1. Warming up with the hero's journey as depicted in Finding Joe; mapping out the Joseph Campbell hero's journey as a class (around 4:00--13:34)
"Here it is: there's only one story. There, I said it and I can't very will take it back. There is only one story. Ever. One. It's always been going on and it's everywhere around us and every story you've ever read or heard or watched is part of it."
-- Foster, How To Read Literature Like a Professor
2. Enjoying a fishbowl discussion of pages 86-141 in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
3. Wrapping up with lingering questions, kudos and epiphanies
HW:
1. For Monday: I will start checking notebooks, so please make sure your first two ELIC entries are complete. Also, bring your book to class for 30 minutes of reading time.
2. For Tuesday: Read through page 173 and complete your third journal entry. Leaders should prepare their syllabus.
test
ReplyDeletefail
DeleteWhat does Oskar mean when he uses the phrase, "heavy boots?"
ReplyDeleteoften authors and narrators use the phrase "Heavy Boots" to describe an emotion they are feeling which is usually sadness and despair
DeleteDo you think the Grandfather ever loved the Grandmother or was she just a Replacement for Anna for him?
DeleteGreat question! Check out the title of the next chapter in your reading (for Tuesday)...
DeleteI think it's referring to his feelings, even though we don't know if he has autism or some other mental disability,we know that something's not right with him and the phrase "heavy boots" is referring to how he feels sad
DeleteOn page 94 Oskar says "It gave me heavy boots that she had nightmares..." why do you think Grandma has nightmares? What are those nightmares about?
ReplyDeleteI think the Grandmother lost many important people in her life like her son and also the Grandfather left her, I think she is just really sad and scared to loose someone else.
DeleteTo respond to Colin, I think they have a weird relationship because one cant talk and the other has bad eye sight.
ReplyDeleteryan rundell
DeleteOn page 124 the grandfather says; "I realized that your mother couldn't see the emptiness", do you think she is just blind or is there something else behind that?
ReplyDeleteI think she is truly blind, and also there is emptiness in their relationship. I don't think they really love each other. She just reminds the grandfather of Anna and the grandmother just wants someone around her because she wants to feel needed.
DeleteI think she's at least partially blind because on page 101 Oskar hides from her and she can't find him. However I also think that the Grandma doesn't think her life is worth writing down, she thinks she's an imitation of Anna and since Anna is dead she has nothing to write about.
DeleteI think the phrase "heavy boots" refers like being stuck. Oskar is upset about his grandmas nightmares and his nervous/confused on the topic of the nightmares
ReplyDeleteI agree with Ethan when he said he doesn't think Oskar likes a lot of change in his life because like he always does the same things and he used to always go on "missions" for his dad and his dad is gone and his new stepdad won't be the same so he's going to be upset
ReplyDeleteWhy did grandma name her child after the man that left her? Maybe she’s still trying to cling on some related thing to Thomas after he left? Feeling like she still has him in her life?
ReplyDeleteI think the relationship between the grandpa and the grandma is strange. It's like they are forced to be in love. The relationship started out differently because at first, the grandpa fall in love with Anna (the grandma's sister). When grandpa sees the grandpa, it reminds him of Anna. To the grandpa, he sees the grandma as Anna. The grandma is just there for him.
ReplyDeleteOne major complication of their relationship: They don't want to talk about the past (or face it), but they're with each other, which must be a constant reminder of the shared person they lost: Anna.
DeleteWill Abby Black show up again?
ReplyDeleteI think we will see her in the book again, because Oskar had a really long and personal talk with her and I can imagine that she will play an important character later in the book.
DeleteI agree with Joanna
DeleteI love this quotation...it works on two levels. The one type of emptiness might be blindness, but I wonder if the other type of emptiness might be the total loss of her family / way of life from Dresden?
ReplyDeleteto respond to Ethan, I think she meant to actually write the book but she couldn't see if she was typing.
ReplyDeleteryan rundell
DeleteIn response to Ethan's comment about Grandmother knowingly typing nothing because her life has no story, I definitely agree with this. Either she feels her life has been so obliterated that she has no coherent story, or maybe she feels that trauma is too big to look back on.
ReplyDeleteOn page 88/89 Oskar says:"I sat back down and started to cry...", how do you think Oskar handles disappointment?
ReplyDeleteI don't think Oskar handles disappointment well. He counts his disappointments
DeleteI think Oskar handles his disappiontment in two ways. First, sometimes he gives himself bruises for his mistakes, and second he looks forward to searching for the key and I think thats how he copes with his disappointment.
DeleteOn page 111, the last sentence, it says, "But I knew, in the most protected part of my heart, the truth." What is the truth that the grandpa is talking about?
ReplyDeleteI think the Grandpa is referring to his love for Anna and not the Grandma. No matter what he will always love Anna even if she is dead.
DeleteI think the truth for the grandfather is that he never stopped loving Anna. I think Anna is for him the true love, and nobody else.
DeleteWhat if she really had typed something, but to the grandfather the words and story are meaningless so he stated that the 2,000 pages were blank.
ReplyDeleteWhy did Oskar want to save his dad's razor?
ReplyDeleteI think he thought that if his dad had kept it, there must be some importance to it. And it is a reminder of his dad and a part of his dad that he doesn't want to get rid of/let go of.
Deletehaving materialistic objects maybe make him feel like he still has a piece of his dad with him.
Deletemaybe because Oskar said his dad always smelled like newly shaved and maybe Oskar wants to cherish that with his razor
DeleteI think this is because Oskar wanted have something that can remind him that his dad was with him.
DeleteRelating to the copious amount of rules in the relationship between grandma and grandpa, I think would be restraining and would feel like being trapped. Especially for grandma being pregnant without Thomas being by her side.
ReplyDeleteI think if the grandma chose anyone else to love there wouldn't be any or as much of the rules that her and thomas had. I think the majority of the rules had to do with the grandfathers past.
DeleteTo respond to Cole, I think the book is based around 9/11 but this book focuses more on the impacts of this tragedy. 9/11 just happens to bring these people together in a way.
ReplyDeleteRyan rundell
DeleteI think the book focuses more on trauma rather than one specific event, because there are 2 horrible events, Deresden and 9//11, and it focuses on the people it impacts and their trauma.
DeleteI think the reason why so many relationships and different people are brought up constantly during the book is becasue the author wants to get as many examples of how people handle trauma to show to his readers.
DeleteOn page 114, why does Thomas say, "...there's nothing wrong with not understanding yourself?"
ReplyDeleteOn page 135 Thomas writes to his unborn child “I’ll rip these pages from the book, take them to the mailbox before I get on the plane, address the envelope to “My Unborn Child,” and I’ll never write another word again, I am gone, I am no longer here. With love, Your father” I wonder where he is and what he is doing with his life now. Is he going to return? Is he still alive even? It’s strange (to me at least, I guess i'm not the one who’s having a child so I can kind of see his situation but he could have handled it better) that he just up and left so quickly without thinking about Thomas and grandma. I know he didn’t want kids but couldn’t you like demolish the rule or compromise. Like he didn’t think about his child's future or how grandma is going to provide for the child.
ReplyDelete