21April2009
Posted by erink under: Free Response.
Over the years, several places have been suggested as the “Sixth Borough” of New York. Such areas have included Hudson County, NJ; Nassau County, NY; the Lower East Side; Newark, NJ; Jersey City, NJ; Fort Lee, NJ; Rockland County, NY; and Philadelphia, PA. Some have even suggested areas which are separated from New York from several hundred miles, including South Florida, Puerto Rico, and Israel.
There has, however, only been one bill under formal consideration for a sixth borough to be incorporated. It was in 1934 by New York City Alderman Elias Jacobs, a Democrat from the Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan. The bill stated that Yonkers, NY be annexed into New York City as the official sixth borough. Yonkers, the fourth largest city in the state of New York, borders the Bronx on the borough’s northern end.
The idea was hinted at again in the 1970’s when there was a proposal to extend the New York City subway into Yonkers.
Although the city was not annexed and the subway was not extended, the notion has remained in the minds of residents of both Yonkers and New York City. Today, Yonkers’ nicknames include “The Backyard of Bronx,” The Sixth Borough,” and “The Hidden Borough.”
21April2009
Posted by brendanh under: References and Allusions.
Between the 13 February and 15 February 1945, the city of Dresden, Germany was bombed by the British Royal Air Force and United States Army Air Force. The night of February 13, 800 RAF Lancaster bombers dropped 650,000 incendiaries and 8,000lb of high in two waves of attack, facing very little anti-aircraft fire. The RAF bombers moved across the city until all of Dresden was burning. Another attack by 311 USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress bombers followed in the daylight. Due to the large amount of incendiary bombs used, a firestorm developed in the center of Dresden. The more the city burned, the more oxygen was sucked in and the larger the firestorm became. The temperature in the center of the firestorm is thought to have peaked at 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. When 450 more USAAF B-17 Flying Fortress bombers arrived over Dresden at 12:30 P.M. on February 14, fires were still burning from the night before.
While the population of Dresden and its surrounding suburbs was officially 600,000 people in 1939, approximately 200,000 refugees, as well as thousands of wounded soldiers, filled Dresden in 1945 as they fled the advancing Red Army. The unknown number of people in the city makes exact casualties difficult to determine; however, recent publications have estimated that civilian casualties were between 24,000 and 40,000 people. After the bombing and the firestorm, approximately 90% of the city center was destroyed. The bombing of Dresden was a controversial decision not only because Dresden was questionable as a legitimate military or industrial target, but also because it occurred only twelve weeks before the surrender of Nazi Germany.
In “Why I’m Not Where You Are 4/12/78″, Chapter 10 of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar’s grandfather Thomas Schell Sr. describes the events he witnessed during the bombing of Dresden in a letter to his son. The traumatic experiences that Oskar’s grandfather underwent during the Allied bombing of Dresden are finally shown, displaying the reasons behind his being mute. Knowing now what Oskar’s grandfather experienced in Dresden, what are some similarities and differences between the effects of the bombing of Dresden on Oskar’s grandfather and the effects of 9/11 on Oskar?
“…I found another shelter, it was filled to the walls, brown smoke pressed down from the ceiling like a hand, it became more and more difficult to breathe, my lungs were trying to pull the room in through my mouth, there was a silver explosion, all of us tried to leave the cellar at once, dead and dying people were trampled, I walked over an old man, I walked over children, everyone was losing everyone, the bombs were like a waterfall…” – Thomas Schell Sr. (Foer 211)
“The crush was unbearable, we were so tight you could not fall over.” “Apart from the fire risk, it was becoming increasingly impossible to breath in the cellar because the air was being pulled out by the increasing strength of the blaze.” – Rudolph Eichner
“Insane fear grips me and from then on I repeat one simple sentence to myself continuously: I don’t want to burn to death. I do not know how many people I fell over. I know only one thing: that I must not burn.” – Margaret Freyer
16April2009
Posted by caroliner under: Chapter by Chapter.
This chapter begins with Oskar playing the part of Yorik in the play Hamlet at his school. Oskar is excited about playing the part of Yorik because he will be able to wear a mask to cover his face and also because his teacher said that his role “will steal the show” (Foer 142). The opening night went as planned and his mom, grandmother, Ron, and a lot of the Blacks he had met up to this point were in attendance. The second night also went well and his mom and grandmother were there. The next night, only his grandma was there and Oskar got upset because no one was really there to watch him and his grandma didn’t even come back stage before the performance. The night after it was only his grandma again and she laughed at all the wrong times and people made fun of her. On the shows last night, Oskar envisioned himself making up all the wrong lines and killing the other actor, Jimmy Snyder. He needed to get his anger out about Ron, his grandma, and his dad’s death so he imagined hitting Jimmy over and over again with his mask while the audience cheered for him.
The next segment of the chapter is when Oskar goes to visit more of the Blacks on his list. In this chapter Oskar visits three different Blacks; Abe, Ada, and Mr. Black. With Abe he took a cab there and rode a roller coaster even though he didn’t want to. Abe was of no help to Oskar so he left to go to Ada’s house. Oskar meets Ada Black, who owns two Picasso paintings, and is very rich. Oskar asks her how she feels about homeless people. Oskar then shows her the key, which she does not recognize, so he leaves.
The next Black lives in the same building as Oskar. Oskar meets Mr. Black, an elderly man who has traveled the world and fought in both world wars. Mr. Black’s apartment is filled with various things he has collected over his years of traveling the world, which fascinates Oskar. When Oskar asks Mr. Black if he knew his father, Mr. Black goes to check his biographical index. Mr. Black’s biographical index contains cards for every person he thinks he may need to reference one day. Realizing his father is not in the biographical index, Oskar gets “heavy boots.” Oskar then learns that Mr. Black has not left his apartment in twenty-four years. Wanting to help him, he offers for Mr. Black to help him with his search. Mr. Black then confesses that he turned his hearing aid off, and has not been able to hear for a very long time. Oskar helps him turn his hearing aids on, and Mr. Black begins to cry when he hears sounds again.
At the end of the chapter, Oskar’s mother tucks him into bed. They begin to talk about Oskar’s father’s death. Oskar accidentally says that if he could have chosen who would die, he would have chosen his mom.
Quotations:
“Dad was just someone who ran a family jewelry business. Just an ordinary dad. But I wished so much, then, that he had been Great. I wished he’d been famous, famous like a movie star, which is what he deserved. I wished Mr. Black had written about him, and risked his life to tell the world about him, and had reminders of him around his apartment.” (159-160)
“My boots were so heavy that I was glad there was a column underneath us. How could such a lonely person have been living so close to me my whole life? If I had known, I would have gone up to keep him company.” (163)
And then I said something that I wasn’t planning on saying, and didn’t even want to say. As it came out of my mouth, I was ashamed that it was mixed with any of Dad’s cells that I might have inhaled when we went to visit Ground Zero. ‘If I could have chosen, I would have chosen you!’” (171)
Study Questions:
Why does Oskar always say that he has heavy boots?
What happens in Oskar’s mind during his last Hamlet show?
Where does the last Black of the chapter live and what are some unique traits about him?
Why does the last Black have note cards in his cabinet drawers?
What does Oskar say to his mom at the end of the chapter that he immediately regrets?
15April2009
Posted by JoshC under: Free Response.
Throughout the novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Oskar struggles to deal with his father’s death. With the novel taken place only a year after his father’s death, September 11, 2001; it is obvious that Oskar still carries a heavy heart. Oskar attempts to deal with his sadness through many different solutions.
As Oskar still has “heavy boots” a year subsequent to his father’s death, he invents many solutions to making him happy. Oskar first remembers the great times he had with his father. He recollects on the great stories that his father used to tell him before he went to sleep. He also reminisces on the game the used to play, Reconnaissance Expedition. Another solution to drown his sorrows is his creation of inventions, some far-fetched. He imagines a teakettle that could sound like his father’s voice so he could fall asleep. An invention that Oskar actually created was Morse code jewelry for his mother. This jewelry translated to the last messages that Oskar’s father left on the answering machine. An additional solution that allows Oskar to have “lighter boots” “is to be around things, and to touch stuff that [his father] had touched (3.36).” Furthermore, Oskar discovers something while in his father’s closet that makes him even happier. He finds a letter inside a blue vase that had the word “Black” written on it. This word makes him very curious and willing to see what it signifies. He decides to go on a mission to find the meaning of “Black”. He believes that he is doing this task somewhat for his father. Throughout this task his boots get lighter and lighter.
In conclusion, Oskar deals with a very hard situation with the loss of his father. He looked up to him so much and loved him so much. In order for him to not be as sad, he devises many solutions. These solutions prove to work very affectively.
13April2009
Posted by feliciao under: References and Allusions.
During his quest to meet all of the people with the last name Black, Oskar comes across many things that he has never heard of or he doesn’t know about. When people mention something or someone to Oskar that he is unfamiliar with, he adds it to his mental list of things to Google. One of the people on this list is Grace Kelly.
Grace Patricia Kelly was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1929. She was an award-wining actress, and she appeared in movies like Dial M for Murder and Rear Window. In 1956, she married Rainer III, Prince of Monaco. Upon marrying him, Kelly became Her Serene Highness the Princess of Monaco or simply, Princess Grace of Monaco. As princess, Kelly was active in improving the arts institutions in Monaco.
Kelly was often the object of gossip, and her love life triggered much speculation. More spotlight was put on her once when she took a stand against racism and defended Josephine Baker at a restaurant that denied her service.
Grace Kelly died in 1982 after she had a stroke and drove off of the road. She was a prominent icon in Hollywood, and she also made her mark with good deeds as the Princess of Monaco.
13April2009
Posted by mariahw under: References and Allusions.
In the chapter The Only Animal, Oskar tells Abby that he is in the process of writing letters to several people, and one of the people he chooses to write to is Jacques Chirac. The fact that Oskar has chosen to write to him has great reflection on Oskar’s character. Jacques Chirac was the 22nd president of the French Republic. It is clear to the reader that throughout the book Oskar expresses a true passion for the French language. Although he loves the language, it is not always very high on his priority list. For example, he secretly sends a letter to his French tutor saying that they could no longer have classes because he had to go on a search for the owner of the key he found. French is also something that he knows well and it is something constant in his life. When he gets tired but he has too much going on in his head, he conjugates the verb être. Just like Oskar falls back on technology in order to hide his emotions, he uses French as a “security blanket” as well. He also uses the French expression raisons d’être, meaning reasons to be. This phrase comes up multiple times throughout the novel. Furthermore, his tact to say or do something he knows in order to cover up what he doesn’t know, his insecurities, or his fears, seems to keep him somewhat calm. Another reason Oskar might show interest in Jacques Chirac is that Jacques’s internal policies included lowering taxes, removal of price controls, and strong punishment for crime and terrorism. Oskar expresses that he cares about the poor. He even tells one of the Blacks that he goes to visit that he thinks that all the rich people should give some of their money away until the poor gain money and everyone is equally paid. He thinks that the world would be a better place with the poor off the streets, and Jacques seemed to have the answer. Lowering taxes is a policy that Oskar would strongly believe in. Also because Oskar is the son of a man whose life was lost in the September 11th tragedy, he would strongly favor Jacques policy of strong punishment for crime and terrorism. Above all, there are plenty of reasons that Oskar would write to Jacques Chirac, as well as many ways in which they may relate.
13April2009
Posted by LuLuL under: Connections to The Curious Incident....
Time is a very reoccurring subject in Oskar’s life. One night while Oskar is trying to fall asleep, he counts off “the seven minutes it takes a normal person to fall asleep” (Foer 74). While he is counting, he thinks about a lot of other topics. Even though Oskar’s mind is somewhere else, he is still able to keep the time. Thinking about inventing a huge, Velcro pocket, he notes that it has been “twenty-one minutes eleven seconds” (Foer 74). Oskar is very precise about time.
Similar to Oskar, Christopher in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time shares this characteristic. When Christopher runs away from home and hides on the train, he has no way to tell which stop the train has reached. Instead, he remembers what time the train left and how much time there is between each stop. Therefore, he is able to time the train and know exactly when to get off. Christopher always knows what time it is. Like Christopher, Oskar has impeccable memory of time. He notes the time of important events, and also includes the seconds.
8April2009
Posted by hattiep under: Free Response.
Comparing Thomas’s Relationships with Anna and the Grandmother
Anna:
Thomas Schell first met Anna when he was seventeen. They had half an hour together, which they spent asking hundreds of questions, yearning to learn about one another. He is immediately intrigued by her and can not stop talking, something the reader does not see with the grandmother. He wants to know everything about her, and feels like he needs to tell her everything about himself. They exchange hundreds of questions and answers. After that Thomas spends his time walking to her house, looking and waiting for her. He never sees her until one day they run into one another and he learns she has been doing the same thing. They immediately fall for each other and Thomas reminisces on their love and how happy he was. He felt so alive. Now, his only connection Anna is through her sister.
Grandmother:
Thomas first met as the younger sister; he met her again as a broken woman in New York. She was looking for any connection to the past, as was Thomas. Their relationship is far different from the one he shared with Anna. They are both just two lonely people, who found comfort in one another’s pain. They spend their life together in “nowhere places”; physically and emotionally different. The first time they make love, she realizes that he was just looking for some way to find Anna. They two spend most of their married life apart, each doing their thing. When they are together, it is an invisible understanding they can never satisfy one another. The only connection they have is Anna. Thomas and the Grandmother do love one another, and if the past had not occurred, they might have lived happy lives, but their love now is only from a common loss.
8April2009
Posted by davidj under: Free Response.
The rules of Oskar’s Grandparents (in the Grandfather’s point of view):
“No children.”
“Never talk about the past.”
“I go to the door when she’s using the bathroom.”
“She never looks over my shoulder when I’m writing.”
“I open doors for her but I never touch her back as she passes through.”
“She never lets me watch her cook.”
“She folds my pants but leaves my shirts by the ironing board.”
“I never light candles when she’s in the room, but I do blow candles out.”
“We never listen to sad music.”
“I change the sheets every morning to wash away my writing.”
“We never sleep in the same bed twice.”
“We never watch television shows about sick children.”
“She never asks me how my day was.”
“We always eat on the same side of the table, facing the window.”
“When she gets up to go to the shower, I feed the animals.”
“She finds things to keep herself busy when I undress at night.”
“We would never look at the marked-off zones, that they would be nonexistent territories in the apartment.”
“You would never look at the rectangle of space.”
The marriage of Oscar’s grandparents is a marriage of rules. They have a rule for practically anything imaginable. While some of their rules are necessary for their marriage to succeed, others are quite outrageous and out of the ordinary. Which rules do you believe must be followed for their marriage to succeed and which rules do you believe are not needed?
8April2009
Posted by chloes under: References and Allusions.
In the novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell performs in the play Hamlet as the character of Yorick. In the play, Hamlet’s father is murdered, and his mother gets remarried to his father’s brother. As the play progresses, Hamlet finds himself in a graveyard trying to deal with the idea of death. He finds himself holding a skull of a man named Yorick. Yorick was a jester in the court of Hamlet’s father, King Hamlet. Hamlet was good friends of Yorick and now has come face to face with the skull of his former acquaintance.
This skull does represents not only the death of his friend, but also the death of his father and the idea of death in general. Hamlet states, “[h]ere hung those lips that I have kissed I know not how oft” as he reminisces this loss (V.i.166-167). The sight of Yoricks’s skull enables Hamlet to remember past memories and times that he and Yorick shared together. The skull also makes Hamlet realize that everyone dies. Death is inevitable, and it is a necessary part of living and being a human being.
Like the skull, Oskar’s answering machine brings back these same memories for Oskar. It makes him remember his father and think about the idea of death. Everytime Oskar listens to his answering machine, his father’s presence “fill[s] the room” (Foer 69). The skull of Yorick represents the answering machine and the fact that Oskar plays the character of Yorick in Hamlet is ironic.