thomas schell's name in the art store

At the end of the last reading, the grandmother says that the grandfather came back after the dad's funeral.

I don't know if anyone else keeps wondering about how the name "Thomas Schell" was written everywhere in the art store, but I think that it was the grandfather, not the father, who wrote his name there. Maybe he's been there the whole time? Maybe he's the renter? What do you guys think?

Through the Door

After talking to the therapist, when his mom is talking to the therapist and Oskar is listening to the door, he's listening with a stethoscope, why can't he hear all of what's being said? Granted I have no past experience with this so I wouldn't know. But it just seems like he should be able to hear the whole conversation. Maybe it was a stylistic choice of the author, to let the reader try to fill in the blanks and interpret it however.

Riley Venne Post #3

I find it surprising that an autistic child has the confidence to walk around New York
City, alone, and invite himself into strangers houses and apartments. All of my knowledge about autistic children, contradicts the behavior that Oskar preforms throughout the book. from everything that I have read in the past, I have concluded that Autistic children are not social people whatsoever; but now, after reading half of, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, My views have changed completely.I now realize  much more than I have in the past, that autism is a spectrum disorder, and there are hundreds of different cases, each one unique in it's own way. I know that many autistic kids have certain topics that they are very knowledgeable on, and for Oskar I believe that his is Shakespeare's Play, Hamlet. This was another surprise to me because, for the most part, autistic people specialize in topics such as, math, puzzles, and science. When I look at Oskar's interests they seem to be completely different. He is quite interested in English and the history of the language.   

Optimistic, but realistic- Extreamly Depressed

In the chapters, Optimistic, but realistic- Extremely Depressed,  Oksar blows up at his mother for being happy and not grieving over his fathers death in a way he did not understand. I found this chapter a breaking point for him and his mother. They both finally opened up to each other and were completely honest about there feelings of the fathers death. I found it shocking when his mother said, "You remind me so much of your Dad." and Oskar's reaction was "If i could have chosen, i would have chosen you!" I would think that Oskar would take that as a compliment, not as an insult because he thought as his father to be such a great man.

Post #3: Use of the Red Pen- Sam

Jonathan Safran Foer is writing this book in a circular formation, continually going back and touching on details that he mentioned earlier in the story, slowly revealing more about the characters. In the chapter "Why I'm Not Where You Are", Oskar's grandfather is writing a letter to his father explaining why he is not there with him.The pages are marked with red ink, with words, phrases, and punctuation circled. This indicates that his father had been reading it. Whenever his father used to read the New York Times, he would look for errors and mark them with the same pen. I noticed, though, most of the marks were indicating an error, while further into the letter, as it became more personal, the red ink was circling things that his father found untruthful. For example, on page 216, Oskar's father has the phrase, "I love you, your father", circled. There were no grammatical or spelling errors present. Oskar's father thinks this statement is incorrect because his father was absent for the entirety of his life. These small details that Foer puts into the story add something new to the reader's perception of the story as well as returning to old intricacies.

Close Loud Incredibly Extremely

The third section of reading was long and rich with detail. A lot of back story, and it becomes hard to keep track of. Anna died in the bombings of Dresden, which explains why Oskar's grandfather was so upset about her. Also, Oskar's grandmother, it turns out, isn't blind, and can see. She says that she only said that her eyes were crummy so her husband would pay attention to her. She didn't even want all the magazines, she only said she wanted them to make him feel needed. And her life story, written on a thousand pages was all spaces. This makes it pretty awkward when her husband is pretending to read it and she knows nothing is there.
A lot of stories are unfolding in front of us, and I'm excited to see how  they turn out.

Post #3

In this section, Oskar seems to be very paronoid for unusual reasons. When at the house of a stranger they call him by his name and he finds this strange saying a few times, "how did you know my name?". Mr. Black (the neighbor) has to remind him that he told them his name right when they got there. I find this kind of strange and not like Oskar. Another thing I also noticed was that Oskar is very open about new things. He absolutely hates the underground, but when Mr. Black says it is the only way he will be able to accompany him, Oskar allows himself to ride it. That makes me believe that without realizing Oskar is actual capable of overcoming his fears and the things that make him feel "panicky" if he has something to move him and pursue him to do so.