Why does oskar carry a tambourine

Seems unlikely. Both came from Dresden, where they lost everything in the fire-bombing of the city. Another move — Oskar giving a brutally graphic schoolroom presentation on the Hiroshima bombing — brings the novel perilously close to atrocity-hopping.

All through the book, as if to temper the effect of the horrors he mentions, Foer throws in illustrations and typographical tricks red-ink circlings of deliberate typos, a gradual reduction of text-leading until the page is solid black.

Chapter 1 Quotes. Related Characters: Oskar Schell speaker , Dad. Related Symbols: Science, Mathematics, and Invention. Related Themes: Mortality and the Purpose of Life. Page Number and Citation : 3 Cite this Quote. Explanation and Analysis:. Page Number and Citation : 8 Cite this Quote. Page Number and Citation : 13 Cite this Quote. Related Symbols: Telephones.

Page Number and Citation : 15 Cite this Quote. Chapter 3 Quotes. Related Characters: Oskar Schell speaker. Page Number and Citation : 72 Cite this Quote.

Chapter 5 Quotes. Related Themes: Puzzles and Cleverness. Page Number and Citation : 88 Cite this Quote. Chapter 7 Quotes. Page Number and Citation : Cite this Quote. Related Symbols: Letters, Notes, and Notebooks. Chapter 9 Quotes. Related Symbols: Keys. Related Themes: Superstition and Ritual. Chapter 11 Quotes. Related Characters: Dad speaker , Oskar Schell. Chapter 13 Quotes.

Chapter 15 Quotes. Related Characters: Oskar Schell speaker , Mr. Chapter 16 Quotes. Related Characters: Grandma speaker , Oskar Schell. Chapter 17 Quotes. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance. Oskar describes his first jujitsu class, which is also his last jujitsu class, as kicking his He chatters at Gerald, Mom asks Oskar why Oskar has given a spare set of keys to the mailwoman; though Oskar is This chapter is set in , so Oskar must no longer be the narrator.

Oskar is the narrator of this chapter. He describes the bracelet he made for Mom after The vase breaks, but when no one comes to chastise him, Oskar , out of relief and guilt, gives himself a bruise.

When he starts to clean up, The next morning, Oskar fakes sick—the first lie he has to tell, he reports—and goes to the locksmith to When Oskar returns home, Stan, the doorman, gives him mail: a form letter from Ringo Starr with Oskar calculates that there are million locks in New York City, and it would take The next day, Oskar fakes being sick again to his Mom so that he can skip school.

They chat Oskar goes to the art supply store because he wants to ask them about colors. Oskar and Grandma talk for a bit over the walkie-talkies, as they do very often. Oskar puts the key from the vase on the string around his neck, next to his Oskar is the narrator in this chapter. Oskar remembers reading the first chapter of A Brief Oskar puts together a field kit, including a flash light, ChapStick, his cell phone, iodine pills, Oskar makes it to Queens and buzzes for A.

Oskar asks the man who answers Oskar wonders why Aaron appears upset with him. Panicked, Oskar flees. As Oskar follows Abby into the kitchen, he hears a man speaking loudly in the next room, but Abby ignores the man.

Abby asks if the elephant cried, but Oskar says that only humans cry. The man from the other room pokes his head in, then leaves. Oskar asks who he is and why Abby ignored him. The trouble is, these pure moments of uplifting coming-together are missing from the film.

Or at the least, they are presented in nowhere near as powerful and visceral a fashion as in the trailer. There are hints of them, but they are spread out, watered down, and overshadowed by the weight of coincidental schmaltzy goop that the story gimmicks ladle over them. Here I will name them. The Kurt Vonnegut book Slaughterhouse 5 tells the harrowing tale of the fire-bombing of Dresden, interspersed by a slow progression of flashbacks set in the belly of a transport plane raked by anti-aircraft fire.

Is he in bad shock? The flashbacks keep on nudging and winking us through these scenes until at last, like some gory rose finally unpetalling for our delectation, we learn the true horror at the heart of his situation. He has been shot by anit-aircraft fire, and his guts are bubbling up through his stomach.

He has covered himself with the flak jackets to hide the injury. This is war. In Slaughterhouse 5, I was impressed by this device. I find that very tasteless. I am not some pain-gourmet come to be badgered and bludgeoned and teased by a movie before the final pain is shown to me like a special and nurtured treat. In this movie, it is the phone calls Tom Hanks made to his son Oskar from the burning buildings. I can buy that. That explains everything about why Oskar was freaking out.

We are given the true horror of that in stages too- as though it were bits of torture-porn candy scattered through the forest to lead us to the Gingerbread house.

It is a manipulative gimmick. Sure, it has some power when we learn what the true horror was. It adds a Sixth Sense-like new perspective that helps us understand why Oskar was so freaked out. But, it earned my resentment for doing it that way. It was utterly unnatural. We are merely spectators, sitting there like Alex in A Clockwork Orange with our eyes strapped open, waiting to be fed the gross morsels the movie doles out.

Let us in on his pain from the start, and instead of gimmicks in place of a story, frame a proper story that arcs from low to up again, and the battle required. It could even be done with existing footage, reshuffled. Oskar is on numerous quests at the same time in this movie. How many of these quests can we expect full and satisfying closure on? For it to be satisfying, it has to feel realistic, and not ridiculously coincidental even miraculous.

Is it even possible for all these quests to find closure? Would that even be desirable? What life lessons do we learn if all our sought-for desires come true? But the movie resolves them all. With utmost attempt at tearful solemnity, it tries to close them all. I can imagine this is possible. But the chances that this Black would have some sorrowful tale of his own regarding a need for the key are astronomical coincidence 3.

But he does. The key was left by his father in his will, to open a safety deposit box, with a final message in it.