Jacob's Notes from 5/7

Day 3 notes

If you can't read my handwriting just say in the comments. Sorry

Hi guys! So I figured I would passage unpack.
"I wanted to get out and walk eastward toward the park through the soft twilight, but each time I tried to go I became entangled in some wild, strident argument which pulled me back, as if with ropes, into my chair. Yet high over the city our line of yellow windows must have contributed their share of human secrecy to the casual weather in the darkening streets, and I was him too, looking up and wondering. I was within and without, simultaneously enchanted and repelled by the inexhaustible variety of life" (35).
Nick is not in the right state of mind when he says this because this is only the second time he has ever gotten drunk. He looks out the window knowing that he should leave but the conversations and events happening inside keep him at the apartment with Tom, and his mistress and her friends. I think that in the last line Nick is talking about how he is witnessing things he has never seen before like all the different types of people and how they are disturbing yet fascinating to him because he is learning new things. The only part i do not understand is when he says "and I was him too, looking up and wondering" because i'm not sure who he is talking about here. Let me know if you guys have any ideas.

Great Gatsby - Day 1: 4/29/15

If anyone can't see or read what I have written down, just ask/comment and I'll tell you what I wrote.

Area of Interest

The area that I am going to explore is the idea something/nothing and how Stephen Hawking ties into Oskar's life.

Questions regarding POI:
Is nothing something? or is it something that makes it nothing?
Why are there nothing spaces in the grandma's home? What do they represent?
Does Oskar's loss make him nothing?
Why does Oskar feel such a connection to Stephen Hawking?
Why does Stephen Hawking matter even though he doesn't have a voice?
Is life itself nothing or something?

Passages to explore:

"Stephen Hawking's"letter to Oskar at the end
Grandma's story with the creation of nothing spaces
What Oskar writes to Stephen Hawking about

Essay Topic

Introduction sentence:  In the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Johnathan Safran Foer, Oskar's grandfather uses alternate forms of communication to reachout to the people he loves without speaking.

Questions that can be asked:
-What are the alternate forms of communication?
-To whom does he reach out to?
-Does this work effectively?
-Are words necessary to show pre-existing feelings

Quotes/ ideas that will be explored:
-The letters including "To my unborn child" and "To my child" (235).
-The note pad
-talking in the phone booth to grandma
-notes to the doorman
-throwing pebbles against the guest bedroom window