Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

  EXTREMELY LOUD AND INCREDIBLY CLOSE 

STUDY GUIDE

CHARACTERS:

-Oskar Schell:  9 yrs old, narrator, seeks to heal after the loss of his Dad in 9/11, discovers a key he hopes will lead to a connection to his Dad

-Thomas Schell Jr.:  Oskar's father, owner of family jewelry store, killed in 9/11 in World Trade Center.

-Mom:   Oskar's mother, a lawyer, widowed on 9/11

-Ron:  a man Oskar's Mom met at a support group, Oskar is skeptical of him

-Thomas Schell Sr.:  narrator of "Why I am not where you are chapters," loses his love and pregnant Anna in WWII Dresden fire bombing, moves to NYC, left his wife and Thomas Jr's mother when she became pregnant . . .

-Anna Schmidt:  died in WWII Dresden firebombing, 

-Grandma Schmidt:  sister of Anna, marries Thomas Schell Sr. in NYC, ties to write memoir but pages are blank. . .

-A.R. Black:  103 yrs old, upstairs apartment, journalist, keeps names on file of all he interviews or writes about, helps Oskar on quest for the lock

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Chapter Breakdown 

1-15 (Oskar)

16-34 (Grandfather)

35-74 (Oskar)

75-85 (Grandmother)

86-107 (Oskar)

108-141 (Grandfather)

142-173 (Oskar)

174-186 (Grandmother)

187-208 (Oskar)

209-216 (Grandfather)

217-223 (Oskar)

224-233 (Grandmother)

234-261 (Oskar)

262-284 (Grandfather)

285-305 (Oskar)

306-314 (Grandmother)

315-326 (Oskar)

Oskar: 

Grandmother: “My Feelings”

Grandfather: “Why I’m Not Where You Are”

1  "I spent all day walking around the park, looking for something that might tell me something, but the problem was that I didn’t know what I was looking for…But that’s how tricky Dad could be. There was nothing, which would have been unfortunate unless nothing was a clue. Was nothing a clue?"   page 8

-How are Dad's expeditions "looking for clues to the unseen" helpful to Oskar in his life and then after his Dad dies?

2  Why does Oskar invent to create a better, alternative reality?  Why microphones to hear everyone's heart beating? page 1

Why a birdseed shirt?  page 2

3  Why is it significant in the themes of this course that Oskar "wants to know everything"?

4  How is Oskar reflecting on his past Experienced perspective when he states "I used to be an Athiest" and moving toward Organized Innocence when he states, "I believe things are extremely complicated"?  page 4

5   How is Oskar following Dad's advice in stating "the more contact with humans, the more he learns"?  How is this like Gus's "wish I knew"?  page 5

6  Why does Dad leave the red circled "not stop looking" for Oskar to see?  page 10  

7  How is Oskar reflecting on his Innocence perspective when he states, "Being with (Dad) made my brain quiet. I didn't have to invent a thing"?  page 12

8    “Well, what I get is why we do exist? I don’t mean how, but why.” I watched the fireflies of his thoughts orbit his head. He said, “We exist because we exist.” “What the?” “We could imagine all sorts of universes like this one, but this is the one that happened.”   page 13

—How is Oskar of the Experienced perspective here by questioning why we exist and Dad is of the Organized Innocenent perspective:  this is the universe we have? (note that Oskar's Dad is estranged from his father who was ruined by the loss of his love in the bombing of Dresden).

9  Why does Oskar "love for things to have reasons for why they are"?  page 13  What question does he eventually want to ask to the terrorists?  

10  "I haven’t always been silent, I used to talk and talk and talk and talk, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut, the silence overtook me like a cancer.   page 16

——How are the grandfather's talkativeness and silence a failure to communicate? What do you think caused this? What is being implied about the need to listen in order to communicate?

11 What is significant about the words Grandpa loses: "want fine, carry, loss, shame, I"? page 16

12  “Parents are always more knowledgeable than their children, and children are always smarter than their parents.”  page 7

What is the difference between being “knowledgeable” and being “smart”?  According to Blake's poems, in what way are children smart and parents more knowledgeable?  How is the Innocence perspective smart?

13  “But if you don’t tell me anything, how can I ever be right?” He circled something in an article and said, “Another way of looking at it would be, how could you ever be wrong?”  page 9

What is Oskar’s Dad trying to tell him by saying “Another way of looking at it would be, how could you ever be wrong if knowledge is self earned?”

14    “...when I rub my hands against each other in the middle of winter I am warming myself with the friction of YES and NO, when I clap my hands I am showing my appreciation through the uniting and parting of YES and NO, I signify “book” by peeling open my clapped hands, every book, for me, is the balance of YES and NO, even this one, my last one, especially this one.”  page 17

What is the significance behind clapping “yes” and “no” together?

How does Grandpa hope to find “balance” when he opens both of his palms like a book?  Does he?

How does this connect to Blake's perspectives, to the idea "without contraries there is no progression"?

How do you know that the grandfather has not traveled through the "yes" and the "no" to the world to arrive at Organized Innocence?

15  When the grandfather writes, "I've thought myself out of happiness one million times," and his follow up question to "Is anything wrong?" is "Is anything right?" how do we know he is buried in the Experienced perspective?

16    “…I was the tree, the world was the river.”  page 16

“She was the tree and also the river flowing away from the tree.”  page 30

Why does Grandpa describe both himself as well as his future wife as a tree, and then go on to compare her to the “river flowing away from the tree”?

17  When grandfather writes, "I was out of words when your mother met me...this may have been what made our marriage possible," how do we know that the marriage is not successful and that he is of the Experienced perspective?  

18 How is Oskar's gift to his Mom of the Morse Code message bracelet based on his Dad's last phone message a sign that Oskar is traveling toward the Organized Innocent perspective by valuing original love and avoiding contributing to his Mom's despair?   page 35

19   Why is playing the stereo too loud dishonoring the spirit and legacy of his Dad?  page 35

20  Track down the allusion to William Shakespeare's Hamlet in which Hamlet finds the skull of the court jester Yorick:  how is Hamlet's soliloquy "To be or not to be" helpful in understanding Oskar's existential despair?

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.

21  What are the “heavy boots” Oskar talks about?  page 38 . How is self-mutilation a sign of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?  page 37 .   Look up P.T.S.D.

22  Why send a letter to Ringo Star who got the job of drummer for The Beatles after the first drummer turned the job down?  (Consider unknown forces at work in the world working toward one's benefit).  page 40

23  How is Oskar of the Experienced view in stating that "poor people get fat because they eat junk food that is cheaper" and telling his Mom that "human beings will destroy each other as soon as it becomes easy enough"?  page 42-43

24   Find Thomas Schell's name in the marker writing:  Who wrote Thomas Schell?  how is the reader becoming like Oskar in finding clues that will allow him to believe in and find "unlooked for help" for his existential despair?

25 “Every time I left our apartment I became a little lighter, because I was getting closer to  Dad. But I also became a little heavier, because I was getting farther from Mom.” page  52

Why does Oskar feel this way?

How is Oskar getting closer to the memory and spirit of his father when Oskar searches for clues to who owns the key?

26  Why the photo of the falling man next to the photo of precious gems?  What is conveyed by this juxtaposition?  page 58-9

27  How does Oskar's swapping of the answering machine indicate that he is journeying toward organized innocence in his desire to protect his Mom from more horrors? page 68

28  What is Oskar's secret about the answering machine beyond that there were his Dad's messages on it?  How do we know he is of the Experienced Perspective through the comment, "That secret was a hole in the middle of me that every happy thing fell into."?  page 71

29 “But I knew that there couldn’t be pockets that enormous...pockets big enough for our families... In the end, everyone loses everyone. There was no invention to get around that, and so I felt, that night, like the turtle that everything else in the universe was on top of.”  page 74

How does this show that Oskar is of Blake’s Experienced perspective?

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30  Oskar states, "And maybe you could rate the people you knew by how much you loved them, so if the device of the person in the ambulance detected the device of the person he loved the most, or the person who loved him the most, and the person in the ambulance was really badly hurt, and might even die, the ambulance could flash GOODBYE! I LOVE YOU! GOODBYE! I LOVE YOU! "   page 72

-Why does Oskar want an ambulance that conveys a final message of love from the ambulance of one who is about to die?

31  How does the style of Grandma's letter differ from Grandfather's style?

32  How does the prisoner letter from the Turkish Labor Camp connect to Oskar's letters to Hawking, Ringo Star, etc?  What are both looking for?  page 75

33  Why is grandmother's father's response of "I hope you will do...something you do not understand for someone you love?" assuage (lessen) grandmother's pain of losing her father in the bombing of Dresden?  page 76

34 How is Oskar trying to unlock his P.T.S.D and his mild autism in "a way he does not understand for someone he loves"?

35 in Grandmother's mother's letter, she writes, "I wish I could be a girl again, with the chance to live my life again.  I have suffered so much more than I needed to."  How is she desiring a return to innocence and a chance to pass through experience more quickly?  page 79

36  Who is Anna's boyfriend and what does he say in a letter to Oskar's grandmother? page 80

37  In a conversation with Dad, Oskar ponders the insignificance of man in the context of the amount of time the universe has existed.  How does his Dad convince Oskar that he is significant and that his actions matter?  (How does this connect to Titus informing Gus that he is to Rodney as God is to Gus?) page 86

38  In speaking to Abby Black, Oskar informs her that elephants can communicate in sounds beyond human capacity to hear.  Why would Oskar desire a capacity to communicate with others beyond human communication?  and know what is beyond human knowledge?  (like elephants)  page 94

39  Oskar consoles Abby's sadness about her divorce "like Dad used to do with me."  How is he getting closer to his Dad beyond the search for the lock?  page 97

40  Why does Oskar like being looked for?  How is he becoming like his Dad in this?  page 101

41  Why does Grandfather like watching people reunite at the airport?

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42  How is the airport a place between Dresden and NYC for grandfather?  a place of limbo in which he is neither here nor there?  page 109

43  Grandfather writes, "being here fills my heart with so much joy...I try not to remember the life that I didn't want to lose but lost and have to remember..."  How is he like Francis in remembering the feeling of his first love?  How is he searching for Organized Innocence? page 109

44  How are the "Nothing" places where "one could temporarily cease to exist" in Oskar's grandparent's apartment a sign that they are of the Experienced perspective?  page 110

45  How is this doorknob on page 115 different from the one on page 29?  What does this indicate about grandfather's potential journey out of Experience?

46  What does grandmother write in her memoir?    Grandfather hoped it would be "full of meaning...and everything would be better than it was" in the memoir.  What does he realize when he reads it?  page 120-1

47  When Grandfather writes, "I am sorry for my inability to let the unimportant things go, for my inability to hold onto the important things...I am sorry for what I am bout to do to your mother and to you."  How is he stating that he cannot achieve Organized Innocence?  What is he about to do to Grandmother and Oskar's Dad?   page 132

48  How is this doorknob on page 134 different from the one on pages 115 and 29?  What does this indicate about grandfather's potential journey out of Experience?

49  Why does Grandfather write "I can't live."?    page 135

50  Why is it important to recall that Oskar's Dad was abandoned by his father but chose to love his son?  How is Oskar's Dad a model of Organized Innocence for Oskar?  (page 135)

51   OSKAR AND HAMLET:   "I felt, that night, on that stage, under that skull, incredibly close to everything in the universe, but also extremely alone. I wondered, for the first time in my life, if life was worth all the work it took to live. What exactly made it worth it? What’s so horrible about being dead forever, and not feeling anything, and not even dreaming? What’s so great about feeling and dreaming?"   pages 141, 145

—— How is Oskar, like Hamlet in the "to be or not to be" soliloquy, both coveting death and inaction?  What keeps Hamlet from suicide and inaction?  What keeps Oskar from suicide and inaction?  How are both Hamlet and Oskar of the Experienced Perspective here?

To be, or not to be: that is the question:

Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune,

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles,

And by opposing end them? To die: to sleep;

No more; and by a sleep to say we end

The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to, 'tis a consummation

Devoutly to be wish'd. To die, to sleep;

To sleep: perchance to dream: ay, there's the rub;

For in that sleep of death what dreams may come

When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,

Must give us pause: there's the respect

That makes calamity of so long life;

For who would bear the whips and scorns of time,

The oppressor's wrong, the proud man's contumely,

The pangs of despised love, the law's delay,

The insolence of office and the spurns

That patient merit of the unworthy takes,

When he himself might his quietus make

With a bare bodkin? who would fardels bear,

To grunt and sweat under a weary life,

But that the dread of something after death,

The undiscover'd country from whose bourn

No traveller returns, puzzles the will

And makes us rather bear those ills we have

Than fly to others that we know not of?

Thus conscience does make cowards of us all;

And thus the native hue of resolution

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and moment

With this regard their currents turn awry,

And lose the name of action.

ACT III, SCENE 1

HAMLET TO HORATIO:

"for thou hast been

As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing,

A man that fortune's buffets and rewards

Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those

Whose blood and judgment are so well commingled,

That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger

To sound what stop she please. Give me that man

That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him

In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,

As I do thee.

HAMLET

Sir, in my heart there was a kind of fighting,

That would not let me sleep: methought I lay

Worse than the mutines in the bilboes. Rashly,

And praised be rashness for it, let us know,

Our indiscretion sometimes serves us well,

When our deep plots do pall: and that should teach us

There's a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will,--

 

HORATIO

That is most certain.

HAMLET SOLILOQUY  ACT V:

HAMLET:  There's a special

providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now,

'tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be

now; if it be not now, yet it will come: the

readiness is all:     Let Be.  

(V, ii, 5-10).

----Address the change in Hamlet's suicidal thoughts to admiring the balanced judgment and emotions of Horatio to Hamlet's belief in Free Will within Divine Providence to Hamlet's conclusion that he must be ready for the world will provide?

52  What is the significance to Oskar's healing after loss that many of the Blacks come to the play?  page 143

53  Why does Oskar imagine ripping Jimmy Snyder (Hamlet) apart verbally and physically?  How is he exhibiting his frustration in his imagination?  page 144

54   Is Oskar right that his Dad could explain everything?  Or was his Dad more interested in the process of acquiring knowledge?  page 147

55  How is Oskar sharing in his Dad's experience in the photo of the Cyclone?  page 148

56  Mr. Black of apartment 6A in the same building tells Oskar, "So many people enter and leave your life!  You have to keep the door open, so they can come in.  But it also means you have to let them go!"  How does this help or hurt Oskar's despair?  page 153

57  Mr. Black of apartment 6A in the same building tells Oskar, "Thinking of her (deceased) wife is the next best thing (to being with her."  How is he teaching Oskar about a fundamental premise of Organized Innocence?  How is this like Francis and Margie?  page 154

58  Mr. Black of apartment 6A in the same building tells Oskar, "It's not a horrible world but it's full of horrible people."  How is he teaching Oskar how to overcome horrors of terrorism?  page 156

59  Why does Oskar lament that his Dad did not make Mr. Black's list of names?  page 158

60  Updating his one word descriptor from "war to husband," how is Mr. Black embodying Organized Innocence?  page 158

61  How is Oskar's fact that the world has been at peace for 230 of 3,500 years exhibit the Experienced Perspective?  page 161

62  Why does Mr. Black hammer one nail each day into his bed?  What is the significance of the bed becoming magnetized?  How does this help his grief?  How is this like Oskar's search for the key?  page 162

63 Why does Oskar want skin colors to indicate moods?  page 163

64  Connect the story of the artists whose arms are broken by Stalin's thugs and how they feed each other to Oskar's connection the Blacks on his search for the lock.      page 164

65  "Then, out of nowhere, a flock of birds flew by the window, extremely fast and incredibly close. Maybe twenty of them. Maybe more. But they also seemed like just one bird, because somehow they all knew exactly what to do."   page 165

How does Oskar reconnect Mr. Black to sounds of flying birds?  Why does Mr. Black cry?  How will Oskar get him to reconnect with the world?  page 168

How does Mr. Black hear / perceive the birds from an Organized Innocent perspective?

How does Oskar hear / perceive them as able to be light enough for flight while he is in "heavy boots" and, therefore, from an Experienced Perspective?  page 165

66   Trace Oskar's cataloging of his emotional state:  OPTIMISTIC, BUT REALISTIC TO EXTREMELY DEPRESSED TO INCREDIBLY ALONE.  How is he exhibiting a movement toward organized innocence and then, in telling his Mom he wished she were dead, a return to Experience?   pages 170-1

67  Why does Oskar inflict bruises on his body?  How is he hoping his Mom will feel sorry for him more and care for him more when she sees the bruises?

How is Oskar seeing the care, love, and support he is receiving from Abby Black, Ada Black, 6A Blakc (care at times he does not completely deserve) but nor perceiving it? pages 172-3

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Study Guide: 173-216

68 Why does Grandfather take photographs of the doorknobs in the apartment? 175 

How do these photographs correspond with the ones on pages 134, 115, 29, and the opening page?  

69 “There is nothing wrong with compromising. Even if you compromise almost everything.” 175. 

Is Grandma correct about this? Is there such a thing as too much compromise?

--------How are doorknobs a symbol of horrors for Osjkar's grandfather but a symbol of opportunity for Oskar to heal?

70 “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.” 

Why is Grandma continuously hitting the space bar and leaving the pages full of blank spaces? 176

71 “I felt suddenly shy.      I was not used to shy. I was used to shame.

   Shyness is when you turn your head away from something you want. 

   Shame is when you turn your head away from something you do not want.” 179

What is the significance of Grandma feeling shy instead of shame? 

-----How is Grandma arguing for both the Innocence and Experienced perspectives on page 180:  "cannot protect from sadness with protecing from happiness"  

72 “I did not feel that he owed it to me.    And I did not feel that I owed it to him. We owed it to each other, which is something different. 

He raised his head and looked at me.

I am not angry with you, I told him.

You must be.

I am the one who broke the rule.

But I am the one who made the rule you couldn’t live with.” 181

What does this conversation between Grandmother and Grandfather show? Why does Grandmother feel that they “owed it to each other”?

73 What does Grandmother do after she realizes Grandfather is not going to return from the airport? Why does she do this? 185-186

74 Why does Oskar share the interview about the nuclear bomb with his class? How is Tomoyasu’s perception of war related to Mr. Black’s? 189

75 How do compasses work? Why does Oskar give a “compass pendant” to Mr. Black? How does this connect to Oskar's quest to find the lock? And how does it show that Oskar is preventing others from wallowing in the Experienced Perspective? page193

76 “He said poverty made him nervous, not people”  How is Mr. Black exhibiting Organized Innocence here? page 194

Connect this realization to Francis's epiphany that "color does not make people predictable...poverty causes desperate people to to do desperate things." (The Dangerous Lives of Altar Boys)

77 Why does Oskar want to know if the waitress who was in the World Trade Center has any kids? 196

78 “I adjusted the string so the keys—one to the apartment, one to I-didn’t-know-what—rested against my heart, which was nice, except the only thing was that it felt too cold sometimes, so I put a Band-Aid on that part of my chest, and the keys rested on that.”   page 200

---Why does Oskar put a band-aid over his heart? 200

---How are the key next to his heart and his bandaid over his heart to prevent chafing indicative of Oskar's desire to unlock the secret shame and guilt he has about the phone messages he buries in his heart?

----How is the image of his Dad's key next to Oskar's heart convey how the quest for the lock the key opens keeps his Dad emotionally present for him?

79 What is Oskar going to try and do to have a better week? How is Oskar going to try and do this? 203

80 Why is the letter that Grandfather writes marked up with red ink? Who marked it up? Why is it significant that this letter was read? 208-216

-------------Who is Simon Goldberg?  And how does recalling that Anna's father hid him in Nazi Germany helpful for Organized Innocence?

81 How does Grandfather burn his hand? page 211 What is missing from the doorknob on 212?

82 What is the significance of the door still standing after the bombing? 214

83 At the end of Grandfather’s letter he mentions how life might have been different, if he had done what? 216

---How Is GF a foil to both Oskar's Dad and Oskar when GF writes, "I am so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything." (page 216)

Compare this sentiment to William Blake's Experienced poem "The Clod and the Pebble":

The Clod and the Pebble

 

              "Love seeketh not itself to please, 

              Nor for itself hath any care, 

              But for another gives its ease, 

        And builds a Heaven in Hell's despair." 

             

So sung a little Clod of Clay 

              Trodden with the cattle's feet, 

              But a Pebble of the brook 

              Warbled out these metres meet: 

             

"Love seeketh only self to please, 

            To bind another to its delight, 

            Joys in another's loss of ease, 

      And builds a Hell in Heaven's despite."

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 217-259

84 Why bring over the engineers who assessed the Leaning Tower of Pisa? What do they conclude about the Sixth Borough? 219

-------->   Recalling his Dad's elaborate tale of the Sixth Borough drifting away from NYC, Oskar recalls the girl and boy who communicate over tin cans and strings.  She tells him she loves him and the boy "puts her love for him (in the tin can) on the shelf in his closet...he would never open it because he would lose its contents. It was enough just to know it was there."  page 220

------------------>  How is recalling this story a form of Organized Innocence for Oskar?  How could Oskar benefit from this story and recall that his Dad's love for him is there and need not seek it on the five messages on the answering machine?

----How is the "can with the voice of love in it" like Oskar's key?

85 “There’s nothing that could convince someone who doesn’t want to be convinced. But there is an abundance of clues that would give the wanting believer something to hold onto.” 221

Why does Oskar’s dad differentiate between those who want to believe and those who do not when describing the Sixth Borough? 

---Explain opitmist v pessimist in Blakean terms on Innocene and Experience: page 221.

222: How is recalling the dreams of the children of the Sixth Borough a form of Organized Innocence?

----How is the "can with the voice of love in it" like Oskar's key?

86 What does Oskar wish he could freeze in time? 223

87 How does Grandma describe her memories from the day of 9/11? Why does she repeat “bodies falling” five times? 230-231

88 “When I look at you, my life makes sense. Even the bad things made sense. They were necessary to make you possible...Every moment before this one depends on this one. ” 232


----How is she saying that Oskar is a product of her refusal to remain in Experience? of the need to travel through bombing Dresden, loss of sister, loss of parents, and arrive at the need to love Grandfather...to make Oskar's Dad who made Oskar out of love?

----------->  Why are Grandma's letters in separate sentences while Grandfather's sentences are all run-ons?  How does this convey a differing way of grieving?   

89 “I’m sorry.” 233 

Why are these the first two words Grandfather writes to Grandmother when he returns?

90 Who does Oskar turn to when Mr. Black decides to stop looking after 6 months of helping Oskar? Why does he decide to stop? 234

-------->  when Oskar says he tried "optimistic inventions" about Grandma's whereabouts but the "pessimistic ones were extremely loud," how is Oskar admitting the dominance of the Experienced perspective?  page 235

91 Oskar finds the envelopes sent from Dresden and he wonders “what I needed to know was, where did she put all of the letters?” 236

Are there letters that go with the envelopes? 

How is this connected to Grandma’s statement “For forty years years not a word. Only empty envelopes.” 233

How is this related to Mr. Black hammering a nail into his bed every day? How is it different? 162

92 “We stood there. He was in the room. I was in the hall. The door was open, but it felt like there was an invisible door between us…” 237

---What is the significance of this passage?


93 When Oskar desperately needs to share his story with someone who does he turn to? 238

94 Why does Grandfather wear an “I heart NY” shirt? Why is NY marked all over his room? 239

95 Where do Mr. Black and Oskar go on their last journey together? 244

96 What is the simile Oskar is describing? 245

Why is life like a skyscraper?

97 What is going on in the collage of images on page 246?

98 Why is Oskar curious about “where they came from, who they missed, and what they were sorry for” when he is looking around at the people who are also standing on top of the Empire State Building? 247

----How is Oskar seeking "shared trauma therapy"?

99 Why does Oskar want to save the birds from flying into the windows? 250 

What is a birdseed shirt? 2

Compare the description Oskar’s invention to prevent birds from hitting windows as “...incredibly close...extremely loud...” to the title of the book: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

100 Why does Ruth Black remain at the top of the Empire State Building? 252

101 Why is there a photograph of NYC with the spotlights shining from Ground Zero next to Ruth’s story? 252-253

102 At the end of the story, Oskar suppresses what he wants to say to Mr. Black. How is this related to the other passages when Oskar buries his feelings? 254 link back to 144, 147, 203. How is he choosing not to cause more cynicism and irreverence of the Experienced perspective in others and himself?

103 Connect to Blakean concept “darkest before it is light" and page 255 

------> How is playing the five messages to his Grandfather cathartic for Oskar?

---->Why does Oskar want to know exactly how his Dad died? page 257

104 Why does Oskar ask the renter why he doesn’t have other phrases tattooed on his body? What is significant about the phrases that Oskar suggests (‘I’ll think about it’, ‘probably’, and ‘it’s possible’)? 257 

105 Oskar’s invention manifests in the idea of digging up his father’s coffin. What is the significance of the juxtaposition “It opened up like a fist, or a flower.”? 259  

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 260-305

106 Compare/contrast the doorknob on 265 to the doorknobs on pages 134, 115, and 29. 

107 How does Grandfather originally try and get Grandmother’s attention outside of her window? What changes? 267

108 At the airport Grandfather calls Grandmother and tries to explain “...why’d I’d left, where I’d gone, how I’d found out about your death, why I’d come back, and what I needed to do with the time I had left.” How does he try to explain it, and why is this form of communication not a success? 269

109 Why does Grandfather cross out “to mourn” and replace it with “to try to live” when he returns to the USA? 273

----How is GF hoping to travel through the Experienced Perspective?

110 What does Grandfather do in order to get to know Oskar? 278

111 Which family members know about Oskar’s expedition? How does this update your view of Oskar's Mom? 279

112 Why does Mr. Black tell Grandfather “You’re the one who should be going around with him” after finding out who Grandfather is? 280

113 "There won’t be enough pages in this book for me to tell you what I need to tell you, I could write smaller, I could slice the pages down their edges to make two pages, I could write over my own writing, but then what?"  

--------Why does Grandfather’s handwriting get continuously smaller until it is illegible? 281

-------How is he pointing out the failure of his communication to his unborn son, yet the burning need to communicate?

114 GF writes, “...why didn’t I learn to treat everything like it was the last time, my greatest regret is how much I believed in the future…” Why is this significant?

page 281 

115 “OSKAR SCHELL: SON”    page 286….

-------Why is Oskar pleased with this one word descriptor?

-------How will this help Oskar remember that he is always his father's son and is currently his mother's son?

-------What will Oskar need to change in order to be a son to his mother?

116 Why does Oskar not go back to the Empire State Building to see if Mr. Black is still there? 286

117 How does Oskar describe his feelings after searching for the key and not finding anything? How are these adjectives connected to the Experienced perspective? 287

118 Oskar starts out wondering why his Mom never cares about where he is going, yet suddenly realizes that not only does she care, she has been following him this entire time and preparing the Blacks for his visits. How is she providing unseen help to Oskar? How is Oskar moved toward an Organized Innocent perspective when he learns of her unseen help? page 291

119 How long has Abby’s ex-husband been looking for the key? 295

120 Why does Oskar want to know about William Black’s father? 296


Why does William Black’s father write letters?

What does William Black’s father's letter not say to William? how does this help Oskar with his grief?


121  Why does Oskar tell William Black about Oskar's inability to pick up the phone and speak with his Dad? and why does he ask for forgiveness?  page 301-2

122  When Oskar discovers that William Black is the owner of the key, why does Oskar get "heavy boots" that he will lose touch with his Dad? page 304

123  Why is it significant to Oskar that Stephen Hawking writes him back?  page 304

124  What does Stephen Hawking say life depends on?  

Why is it important that it depends on things we will never see, hear, smell, nor touch?

------------>  How does this allow for a divine presence in the universe?   page 305

------------->  How does Hawking imply that the universe depends on love?  the love Oskar had/has with his Dad?  and the love he can still have with his Mom?  and Grandfather / Grandmother?

------------->  Why does Hawking inform Oskar that he should not stop inventing and that his inventions are not inventions?  What are they in the healing process for Oskar?  How do the inventions bring him closer to his Dad?

124 a.  Why does Grandma want to rewind the world to the beginning, "have Eve put the apple back on the tree" and all the way to the darkness before God said, "Let there be light."  page 313

-------->  Do you support this wish?  Why?  Why not?

------> Would William Blake support this wish?  Why?  Why not?

125   “Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar.

It’s always necessary.

I love you, Grandma”    page    314  

----Based on her history in the Dresden firebombing and the loss of her son in 9-11, why does Grandma feel compelled to tell Oskar she loves him?

---How does this exacerbate Oskar's secret about the phone messages?

126.  How does Oskar benefit from chared trauma therapy" by finding out about Ron's family?  page 315

127.  Why does Grandpa bury the letters to his son in the coffin?  page 322

128.  What secret does Oskar's Mom share with him?  page 324

129. Being tucked in by his Mom, Oskar states that "I don't believe in God, but I believe that things are extremely complicated."   page 324 .   

------ How is Oskar leaving the door open for a faith?  Hos is this like Nick the Convert?  like Gus?

-----Why share this with Mom at this moment?

130.  “ I’d have said “Dad?” backwards, which would have sounded the same as “Dad” forward.

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.”   page 326 

----How is Oskar desirous of a complete, literal return to Innocence?   

------------compare this to Grandma's wish to go back to "Let there be Light":

---How do we know this is an impossible quest?

131  ---But how do we know that re-valuing the original love and faith in the self and world in the Innocent Perspective is "the next best thing" to returning to when Dad was alive and would tell him stories?   page 326 

----While the falling man cannot fall up and while Oskar cannot make everyone safe, Oskar can revisit the Sixth Borough story and the "love" the boy keeps in a can and "knows it is always there."  

------How is revisiting this imaginative fable from his Dad an act that encourages the Organized Innocent perspective?

132  BURYING UNDELIVERED LETTERS IN DAD’S COFFIN:  How does Oskar find faith in Gerald-the limousine driver while burying Grandpa's letters in his Dad's coffin?

---How does Grandpa move on from undelivered letters and not being a father by burying the letters of love in his son's coffin?

---How is an uncommunicated message finally made less haunting?

---What must Oskar do with his uncommunicated message about his Dad's phone messages?  What does he do?

---How is Oskar burying his obsession with finding a closer connection with his Dad, for the Quest of the key has brought him closer to his Dad?

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