Monday, September 8, 2008
Is Oskar a naive child or an enlightened genius?
When I initially began to read Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, I was unsure about Oskar. I could not decipher whether this child had some type of extremely overactive imagination or deficiency. Constantly through the novel I questioned this notion and sat on the fence on whether Oskar was a genius or simply a naive, uncommon child. My questioning stemmed from the first few pages of the novel. Oskar thinks, "what about little microphones? What if everyone swallowed them and played the sounds of our hearts through little speakers, which could be in the pouches of our overalls?"( Foer 1) Yet, just a few sentences later, Oskar wonders what "if everone's hearts would start to beat at the same time, like how women who live together have their menstrual periods at the same time, which I know about..."(Foer 1) Do you understand where my dilemma stems from now? Knowing about women's menstrual periods is uncommon knowledge for 13 year old boys, let alone a 9 year old boy. However the whole notion of swallowing microphones to listen to heartbeats seems utterly absurd. Continually through the novel I began to further believe in the fact of young Oskar's genius. This belief was solidified by many of Oskar's comments such as, " 'Richard Buckminster Fuller was a scientist, philosopher, and inventor who is most famous for designing the geodesic dome, whose most famous version is the Buckyball. He died in 1983, I think. ' " (Foer 190) I am clueless as to where he acquires such trivial knowledge (to us) at age 9 and why he is at all interested in such topics. Another particular incident which validates this fact further could be found on page 51. Oskar writes a letter to Cher Marcel, his French teacher explaining how he will no longer be needing the language lessons. It is written partly in French and displays a very cunning mind at work. This level of wiliness is uncommon, especially in a 9 year old. Oskar possesses a very developed mind, far beyond his years, which I believe to be to his detriment. In his quest to learn more about his father and the secret key, Oskar reads extensively and acquires a great deal of knowledge, particularly about human tragedy. This helps him deal with his father's death by associating with other victims' pain who experienced tragedy, like the Dresden bombings and bombing at Hiroshima. Through all his readings and the tragedy of 9/11 Oskar has lost much of his innocence and the naivety normal children have. However in this time, Oskar has grown incredibly knowledgeable and is certainly morphed into a genius for his age.
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4 comments:
I too believe Oskar is a genius, but only to a certain extent. We have to remember that he is still a young boy and that he has many years of education ahead. Oskar may be very bright for his age, but not quite a genius, he could very well grow up and become the next world genius!
Hm, I do not know if I agree with the fact that Oskar is an enlightened genius. We viewed a film in psychology about a man who remembered everything he ever knew. He was able to recall hundreds of zip codes, and just about any historical date. Some would say he was a genius, but the catch was he could not do anything else for himself. He still needed the aid of his father to do everyday simple tasks like showering and feeding himself. This just reminded me of Oskar because it seems as though he knows so much for his age, not to mention alot of factual information, but he cannot function properly in social situations. Clearly Oskar is not as bad as the man in the film, but I saw a parallel. Enjoyed the blog!
I find it interesting that you bring up the letter to the French teacher as an example of Oscar's genius knowledge. I found that the letter shows his naivety since he writes
"Obviously, there's no need to call me when Oskar doesn't come to his lessons, because I already know, because this is my decision (Foer 51)."
In this statement you can tell that a child has written it because of his need for you to believe what he is writing is true.
Hello everyone. Thank you for the feedback on my blog. Wednesday in class, I was really enlightened myself. I can certainly understand where you could make the statement of Oskar's intelligence being intertwined with naivety. Thank you shay for helping me to understand how the French letter could be conceived as naive. You helped me see another argument that surely could be made. Thank you sec and lee lee for the comments. After your comments and discussion in class, I find myself leaning towards lee lee's feelings.
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