Day+5

** May 11, 2011 ** **Focus Question:** What was the author’s purpose and what does the reader gain from this novel? **Opening Focus Activity:** Look at the biography of Jonathan Safran Foer, how does this novel compare to his life? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Safran_Foer Foer graduated with a degree of psychology, which ties into the novel because Oskar has a lot of mental issues and psychological intricacies. This book is about how people deal with loss, and the psychological part of that plays a huge role in this novel. Foer is also Jewish, and Oskar is atheist so that is contradictory beliefs. ** Club Discussion Questions: ** ** 1. ** Is there closure for Oskar regarding his father’s death? Why or why not? No he does not have closure. After being so close to his father he cannot accept his fathers death, and he never found out how he died. Probably none of the families who lost someone in 9/11 had any closure with what happened. There are things that are accidents that people die in, like car accidents or death through a natural death because of old age, but the people who died in 9/11, that shouldn't have happened. that was such a cruel thing to do and people just wonder why would someone purposefully do something so horrific? ** 2. ** Is there one passage that is still confusing for you now that you are finished with this book? Share with the group. One passage that was confusing was why does the grandfather keep asking what time it is? It could be that he wants to have a connection to people and he wants to "talk" to someone. Maybe he wants it to be a specific time, like the time he will die, or the time he will see anna again, or the time that he will recover from anna's death. Another passage that was confusing was when Anna and her sister kissed in their shared bed, which was really interesting. Maybe she wanted to practice since she was really interested in watching Anna kiss. ** 3. ** What, in your opinion, is the theme or the overriding message of this book? The main message of this book is the way people deal with loss because everyone single character in the book has had some sort of loss. Another theme was the importance of family and the extreme connection between parents and children. ** 4. ** What is Foer’s purpose in writing this novel? To show the impact of peoples families who died in 9/11. He has a very different perspective from a 9 year old boy, not many novels of this depth and seriousness are told from a child's perspective. ** 5. ** What did Foer hope the reader would gain from this novel? Foer wants the reader to think about American culture and the affect that it has on young minds. ** 6. ** What is one thing you took away from this book? This book impacted me because we learned more about 9/11 and also how 9/11 impacted not just the families but EVERYONE in the United States. We also learned more about what 9/11 families went through and the kind of questions they were asking about what happened and why. ** 7. ** Oskar’s account of what happened when he met his grandfather is different from the grandfather’s account. Why do you think this is? The grandfather wanted to feel needed, so he interpreted it a different way and had a different perspective than Oskar. Maybe its showing the two different sides of Oskar, the side of him that needs him and the side of him that wants to be tough and strong. ** 8. ** Do you think that Oskar meant to deceive the reader? He just wanted to show what it felt like to be Oskar. He seems very independent and truthful and wants to tell what exactly happened to him and he wanted to show what it felt like to be him going through all these different events. ** 9. ** Whose hand do you think is on the cover? It could be his fathers hand print. Or it could be that the hand print is symbolic of 9/11 and how it has left a hand print that will not go away. It has left a huge impact on everyone, and thats the hand print represents. ** 10. ** What is your connection to Oskar like? Why is this? Taylor can connect with him through inventions, they both think about inventing things to make life better. I can connect to him through all the random facts that he spits out all the time, that sometimes happens to me with my family where I will randomly know a fact that I tell them. **Closing Activity? Extension:** What exists in our lives that we consider to be extremely loud and incredibly close?
 * Syllabus: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close **

SCHOOL, HOMEWORK, PLANNERS that scream at you to get things done. Lauren and her moving away to Virginia. Commitments