Lit Circle Discussion

We were extremely productive in our circle today. We had a very insightful conversation about Oskar and his relationship towards those around him. We noticed that he is definitely not as close with his mom as he is with his dad. We think that this is why it has been so hard on him. We brought up his similarity to the child in the book The Curious Case of the Dog in the Nighttime. These boys both seem to have a similar tendency to go off on tangents and jump from thought to thought though they are both extremely smart it is harder to recognize. Because of this his dad was the only one who knew how his mind worked and now that he is gone Oskar feels alone. I brought up the similarity in style to Hemingway. We know that his dad died in 9/11 but the narrator made us figure that out and hasn't told up upfront how exactly his father was involved in 9/11. The way that he wants us to figure it out on our own reminds me of Hemingway dropping hints about Jake's injury. 

We all really like the pictures that were incorporated into the novel. His book of things that have happened to him gave us insight into his life as well as raised more questions. Some of the picture made sense to us but some of them have yet to be explained. The picture of the keys was one of the most interesting to me. We liked it because Mary and I discussed briefly how smart Oskar must really be if he can figure out how many locks are made in a day in New York and how many there already are. That picture gave us more of an insight into his intelligence and how he uses it to his advantage. Overall we basically concluded that Oskar was a very smart individual but just no longer has anybody to help him challenge his mind without his dad. He is now on his own adventures learning how to challenge himself.