Today, I was the scribe in our literary circle. The main focus of our discussion today was the importance of some of the symbols that we tracked in the novel. We discussed the use of birds as imagery, and Allison had an interesting idea that birds stood for happiness and love, which she backed up with a quote on page 78. Alex also brought up her thoughts about the use of birds, as well as her questions about the symbolism of the color white. Our group decided that we would read more closely for our next literature circle in order to discuss these symbols further.
We also tried to uncover the significance of certain events in the chapter, especially Oskar's meeting with Abby Black and the significance of the letters. At the beginning of our discussion, some of the members of my group were confused about the letters and who was writing them, but we managed to come to the conclusion that the writer of the letters was Oskar's grandmother. We also discussed the fact that something seems to be wrong with Oskar's grandmother. I brought up the fact that she seems a bit strange, especially because of the fact that she has an imaginary friend and Oskar claims that he doesn't know anything about her even though they are best friends.
Tara's opinion about Oskar changed from our last discussion. She no longer believes that he is naive, and we all agreed that he is extremely gifted. We also think that some of Oskar's characteristics remind us of someone who has a form of autism, which we plan to look at in the upcoming chapters. We also plan to track the symbols, including birds, tambourines, white clothing, and letters.
Overall, our discussion was very productive, and we continued throughout the period without stalling because we always had another question to ask once we finished discussing one topic.
Thursday, December 17, 2009
Sunday, December 13, 2009
What's with the pictures? And the bruises?
During our discussion, I suggested that we look closely at the pictures on pages 53 to 67. Our group thought that the pictures were used to illustrate important moments in Oskar's life and to explain the way that he thinks. I think that the most important pictures are on pages 59 and 62, which illustrate the September 11th attacks. Allison helped me to realize that it was a picture of a person jumping out of the World Trade Center and falling to their death. This picture helped our group to understand and discuss the extreme damage that Oskar had endured from his father's death. We also discussed how Oskar determines his level of happiness or sadness by how heavy his boots are, which we thought was interesting. In relation to his father's death, I brought up the fact that Oskar seems to refer to all events in his life in relation to "the worst day", which is September 11th.
I also brought up the mixed signals given off by Oskar's mother throughout our first reading. At one point Oskar says that he knows that his mother wished he was dead, but he also claims that she is his reason for living. She gets Oskar fingerprinted and gets him a cell phone, but at the same time, she lets him wander the city of New York. As soon as we started discussing this, I noticed that Oskar's mother and father were rarely mentioned together, which seemed odd. The other members of my group agreed, and Tara throught that this may indicate that one or both of them was having an affair. She thought that maybe that was the reason why Oskar's father was in the World Trade Center on Spetember 11th, or that "Black" was the name of the person Oskar's father was seeing.
I agreed with most of what the other members of my group thought, but I disagreed with the opinion that Oskar was naive. I think that he is actually the opposite of naive because he is very mature and seems to have a much greater intelligence than most other boys his age. On the same note, I thought he was a little too mature for his age, if that was possible. He knows too much about his father's death (like being burned on ninety percent of his skin), which I think contributes to his mental instability.
Some of the questions that were brought up in our discussion included the reason why his father was in the World Trade Center on September 11th instead of at the family jewelery business and why Oskar bruises himself when he gets upset.
I also brought up the mixed signals given off by Oskar's mother throughout our first reading. At one point Oskar says that he knows that his mother wished he was dead, but he also claims that she is his reason for living. She gets Oskar fingerprinted and gets him a cell phone, but at the same time, she lets him wander the city of New York. As soon as we started discussing this, I noticed that Oskar's mother and father were rarely mentioned together, which seemed odd. The other members of my group agreed, and Tara throught that this may indicate that one or both of them was having an affair. She thought that maybe that was the reason why Oskar's father was in the World Trade Center on Spetember 11th, or that "Black" was the name of the person Oskar's father was seeing.
I agreed with most of what the other members of my group thought, but I disagreed with the opinion that Oskar was naive. I think that he is actually the opposite of naive because he is very mature and seems to have a much greater intelligence than most other boys his age. On the same note, I thought he was a little too mature for his age, if that was possible. He knows too much about his father's death (like being burned on ninety percent of his skin), which I think contributes to his mental instability.
Some of the questions that were brought up in our discussion included the reason why his father was in the World Trade Center on September 11th instead of at the family jewelery business and why Oskar bruises himself when he gets upset.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Seriously...What the...?
I was not in class for most of the group discussion, but when I was involved in the discussion, it was very productive. The members of my group were especially helpful in sharing their thoughts with me and helping me to catch up.
While reading the excerpt from the first chapter, titled "What The?", I immediately noticed the pattern in the writing. Most of the sentences were simple, while some were run-on sentences. This lead us to believe that the narrator was writing the novel from the perspective of a child. Some of the content was also immature, especially when the narrator wrote about farting. Another theme that I recognized was the possible symbolism of the objects that the narrator mentioned. The narrator talked about teakettles, little microphones, birdseed shirts, and jujitsu. While all of these things may have seemed somewhat random at first, our group concluded that the objects all relate to the narrator protecting himself and his loved ones. I am curious to see how these symbols play out in the novel. I am also interested in the significance of the narrator's use of French periodically throughout the excerpt.
While reading the excerpt from the first chapter, titled "What The?", I immediately noticed the pattern in the writing. Most of the sentences were simple, while some were run-on sentences. This lead us to believe that the narrator was writing the novel from the perspective of a child. Some of the content was also immature, especially when the narrator wrote about farting. Another theme that I recognized was the possible symbolism of the objects that the narrator mentioned. The narrator talked about teakettles, little microphones, birdseed shirts, and jujitsu. While all of these things may have seemed somewhat random at first, our group concluded that the objects all relate to the narrator protecting himself and his loved ones. I am curious to see how these symbols play out in the novel. I am also interested in the significance of the narrator's use of French periodically throughout the excerpt.
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