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Extremely Loud and Incredibily Close (Grandpa (Thomas Schell) (Grandpa was…
Extremely Loud and Incredibily Close
Oskar Schell (9)
Often used expressions
Light boots / heavy boots: expression he uses to explain how he or other people feel.
Raisons d'être: French expression for 'reasons to live' => uses this expression a lot to refer to his mom
Jose
The secret was a hole in the middle of me that every happy thing feel into
Hobbies
Making jewelry
Searching for things like an archeologist
Reading
Learning French
He stopped taking French classes because he needs the Sundays to go looking for the lock.. He sent a message to his teacher and made it look like it was written by his mom
(
we will keep sending you pay cheques because you're such a nice man; and don't call
)
-> his mom wouldn't find out he quited French
Writing letters to famous people: written a letter to Stephen Hawking (famous scientist) after reading the book
'A brief History of Time'
=> he's very intellegent: he reads books that are way beyond the reading level of a nine-year old.
Performance Hamlet
He has a book with 'Stuff that happened to me'
Habits
Only wears white
Has a fear for walking over bridges, being in high buildings and on boats and public transport
He shook his tambourine while walking through different neighborhoods, to remember he was still him
He counts his lies
When Grandma calls his name he says 'I'm okay'
Oskar is very
caring
: he thinks about inventing stuff that help people cope with their problems (for example loss): he wants to invent a special drain that would be underneath every pillow in NY and would be connected to a special resevoir. Whenever people cried themselves to sleep, all the tears would go to the same place. Than you could see NY was in heavy boots
Oskar keeps a phone in his closet which contains voice mails of his dad from the day he died.
His mum doens't know about the phone because he wants to protect her feelings.
He picked up the phone when he called but he was too scared to awnser his dad who was saying 'are you there'
Tells his grandfather about the phone (not knowing it's his grandfather) and he tells William Black about the fact that he'd picked up the phone that day but couldn't awnser.
Oskar finds a envelope in a blue vase with '
black
' written on it (with a red pen). He finds out Black is a name. He finds a key in the envelope.
1.
The 'B' is capitalized
2.
It's unusual to write down a the name of a colour in another colour than the colour itself. When he visits the craft store, he sees the name Thomas Schell written on a test paper with red pen. He thinks his dad has written it, but it was written by his grandfather who was visiting the craft shop to buy some clay to make a sculpture.
Abby Black
(2nd): After their meeting she calls him and leaves a message that her (ex-)husband (William Black) knows something about the key. Oskar hears this message 8 months later and meets with William Black.
Mr. A.R. Black
: hasn't come out of his house since his wife died 24 years ago. He's deaf and he hasn't put on his hearing aid for 24 years. Oskar puts it back on and the first sound he hears are
birds
.
Helps Oskar with his search and stops after they'd visited the Empire State Building
He knows that 'the renter' is Oskar's grandfather. Oskar's grandfather had been following them for a while, A.R. Black found out and told him to get away from Oskar. Then Thomas explained he's Oskar's grandfather.
The day after Oskar and Grandpa dug up Dad's grave, he visits Mr. Black because he feels like he deserves to know what has happened. He isn't in his apartment anymore. Oskar searches trough his
index of biographies
and takes the cards of A.R. Black, which said war and husband and his which said: son.
William Black
: sold the vase of his dad who'd passed away to Thomas Schell. The key was in there by mistake and belonged to a safe-deposit box at their bank.
William had tried to find Thomas Schell by hanging up posters in New York at 9/11, not knowing Thomas had passed away.
Googolplex
: the number of locks that could go with the key oskar found
Dr. Fein
: Oskar's therapist
Grandma (maiden name Smith)
Lost her sister Anna during the
Dresden bombing (Germany)
.
Anna was pregnant with Thomas Schell's baby.The only people who knew she was pregant where Thomas Schell and grandma.
Grandma sees Thomas Schell at the bakery years after the Dresden bombing. They were both traumatised and coping with the loss of Anna. Together made sense. (
We both stick out like sore thumbs
)
My eyes are crummy
She 'writes' her life story only using the space bar -> blank pages. .
Grandma is upset because grandpa took pictures of everyhting in the house, but he never took a picture of her.
The 'renter' grandma lives with is Oskar's Grandpa who came back from Dresden after he'd left Grandma.
Communicates with Oskar using walkie talkies and signs on the window ('Don't leave'), we find out later that these signs weren't meant for Oskar but for grandpa.
It's sad that it takes a life tto learn how to live
Grandpa (Thomas Schell)
Grandpa was traumatised by the Dresden bombing and lost his speech. The first word he lost was Anna and after that all the words similar to Anna (his first and only love). He communicated by a book and the words
'YES'
and
'NO'
tattooed on his hands.
Grandpa leaves Grandma (goes back to Dresden) because she breaks rule number one: 'Don't have childeren. He didn't wanted to have children beceause he'd already lost one.
Loves making sculptors.Hadn't made a sculptor since he came back to America.
'Nothing' and 'Something' places are marked all over their house
Grandpa loved to go to the airport; he loved to see people getting reunited. He always goes to the airport to collect magazines for Grandma.
Grandma finds out she wants a kid on Halloween, she wants something to love and to fill up her empty spaces, she also thinks she can save her relationship with a baby.
Grandpa is the 'renter'
Grandpa sees a list of people who died during 9/11 and sees his own name and realises that's his son, and that he has a grandson. That's why he goes back to New York.
He's afraid to live.
He writes his unborn son (Thomas Schell)
Why I'm not here where you are
At the end of the book when he and Oskar dig up his coffin, he throws all of the letters in there.
Dad (Thomas Schel Junior)
Died during an attack on the World Trade Centre (9/11)
When he died he and Oskar were in the middle of a game where Oskar needs to find something, but he didn't give any hints. Oskar is still trying to figure everything out (black, key etc.).
Never got to know his father, he left his mum before he was born.
Sixth Borough (Island near Manhattan)
Mom
It seems like she doesn't care about where Oskar's going, but that's because she know that he is searching for the lock. She knows because Abby Black called and left a message to Oskar which she heard. She called all the Blacks and she knew exactly where he was going. That's why all the Blacks know things about him he hasn't told them.
Rob
: a friend of her who she met at a talking group. Oskar thinks they're in a relationship.
On 9/11 Thomas Schell called mom and said he was out of the building and walking home, to make sure Mom wouldn't worry.