is so much more beneath those messages.
Oskar wishes that he can freeze time so that he can always have his father around. It's hard for Oskar to look forward into the future. When Oskar and his mom go to the storage place, Oskar has a hard time letting go of his father's possessions because he does want to forget about his father even now that he's dead. Later on, he becomes angrier because he finds out that his dad was saving the baby monitor, the legos, and some books for when Oskar had kids. This is hard for Oskar because he does not want to think about a future that doesn't involve his father.
Oskar thought that he would be closer to his dad when he found the lock. Instead, the key did not belong to his father. He asks William Black if he remembers his Dad because he does not want to let go of his father. At the end of the story, Oskar reverses time to where he and his dad were safe at home listening to the sixth borough story. Even at the end of the story, Oskar still wishes that his dad was around. This is normal because every kid would miss their dad. Ultimately, Oskar realizes that nothing will make him forget his father because it shows that he becomes more open to his mother and her friend, Ron.
On page 113 I read the line, "sometimes I can hear my bones straning under the weight of all the lives I'm not living." This I found was moving. You can only live life one way and you can't waste the time you have now. It almost seams that life is too short to do all the things you wish to do or accomplish within your life time. This quote was an amazing slap in the face telling the reader to get their life together.
Also on page 113 I loved the quote, "I can only hold on to the things I want to lose." Although this sounds odd it makes sence. In a way it is saying that the things of the past are the only things you can hold on to because the future is never set in stone untill it becomes the past, and the past is never changing. So you can hold on to past memories.
Foer uses many different types of time throught the novel that definetly make this book different from most of the the others I have read. The types of time used throughout the book really add to the story and make you pay attention.
There are many times that time overlaps throughout the book. The story is constantly changing between Oskar, Oskar's Grandma, and Oskar's Grandpa's point of view. There are some points that show the exact moment in time through one person's eyes, then show it through anothers. One of these examples is the first time Oskar meets the renter. It shows it through Oskar's point of view first then the renter's point of view. Time goes forward then reverses then goes forward again.
Overlaping time also brings the start of the story to the end and vice versa. One example is between Oskar's grandma and grandpa. In the start of the story it talks about he they met, got married, and then seperated. In the end it bring them back together overlaping time.
Time can also stand still. One part in the book that time stood still was in Oskar's Grandma's novel. The blank pages seemed to make time stop for me.
I think that Foer's uses time in the story is an amazing way to have the reader enjoy and be able to picture what is happening.
I find Haley S's commment very interesting when she states, "Oskar wishes that he can freeze time so that he can always have his father around." I am not disagreeing with the fact that Oskar misses his father, that is very plain to see. What i am arguing with is that fact that Oskar wants to freeze time. If anything, Oskar wants to move forward with his life. It does him no good to linger in the past, and it only brings him more grief. A way that Oskar discovers that he can do this is by solving the mystery of the key. A closure to his father's death would come out of this and in a way be beneficial. So I think that if anything, Oskar really just wants to move forward with his life, but with the memory of his father and not the grief of his death.
I like what Vinny said, that in Oscar's grandma's novel the blank pages made time stand still. I feel that some of the odd page setups and fonts represent the flow of time. For example on page 281 to 284 when the text starts to become so compact you can't even read it. it seems as if time is running at a faster pace, to fast to even comprehend what is going on. Also at the end of the novel there is a flip-book image of what appears to be a person falling upwards, making it seem as if time is flowing backwards.
Luke A W make a good point that time basically never goes away in this novel and that Oskar’s feelings are the main reason that holds him back. Oskar is still stuck on trying to find out more about his dad and to not forget him. He has been looking for where the missing key goes to for six months and has not got any where close to finding where the key goes. Mr. Black has even given up and told Oskar that he was finished. Oskar was mad that someone else was giving up on trying to help remember his dad and find where the key goes to.
Oskar went to his grandma’s apartment to talk to her but she wasn’t there and Oskar finds the renter in the guest bedroom. Oskar starts to talk to the renter about what he has been doing. Then after his story he runs over to his apartment and gets the phone with his dad’s messages and shoes the renter. I think Oskar thinks it’s time to show someone the messages and that he trusts the renter to hear them. To me that shows me that he can trust people on the outside instead of the inside like his mom and grandma.
I think Oskar is at the point in his life from when his dad died where he is depressed and realizing that he misses his dad. And that he realizes that he has ruined chances of being people’s friend by looking for the key. Oskar says, “Also I had to tell a googolplex of lies, which doesn’t make me feel good about myself, and I’ve bothered a lot of people who I’ve probably ruined my chances of ever being real friends with, and I miss my dad more now than I started, even though the whole point was to stop missing him” I am thinking that Oskar will find the key or move on with his life and try to communicate with his loved ones more.
Oskar has a big issue in his quest to find out the answer to the last game that him and his dad played, time.. Oskar runs around the city finding all of the people with the last name Black, but he does all the math and finds out that it would take him six months to find out where the key would go. He realizes that time has gone by so quick and he thinks that the longer her waits to find out the last answer to the game that he's getting further and further away from his dad.
Oskar wants to find out everything about his dads death, everything, including the exact time he died. He does this by doing math in his head and looking at the time from the messages. Time controlls everything that Oskar does in the book, from what happened to when he can do everything that he wants to to get closer to his dad.
I like what Ali C P said about how time controls everything in Oskars life. When I think of that, I think it's almost because he wants it to. Oskar desperately wants his dad back, and that maybe if he had a greater hold on time in every aspect of his life, things would be easier. It's almost like a guilty conscience; if Oskar had been more aware of the time he spent with his dad, I believe he thinks he wouldn't feel so awful now about loosing him. This is ridiculous ofcourse, no matter how much time you spend with a person, you will always miss them if they leave, but I think it was Oskars way of dealing and healing. Ali also said thathe does math in his head to find out everthing he can about his dad. I think he does this because the more he knows, down to the last milisecond he was alive, the closer he might be to finding his anwser. There isn't really an anwser at all though, it's just another way of his mind trying to process and latching on to familiar ideas.
Time in the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is used differently in then in other books. There are time gaps in Oskars story. What I mean is that Every other chapter of ELIC is in a different time or place then the last chapter. Also there are two stories going on. A story explaining the past and Oskars story. For example chapter 1 is narrated by Oskar, chapter 2 unknown speaker (aka Oskars grandfather), then there is chapter three...the story comes back to Oskar narrating, but it's a couple months later. So every other chapter is in a different time period and being narrated by a different person.
Another way to look at time in this book is by looking at it's healing power and it's knowledge. ELIC is over a two year time period and in these two years we see how Oskar grows. Oskar finds ways to deal with his dads death, he grows in the fact of socializing. If Oskar hadn't of found the key I don't think he would have been as social as he ended up. He would have "heavy boots"(2) for a very long time.
Time in this novel is overlapping. As Ali C P said "time controls everything in Oskars life." In real life time is a constant. It's the only thing that will always be there for Oskar. Like Ali C P stated, "Oskar wants to find out everything about his dads death, everything, including the exact time he died. He does this by doing math in his head and looking at the time from the messages." He depends on it to always be there for him.
Not only does Oskar rely on time, but his grandparents did too. It brought them closer together. The first relationship they had together, time got lost in the nothing places. So they grew apart, and by the end they became swirled in the balance between something and nothing. Time and no time. "I asked him something I had needed to know since we made that first nothing place years before. What are we? Something or nothing?" (178) Time disappeared in the nothing places and thrived in the something places. It constantly overlapped its self.
The whole book was a constant demonstration that time overlaps. Throughout it jumps back and forth. The love between Anna and the grandfather, (127) the relationship the grandparents who based everything on rules, (110) Oskar searching for the lock. The whole book jumps from past to present and continually overlaps time.
My honest opinion is that Oskar is wasting his time looking for this key his father left behind. Honestly, if he has to go on a quest to figure out a mere puzzle, honestly I find it pointless. Yes, I completely am aware of the fact that his father IS dead and that a child would be curious as to what the key belongs to. The tactics though Oskar is using to find where the key belongs is a waste of time. Wasting time on the past that just shouldn't be found out. I believe everything happens when it's supposed to happen, and the things that don't happen are better left alone. That's why time did not have them happen.
Oskar finding the key, yes it happened, but I really would have left it at that.
Now the argument could be, well it happened, so Oskar should try and figure out where the key belongs. OR, argument could be, we wouldn't have a book if he had left the key alone.
However, I have a ten year old brother, who you could say is, different. He would never in a thousand years have the guts to cruise around finding things to unlock mysteries my dead father left behind. It's impressive that Oskar is attempting to try to figure out where this key belongs though. But, I'm okay with being unimpressive, I sleep better.
I think that the proposition that Lisa F presents is very interesting. That perhaps Oskar is completely wasting his time on finding the lock. I would agree with you, Lisa. In my own personal life I wouldn't spend my time in that way. I would grieve and then move on and let my father go. I personally feel like doing something like Oskar is would eat me up.
However, I would like to ask Lisa what she thinks that Oskar, being the character he is would find more worth while than searching for the lock? I would agree with you when, unless I am interpreting your blog wrong, you suggest that perhaps digging into his father's past is not healthy. But, on the same note, I do not really think that Oskar is necessarily a healthy individual and I do not think that he would be able to find a more worth while way to spend his time.
I would also like to ask Lisa whether or not she thinks that Oskar values his time or not? Personally, I think that he does and simply does not see a better way to spend his time. Time in this book seems very important to me but not necessarily valuable to the characters. It seems to me that in general the characters waste a lot of their time. Time seems to be a vital component that dictates much of their lives but the characters do not seem to think much of it.
Many bloggers have brought up the idea that time is nonexistent, or at least to Oskar. However, I believe that it is more of a careful organization by Foer because it is obviously a huge theme of the novel. Foer uses the letters and memories of the past, all of Oskar's quests and events of the present, and all of Oskar’s hopes for the future (finding the lock for the key) and brings them together to make an interesting an engaging mystery novel. They are all mixed-in throughout the novel and don't go in order as life does; different events are revealed at different times. This is a unique style because it makes the reader want to reader more and faster, but it also allows the reader to consider time in a different way, and to think outside of the box. I love how Kelci B W brought up the flip book at the end of the novel that gives the animation of a person falling up instead of down with gravity, as if time is moving in reverse. The ending defies time, life, and order. All of he different time periods all mixed together and going in different directions make me think that Foer did this to create a different type of time that overlaps. Rather than past, present, or future, I think Foer combines the three to make a more accurate present-time. Because one could say that there is no present—that everything is either becoming the past or is the future—I think that Foer made an actual "present" by mixing all of the time periods. Oskar, and everything he is, is made up of time and all the events that have happened to him. By recalling the past so often, like when Oskar interrupts his story with the letters of the past or when he goes from being in the limousine to the game involving Central Park with his Dad (7), he is using time to tell his life. That is the reason for which why we record time, to recall and record our history; it’s also linear. So I think time is crucial to this novel and is very existent, maybe more existent to the reader as Amy S W mentions, and "not necessarily" as "valuable to the characters."
I agree very much with Amy S W when she says, " It seems to me that in general the characters waste a lot of their time. Time seems to be a vital component that dictates much of their lives but the characters do not seem to think much of it." The human mind is limited to and thinks based on time with beginings and ends. The characters in the novel do not realize how much time dictates the course their lives will take.
Oskar's Grandmother wastes many days in her life. This is shown when she says, "I went to the guest room and pretended to write. I hit the space bar again and again and again. My life story was spaces. The days passed one at a time. And sometimes, less than one at a time" (176). Although Oskar's grandmother wasted her time writing her life story about nothing, Foer is using it to show how time controls everyone's lives. While humans waste time, their whole life is made up of time. Oskar's grandmother's life story is just an empty timeline of blank pages. Foer is showing that time controls what she does and that her life is repetitive. The days seemed to go by one at a time, and sometimes less than one at a time. She can't control her life or how slowly it seems to move. Foer is trying to show the reader that no matter what humans do, they can not stop the inevitable.
According to Stefan Klein, "The brain creates its own time, and it is this inner time, not clock time, that guides our actions. In the space of an hour, we can accomplish a great deal — or very little." Oskar's grandmother felt that she was accomplishing nothing in a long period of time. She does not know why things happen the way they do. Foer uses this to show the reader that although time controls humans, they can either make the best of their time, or not. The characters of the novel dwell on events in the past and waste time doing pointless things such as writing a life story full of only spaces. Instead, they should use their time wisely and do womething worth while.
I like what Amy S and Luke A have said about the characters in the book wasting time, dwelling on the past. This makes me wonder why Oskar's grandmother wastes her time essentially throwing a pity party for herself when she could be doing something to help fix her depression so she could actually have something worthwhile to write on those pages. I think that this might be because as a young woman at the time, maybe she though she had all the time in the world. When you are in the prime of your life, you don't usually think about the number of years left you have to accomplish something. Later in the book, however, it seems that the well-aged grandfather of Oskar has realized the importance and preciousness of time. He says "I want an infinitely blank book and the rest of time" (279) now that he realizes he can't have it. Years ago, it seems as though that is what Oksar's grandmother though she had.
So, do the characters in this book view time as an unlimited commodity until they face an event that makes them see the true scarcity of it?
Does Oskar understand how short life really is?
I think so, because of the hasty way he began to look for the key. However, I'm not sure because he also wa sinterested in preserving the memory of his father in that way. It would be interesting to hear anyone's thoughts on that question.
"However, I would like to ask Lisa what she thinks that Oskar, being the character he is would find more worth while than searching for the lock? I would agree with you when, unless I am interpreting your blog wrong, you suggest that perhaps digging into his father's past is not healthy. But, on the same note, I do not really think that Oskar is necessarily a healthy individual and I do not think that he would be able to find a more worth while way to spend his time."
I'm not saying it isn't healthy, I'm just saying it's a waste of time. It's not unhealthy for Oskar, I think it's more unhealthy for his mother. His mother is constantly worrying about where Oskar is because he isn't at school. He should spend his time there; at school. School gets a person's mind off of things because in order to pass school, if he even wants to, you have to pay attention. Paying attention to school means his "unhealthy" mind thinking about his father is being switched into "learning mode." So truthfully, I don't agree with the statement saying, "Oskar is an unhealthy person," because I don't think he is. It's his mom who needs the break.
"I would also like to ask Lisa whether or not she thinks that Oskar values his time or not?"
I don't think a single person values their time. At the end of the day you always have what your doing tomorrow on your mind, or remembering the things you forgot to do the previous day, or how you shouldn't have done this or that. From an outsiders perspective I do not in the least think he is valueing his time because the tactics he is using to try and find where the key belongs is so ridiculously time consuming; Which is time wasting. I think the author was actually trying to point out that he is wasting his time because that number of years it was going to take to go visit every single Black family was numerous. Obviously there are easier ways Oskar could handle this. Asking his immediate family, something other than going straight to the strangers. I doubt his father would have left such a "dangerous" task for him to complete in the first place.
Time is an important aspect though because if time could change, Oskar's father wouldn't have been where he was when the tragedy of 9/11 happened. Time is important in everyone's life because you TRULY do not know when you're gonna die. On the other hand, I think looking for where this key belongs to is a healing process for Oskar. A person very important to you dies, you don't want their memory to fade. You want to keep remembering them and anyone around you who knew them to remember them.
There is the shock, then the grieving process, then the healing process, and then the letting go process. Oskar is wasting his time in the healing process so he doesn't have to let go. And back to this; That is just a waste of time.
In response to Anna M's question, "Does Oskar understand how short life really is?", I would like to disagree with her. I do not think he does. Oskar views life, I think, as an incredibly pointless thing. I honestly do not think that he values his life at all. In fact, I do not think he values life in general.
Take for example, the way that he wanders around the city alone much of the time. Oskar may be different, but he isn't stupid. He knows how much danger he is potentially in in some parts of New York. Especially with everyone being on edge even a year after 9/11, you would think he would be more cautious. In addition to wandering around a big city alone, he knocks on the doors of strangers and freely walks into their homes without a second thought. This behavior is beyond reckless. Its ludacris. Take also, when he drops his cat that he supposedly loves off a roof, "I didn't know why he was asking, because I'd brought Busckminster to school for a demonstration only a couple of weeks before, and dropped him from the roof . . ." Now, tell me, can anyone honestly say that they would be willing to take their pet that they loved and throw it off of a roof for a science experiment? The answer is no. Why? because you would rather not have the pet die because you love them. Oskar, on the other hand, thinks nothing of it. He values no life, not even his own.
The only exception to this rule, I think, is his dad. I truly think that that was the one life that he valued. He spends so much time and so much effort trying to define and put shape and meaning to every part of his dad's life that I think that that is the one life he truly valued.
Thus, since Oskar does not value life, I do not think that it really matters to him how short or long it is. Oskar seems very lost to me, without direction and without purpose. His dad's life creates the purpose of his own, which to me, is very sad. He spends his life on someone else's and I do not think it matters one bit to him that he could die tomorrow.
"I'm not saying it isn't healthy, I'm just saying it's a waste of time. It's not unhealthy for Oskar, I think it's more unhealthy for his mother. His mother is constantly worrying about where Oskar is because he isn't at school." -Lisa F.
I agree with Lisa when she says that this isn't unhealthy but I disagree that his mother has so much concern over this. Yes, his mother wants him to go to school, but when Oskar is going all around New York she never wants to know exactly where he's going or when he'll be back. "What was so weird and what i should have tried harder to understand, was that she never asked anything else, not even 'out where?' or 'Later when?" even though she was normally so cautious about me especially since dad died." Page 42. Oskar later mentions in the book that he thinks some of what his mother loosing concern has to do with is her relationship with Ron. He says that she should be dealing with more concern and sadness rather than getting involved in another life.
Time is one of the basic roots to Oskar's quest for his key. The entire novel is over a timespan of eight months, which is how long it takes for Oskar to find what he thinks he is looking for (298). Another place where time shows up in this novel, is when Oskar goes out to meet the renter night. Oskar leaves at 11:50 in the evening, and returns at 4:22 in the morning (322). Personally, I find these times a bit ridiculous for a nine year old. Night time is rather dangerous, especially in New York. Oskar's mother does not seem to mind him leaving that late in the evening, but if I were his mother, I would be concerned (323). The answering machine messages from Oskar's father also portray a very important aspect of time in this novel. In one of the messages, Oskar's father repeatedly asks Are you there? eleven times, "Maybe he kept saying it to give me time to get brave enough to pick up. Also, there was so much space between the times he asked. There are fifteen seconds between the third and the fourth, which is the longest space" (301). One final observation I made about time in this novel, is that it allowed Oskar to calculate the time of his father's death. Based off of the time of the answer machine messages, Oskar says, "I've timed the message, and it's one minute and twenty-seven seconds. Which means it ended at 10:28. Which was when the building came down. So maybe that's how he died" (302). I think time plays a relevant aspect through out the whole novel, and Oskar's search for his key.
One difficulty in reading this book was figuring out all the time changes. During the middle of the book a bunch of stories are combined without any really significance of a change in time. At first it was confusing to me but then it started to really impact the story and its plot to me.
Even though it seems that time was almost "thrown around" if you look deeper the author put these stories and letters in a certain order that makes sense.
I definitely think that time is a big component in understanding this book because if you just assume that the whole book is continuous story and same setting and time and everything the book will make no sense at all.
As Breanna mentioned, Foer's way of writing can be quite confusing. This adds an element to the story, and allows more than one story to be told. Sarah brings up one aspect of the story that I also found to be unusual, and ultimatley fascinating. She says, "One final observation I made about time in this novel, is that it allowed Oskar to calculate the time of his father's death." What this whole book comes down to is timing, and if that timing is off everything will go wrong. Oskar realizes this when he says, "I want an infinitely blank book and the rest of time" (279). Oskar's entire life begins to revolve around time. The time in which he can find the key, the time in which his father died, the time in which his grandparents wrote their story.
The ultimate question surrounding this topic of time is whether it is linear, overlapping or circular. I agree with Courtney about it being all three of these, but I think the one that stands out the most is the overlapping of the letters and Oskar's story. This is the most significant as well, because it allows us to see why things are the way that they are for Oskar.
I agree with what Lydia said, that Oscars life revolves around time. I think the reason for this is Oscar is seeking stability in his life, and time is the only thing that is the structure for everything. Everything in life happens on at least one common basis; a timeline. And when Oscar has the ability to completely understand the flow of time, he can a have a control over life like never before.
Also, Rather than looking at time as linear, circular, or over lapping, time should be seen as a tangled mess of lines that are all connected. Those of you who had Mr. P last year for honors English may recall this. He described time as a constantly flowing tangle. And when we look back at time, or have a memory, that is a point in the tangle where two lines meet. And any two points can meet at any time, since time is what you make it.
Time is very rarely a constant within this novel, as evidenced when Oskar explains what he was doing when he came home from school on the day of the tragedies. He has time to listen to all 5 messages that his dad left, as well as ponder what tricks his friend was going to attempt. He did all of this, "and then before I had time to figure out what to do, or even what to think or feel, the phone started ringing. It was 10:26:47. I looked at the caller ID and saw that it was him."
It's said that a watched pot never boils. In Oskar's case, this isn't exactly true, because time eventually passes, but it is definitely slowed way down. Four minutes isn't very long, but in the novel, you feel like an eternity passes between the time Oskar arrives at home and the time his father calls for the sixth time. Of course, 'him' could have also referred to Oskar's friend Toothpaste, but it was pretty obvious that it meant his father. I like what Kelci B said about time: "Rather than looking at time as linear, circular, or over lapping, time should be seen as a tangled mess of lines that are all connected." In this novel time doesn't really follow any particular pattern, because immediately following the sentence about the last call, we are catapulted back in time almost forty years. There is no real distinction as to how this connects to the present until the very end of the novel where everything finally comes together and makes at least some sense.
Also to add onto what I said before, there is alot of evidence in the book where time is the controlling factor, and in almost every situation if he had controll of times heavy flow, the past would have been changed.
I had completely forgotten about the analogy that Mr. Pruett made for his honors class last year but now that Kelci reminds me of it, I remember it. She makes a good point and now I am seeing how it is possible that time is overlapping, linear, and circular. I had agreed with this point before but now that I remember that analogy, I can explain it. Kelci is right on when she says, "Those of you who had Mr. P last year for honors English may recall this. He described time as a constantly flowing tangle. And when we look back at time, or have a memory, that is a point in the tangle where two lines meet. And any two points can meet at any time, since time is what you make it." Time in this novel is indefinable except when described in these terms.
I also wanted to comment on how time changes for Oskar throughout the novel. As several students pointed out, Oskar is very precise with time and keeping track of it. However, no one hit on the point of the fact that for as precise and pointed he is throughout the novel, at the end of it, he wishes, "I want an infinitely blank book and the rest of time" (279). This is the moment when he suddenly shifts. He lets go of the precision, of being so anal about tracking time. I think that perhaps finding what he needed to find to bring closure to his father's death was what gave him the ability to let go of the time issues. It freed him.
Time is used in an interesting way at the end of the book. In the grandma’s last letter, she starts from the present and goes all the way back in time. She writes, “Eve put the apple back on the branch” then goes on to say that God said “let there be light. And there was darkness” (313). In this part, time seems to be going backward or unwinding. Like the metaphor with the string that Amy S used, time is like a string and the grandma is pulling it out from the end to the beginning. This makes time appear linear because it there is a definite beginning.
But time also seems to be circular in this scene. It is the end of the story and the end of the grandparent’s relationship, and time goes back to the beginning. Oskar’s grandfather is about to leave his grandmother and she starts thinking back to the beginning of their relationship, then to the beginning of time. And time is circular because this letter that talks about the beginning of time is placed at the end of the story. So, at the end of the novel time is circular and linear.
The time I started this post: 9:11. That’s very strange.
Time is such a hard concept to grasp. How does one define it? It really is difficult when one comes to think of it. The novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, and obviously this blog topic, really made me question "time" more. How did humans come up with how long a "second" should last (seconds-hours-days-weeks-months-years)? It is 100% accurate with how the earth moves?
Is time a noun, an adjective, a verb? I searched it on Dictionary.com and I came up with over 60 definitions! It only left me with more thoughts than before.
The first definition as a noun is probably the best attempt: "the system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another." However, this still doesn't feel like it grasps all of what time is. Possibly time is actually nonexistent because maybe things are "just happening" and we as humans are just assigning numbers to those "things."
Many different events in this novel deal with different "versions" or "definitions" of time. When Oskar receives the phone messages from his father he remembers the "times" that they came, "Message one: 8:52 A.M.
"Message two: 9:12 A.M...." (68)
Then Grandma tells Oskar about the random letter she found that was censored. She wondered, "Why had the letter come [FIFTEEN YEARS] after it had been written?"
Then Oskar "calculates" the "time" his father died. He says "It was 10:26" when the phone rang. Oskar says he [TIMED] the message and "it ended at 10:28. Which was when the building came down. So maybe that's how he died" (301-302).
"Time" reverses in the novel in people's minds too (memories=reversal of time?), "The clocks went tock-tick, tock-tick..." (311). "My dream went all the way back to the beginning" (312). The chapters “Why I'm Not Where You Are” date back to "5/21/63" (16, 108)
The flip-book following page 326 is the reversal of time; falling up.
On pages 272-284 time speeds up.
...
The different definitions or "versions" of time are linear, circular, and overlapping. I believe this book, or life for that matter, contain all three of these types of time. The three are what make up time. Linear is the way we measure tine, circular is how everything in time connects and repeats, and overlapping is how everything reverses, speeds up, or stops. Whether time literally does these things or not, I think they all make up what time actually is. That is, if time actually exists. Foer highlights this concept of "time" all throughout his novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as a major theme, and I think his purpose is to help DEFINE "time." How much "time" does it take someone to recover from a lost loved one?
I believe that the reason that there is so much disagreement about the quantity of time is because there is no disagreement over the "quality" of time in the novel. Despite what may have been said regarding the nature of time, and how time is precisely viewed, and the perception of time to vary, there is no real discussion over the correlation of time being meaningful and time having meaning.
In example:
Obviously for Oskar, the time, the exact time, (10:28 or something similar) of his father's death is of the utmost importance. However, I do not feel as though Oskar even begins to appreciate the time that he has spent remembering his father. Not only does he obsess constantly over the means of his father's death and the various ways that it could have been prevented, but the copious spans of time that he has spent remembering the details of his father and memories that they shared. It is obvious that Oskar will never forget his father or his legacy in life, so why is it necessary for Oskar to completely obsess over his father? My belief is that Oskar's actions are an emotional response to his father's death enabling him to live out the extent of his father's life to its fullest. In other words, keeping him alive to Oskar. And it is the quality of this make-up time that is so pertinent to the relationship between Oskar and his father. Unfortunately for Oskar, despite all the time he now spends with his father, it will only seem to be ever so slightly more than the time he actually spent with his father. It is the effect that embodies the phrase "time flies when you're having fun." This is characterized by the very nature of memory in human beings: events are compressed after a day, a week, or a year of living into nice little memory packages for you to remember. Whatever is saved is saved, and whatever is not is thrown out to make room for the next day. It is this process that deflates Oskar's ability to recreate time with his father. He simply does not have the "time" neccessary to be successful.
The definition of time has been debated on this blog quite frequently. I think that Jackie S gives a good definition when she says time is "the system of those sequential relations that any event has to any other, as past, present, or future; indefinite and continuous duration regarded as that in which events succeed one another." Kari Pills says
"time has to be compared to life." The discussion suggests that time is not simply a linear system, but rather the relation of events to one another. This definition, as others have pointed out, is easily applicable to the book. Through different narrative and stylistic elements, Foer shows how time is the relation of events and how this new conception of time makes it easier to come to terms with grief. Time is not just an inevitable series of events, but can be conceptualized as a spectrum of events that can be learned from and reconsidered to make life better.
The most obvious example of this is how time reverses at the end, as Jackie says. In this way, Oskar imagines being "safe" (325) and not encountering this tragedy. By imagining time differently, Oskar can deal with his anger and sadness, albeit temporarily.
Also, by connecting the events of Oskar's grandparents at Dresden and their eventual desire to move on with the tragedy that Oskar faces, Foer shows how time can be used to learn from events, and how Oskar eventually should move on from his grief.
It is clear that time should not be viewed as a line of events that is inevitable and always forward looking. Time is also backward looking, so we can learn from our mistakes, and can be changed and molded, so we can imagine a better future.
Time in the story has very little linear quality to it whatsoever. The past and the present are constantly switching which shows that there is no chronological order of events and therefore not linear. I defiantly agree with Casey R that the story is circular. If any shape could be used to describe time in the novel a circle would fit the best because, as Casey R said, the story returns full circle with it ending in reverse. I also agree with Courtney W that “times acts as a character”. This furthermore proves the non-linear quality to it as character is an abstract concept and is defiantly not defined or straight. Erica M brought up a great point in connecting time to memories because that is how the story is written. Oskar’s passages in remembrance of his father and the letters themselves being memories show that. This adds to the theory of time being a character for the story is composed of memories.
In addition to that, in order to understand the grandparent’s story it has to be understood in reverse. While reading the novel it is difficult to understand what the letters mean at first because it does not make sense to the rest of the story. Nearing the end, however, all the previous letters make perfect sense as to what they were talking about.
Amy S made an excellent point in stating “For Oskar, his life, and thus all of the time that he has left, centers around one event: ‘the worst day’.” I believe that for Oskar time stopped (or perhaps reversed) after the day his father died because his entire life became about the past and that day instead of the future. Everything he did in the story was somehow related to his father. Even though time in the world moved on, for Oskar it did not.
Jordan B stated that “I think that in the book, the length of time is not important, but what the time is used for is.” This is an incredibly good point as Oskar’s search took him eight months for something that was hardly related to his father. I think that the search itself was more important than actually finding the answer. Even if the answer had a lot to do with his father it still would mean that Oskar no longer had that quest or connection.
I have to disagree with Haley S as she states that “Oskar wishes that he can freeze time so he can always have his father around.” This is untrue because at the end of the novel he talks about going in reverse so they “would be safe” (326). Throughout the story Oskar never speaks of stopping time but speaks of manipulating it (reverse) or prolonging it (not letting go of his father). He never wishes to freeze it. In regards to Rachel W’s response to Haley S's post I have to disagree with her also. She states, “If anything, Oskar wants to move forward with his life.” For the same reasons this is also an inaccurate statement. He doesn’t want to move on; he gets angry at his mother for moving on (171). He wants to bring back as much of his father as he can.
I really liked what Christy H had to say about this, even at the final paragraph. But even though Oskar never wanted to freeze time, it froze for him. It froze on that 'Worst Day' and he relives it every day it seems. Oskar is always inventing ways his father could have died which is why he took this search in the first place. He wanted to find someone that knew how his father died, so he could move on and stop imagining all these different ways his father could have and might have died.
There's been a lot of debate over what time is. It all depends on your perspective, on your view point. It's like looking at a cone. If you look at the bottom it's a circle. If you look at the side it's a triangle. If you look at it from somewhere in the middle you see a rounded triangle.
Time is linear to the point that it does not move anywhere but forward. It repeats itself, true, but we all know that time doesn't actually move backward.
Time is circular when you think of all the cycles in life and how, as brilliantly exampled in this book, time moves and finds itself back where it started.
Time is overlapping when it reverses, or stops, like how it froze on the ‘Worst Day’ for Oskar.
My opinion is, time is all three, probably all at the same time.
I agree with Marissa A for Oskar time seems to stop for him when his father dies and since his time was short he wants to get closer to him by any means possible, which leads to the quest he sets out on and puts everything on hold even his French Lessons which he thinks are extremely important.This shows that his life cant move on to normalcy until he can get closer to his father.
On another note time is a considerable theme in the novel and is used in a curious and confusing way. He switches from Oskars point of view to that of different letters written by his grandfather and grandmother which start at the end and go to the beginning.This interesting use of time is confusing at first and does not make sense until the end of the novel, this in turn is a circular time. Also their is another set of letters that Oskar writes to Stephen Hawking beginning on page eleven with a request to become his protege and continues in the book over a two year span of time and this seems to be linear. That is one of the most interesting things in the Novel because their are different time spans in different fashion that flourish throughout the novel making it interesting if not a little confusing but certainly seems original in design.
James P made an interesting point about how time did seem to freeze around Oskar even though he did not want to. It is as if Oskar is re-living it throughout his days. That being said, I think that time is moving differently for the different characters in relation to each other. For the rest of the world (and the reader) Oskar’s life is frozen on “the worst day” and in Oskar’s world it is as if he is trying to go back in time. He himself does not want the worst day to have ever happened and wants to go back in time, but relative to the rest of the world he is stuck.
His mother is moving towards the future because she is moving on from “the worst day”. She laughs and tries to be happy even though Oskar believes she isn’t missing his father. In this way she is not frozen on that day. She even says “’I want us to move on’” (171).
Time for the grandparents (due to the letters) is in the past. They overlap the rest of the story, perhaps to show that the past exists in the present as memories.
I particularly liked James’ cone analogy—that fits the story’s use of time perfectly. I cannot think of a better way to put it. There are many time schemes in the story that are all linked together and depending on what angle the reader views them from determines the way it is perceived.
Although as James said, we can all agree it is impossible to reverse time, Oskar truly wishes to obtain that. Because of this I believe the reversal of time should still be considered as a major time scheme because it is real to him. Time is not as linear to Oskar.
Time is a very big part of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. For one there are a few different times in this novel. It takes place in the time the letters were written, and the two years of Oskar going through his depressing stage. I agree with Marissa A P that all the time is so abrupt between all the relationships of the characters. Oskar has so little time with his father, when his life was cut short. The time Oskar’s grandparents had
with each other ended very bad.
Oskar was so afraid of time that when his father called he did not want to hear that his father was going to die, so he pretended that time stood still and nothing would happen to his father. He should have realized from an early point that everybody’s time comes eventually and unfortunately his father’s time came to an end. He should not have thought of as that was the time he left, but as the time they had was an honor. In the end Oskar seems to feel better about the whole situation, but is he really. If he reversed the picture so that the man was floating up, “Dad would’ve left his messages backward, until the machine was empty…the plane would have flown backward to Boston… he would of went backwards from the building … he would have gotten back in bed with me looking at the stars…and we would’ve been safe”(325-326). What is this supposed to mean? I think it means that he is still really not happy and he needs to stop seeing his fathers death as a bad thing and see it as a good thing that he even got to know his father unlike Thomas Shell leaving his family.
The time the grandparents had with each other was really short. They have these nothing places where nothing exists not even time. They are always in these nothing places and if time is not present then they really did not have each other for too long. Also their time together was not the best; their relationship was not very good but they tried to make it work. Then there was a time when Thomas left his wife because they were having a child. The time they left each other was the time they really wanted each other, but were too afraid to go back. When they did meet again time went back as it was, exactly the way they treated each other. This time it was different with no more nothing places time did not stop for them and they grew closer to each other. They pictured the world they wanted and realized they could never have it. In the end they live in the airport, they did not want all the material things the just wanted each other even though she knows it won’t last. In time it is always necessary to say you love someone because you never know when there time is up.
In the different times there are different situations. In Germany there was war going on and would be able to understand what is happening there, and if all of a sudden it happens to your perfect little world the situation changes. In Germany they kind of new they had it coming and had the lifestyle of fear in front of them but that fear not feared. When you know the last war on your homeland was the civil war and you think how long that has been, then you think it will never happen. All of a sudden your homeland is attacked you feel vulnerable and the fear you feel is real.
Time is never constant in this novel it goes back and forth through many different time periods. Time also seems to repeat itself. It also disappears in these nothing places where nothing exists not even time. When you go in these nothing places you are erased form the world for a few moments of real time.
I believe it was an ok time the people would have been exited and sad to read about what happened. What I am saying is that some people were ready and some were not. It could have come out earlier and it also could have waited for a while.
I agree with Anna F P that this book, if read, would have brought our country closer and stronger to each other bringing out the feeling of what happened that day.
Everyone has been bringing up very interesting points about time reversal and it has helped me understand more of what Foer's purpose was for having Oskar want time to actually reverse.
I'm sure that anyone who has lost someone who is very close to them will always hope that that person could come back to life and be safe again, but they also usually find a way to move on and come to a stronger faith that they will be able to see their lost loved one in the happy after life; to be with them again in heaven with God. I know that for the ones I have lost, it is that hope and faith that reassures me to know that everything is okay, that they are in a safer, better place and that I will one day see the again. However, for Oskar who "used to be an atheist" (I think he changed BECAUSE of what happened to his dad) I am sure it must be extremely difficult to deal with that kind of a loss with the prior thinking that "once you're dead, you're dead forever, and you don't feel anything, and you don't even dream" (4). Oskar doesn't really have any positive hopes for the future (afterlife), everything is just "extremely complicated" to him. So all Oskar knows that makes him feel safe, is the past. So I agree with how Christy H W says "I believe that for Oskar time stopped (or perhaps reversed) after the day his father died because his entire life became about the past and [the worst day] instead of the future." This is why it is so difficult for Oskar to actually move on from "the worst day," even by the end of the novel, because he only finds security in the past and wishes that time could just reverse to the time when Oskar KNOWS it was good, rather than gambling with what the future could hold. Oskar longs to reverse time to the past, to "reverse the order" until his dad "told [him] the story of the Sixth Borough, from the voice in the can at the end to the beginning, from 'I love you' to 'Once upon a [TIME]...'" (325-326).
I don't understand how Oskar's life can revolve around time when time is a tangled mess? (Kelci B) He is 9 years old. I can't even have my life be a tangled mess, but have my life revolve around time and have it make sense. How can a 9 year old have that?
He has seperation issues because of an absent father. So he manages his time differently. His time isn't confused, it's just being managed in a way so he can figure out this clue left by his father.-Even though figuring it out is totally pointless-
I don't think Oskar keeps track of time. The author may make time a point by overlapping time periods, but Oskar in general is not KEEPING TIME. He calculates how long things will take, like finding where the key belongs.
He has no one to show him how to be a man, he has no father figure. Maybe this search makes him feel like a bigger person and makes him feel big like his father. Which is what he needs because his father isn't there for him. I think Oskar needs to feel something from his father, like he's there. Even if it turns to a failure.
Time slips away quickly in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Though it may not seem like it, a large amount of time passed between the start of Oskar's search and the end of it. I suppose the reason for this would be because we only really met with Oskar when he was on his journey, and he only searched on the weekends. This is because nothing else matters to Oskar but finding out the mystery of the key, and time spent doing anything else is a blur.
Proof that much time has passed comes when Abby Black says "you've grown... A lot. Inches" (209). Oskar hasn't even noticed that he has grown. He has been concentrating so hard on his mission, that time has passed him by, unnoticed. They say that time heals, but in Oskar's case it seems that the lack of time is what is healing him. A few of you have brought up that time will pass regardless of anything's existence. However, in Oskar's world, time is just what separates him from his next weekend, nothing more.
There is very little time for everyone. Oskar’s grandmother loses her family, and so does Thomas shell. They soon loose each other; the younger Thomas shell loses his father. Oskar looses his father, and Ron is left without a family. The time each of these people had with each other was short, and they all wish it could have gone longer. If time wasn’t present than they would either have that someone forever or they might of never had anyone. I time went backwards from the point they lost that someone you would know them for double than you have already known them. If time did go backward you would still loose that person.
I agree with Christy H W that Oskar’s time basically does stay still on the “worst day”. He cannot move on and not moving on is making his time stay still. Everyone’s time keeps moving forward and most move on. His grandmother’s reencounter with her lover made her time go back. When they were together that was their time and that time was lost while time was still moving forward. During their time apart, time went on as usual. When they got back together time went back for them, but in reality time was not back. They were so desperate to go back to that time that they did not know what to do, so they went to the airport.
Oskar doesn't appear to be keeping track of time, but Oskar does spend a big amount of time determining how long certain events will take. For instance when he figures out how many locks there are in New York and how many days it would take to open all of those locks. I think that in this book time moves freely. Oskar spends so much of his time on his quest to find what the key goes to, that everything else is a blur, like Kyle s said. I think after Oskar's father died, Oskar quit keeping track of time because Oskar new the time of the phone messages, and the time his mother arrived home. I think Oskar is so focused on finding what the key goes to that he doesn't seem to care about the time, he cares about his father.
Christy H and James P made a comment that I really love and haven't really thought of until I read their posts.
Because he lost his father which some could argue to be the worst experience a child could live through, Oskar can not break through past the barrier of living without his father, so, in the end, he is actually living in the past. Everyone else is trying to move on; his mother, his grandfather, and his grandfather. But he can't and maybe doesn't want to. This example of not wanting to move forward in time is unhealthy but understandable.
I believe that since Oskar has held onto his father's voice messages from 9/11, Oskar is in between the past and the present, stuck in a time "portal" per say where he cant move forward and cant remain where he is until he can let go.
Oskar's life in the entire book is surrounded by his father's messages that he can't share or delete. Without changing his ideals about the messages he wont be able to get out of his somewhat ghost like presence in the present.
Another time instance I would like to focus on is how instead of counting sheep, Oskar counts time, down to the seconds. On page 325 Oskar counts from "One minute fifty-one seconds...Four minutes thirty-eight seconds...Seven minutes..." (325). All that matters to him, after his father died, seems to all be related to time. Everything happens at a certain exact time including his father's death.
Time is constant and never ending to me. Lets see if Steven Hawking disagrees, maybe that is why he was introduced into the novel. He knows about time and space and to him that is all linked together. Time is very important you only get what you get. The time should not be viewed as bad but as good. Time is not the enemy but the friend. If there was no time than none of it would have ever happened nobody would have known each other, and would not have lost each other. It is always better to have known the person than never have known them at all.
I agree with Courtney W W that this is a timeless story that could or could have happened. This kind of story is happening all around us, and it has also happened many times before. I disagree with Courtney W W that this is just a story about a boy whose father dies, there is much more to it than that. I also disagree with Cicily C on the note of the five steps in recovering from a loss. People deal with those problems in many other ways it is not always true that they go through those steps optimistic people wouldn’t see it as a loss but a good thing to have known such a great person.
Rachel D brings up an interesting point by suggesting that Christopher can not move forward or ahead in time until he "let's go" of his feelings about the tragedy. This seems to be brought out by the book as Oskar's search for the key, which symbolizes his feelings about not knowing his father, consumes his life. His regret, his anger all keep him from doing things that aren't related to the tragedy. In this way he is "stuck in a moment (he) can't get out of" (U2). He is angry at everyone in his life that has moved on, as explained when he punches Jimmy Snyder, but also is punching "Ron . . . Mom . . . Dad . . . Grandma. . . Dr. Fein" for moving on with life.
The book shows how being stuck in time, as Oskar is, prevents any personal growth or measure of happiness. Oskar will always be the angry, sadistic boy that he is until he let's go of his anger about the tragedy. Time only matters in terms of what you do with it, and for Oskar, he shows the horrible consequences of not moving forward in time.
Ethan R W is actually now Ethan R F. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Time is probably the most emphasized theme in the final chapters of the book. More so, the concept of "reversed time" is emphasized. In the chapter, "My Feelings," the grandmother explains how in her dream, things go backwards from the begining. She explains the animals on Noah's Ark, and how "Eve put the apple back from the branch" (313). She is going back in time. However, when she talks to her husband, they agree to "stay in place in time" instead of coming or going (312). Then at the end of the book's final chapter, "Beautiful and True," Oskar says everything backwards. He says these things as if he would like to think about the exact steps that occured when his father died, and reversed them in order to prevent them from happening. "I'd have said 'Nothing' badkward. He'd have said 'Yeah, buddy?' backward. I'd have said 'Dad?' backward, which would have sounded the same as 'Dad' forward" (326). What I think the book is trying to get at, is that in a moment, everything can change and that we should value the time we have now.
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