"they could make an incredibly long limousine..." "... [that] wouldn't need drivers." (pg. 5)
microphones to " play the sounds of our hearts" (Pg. 1)
teakettles to "whistle pretty melodies, or do Shakespeare, or just crack up with me" (Pg. 1)
"...but human don't have their own wings, or not yet, anyway, so what about a birdseed shirt?" (Pg. 2)
"I started inventing things, and then I couldn't stop, like beavers, which I know about. People think they cut down trees so they can build dams, but in reality it's because their teeth never stop growing, and if they didn't constantly file them down by cutting through all of those trees, their teeth would start to grow into their own faces, which would kill them. That's how my brain was." (Pg. 36) Here Oskar provides a very interesting reason for why he always invents things.
Oskar describes an invention about an ambulance that reads out who is inside: "What about a device that knew everyone that you knew? So that when an ambulance went down the street, a big sign on the roof could flash DON"T WORRY! DON'T WORRY![...]If the device did detect someone he knew, the ambulance could flash the name of the person in the ambulance, and either IT'S NOTHING MAJOR! IT'S NOTHING MAJOR! or, if it was something major, IT'S MAJOR! IT'S MAJOR!" (Pg 72)
"I invented.
I gave myself a bruise.
I invented."(69)
I thought this was interesting, he invents something, he does something else, something small, then invents some more. It also is repetition.
I think the above quote shows how Oscar invents to try and forget about loosing his dad. He says he invents, and then gives himself a bruise. I think the bruise means he thought about his dad, and then he tries to take his mind off his dad by inventing again.
"so what about a portable pocket? Over." "A portable pocket? Over." "Yeah. It would be sort of like a sock, but with a Velcro outside, so you could attach it to anything. It's not quite a bag, because it actually becomes part of what you're wearing, but it's not quite a pocket either, because it's on the outside of your clothes, and also you can remove it, which would have all sorts of advantages, like how you could move things from one outfit to another easily, and how you could carry bigger things around, since you can take the pocket off and reach your arm all the way in. Over." (Page 71)
"It made me wish all of a sudden that I'd brought some kind of invention for her, so that she'd have a reason to like me. Even something small and simple, like a phosphorus brooch." (91)
"In bed that night i invented a special drain that would be underneath every pillow in New York, and would connect to a reservoir. Whenever people cried themselves to sleep, the tears would all go to the same place, and in the morning the weatherman could report if the water level of The Reservoir of tears had gone up or down, and you could know if New York was in heavy boots." pg (38)
"What about a device that knew everyone you knew? So when an ambulance went down the street, a big sign on the roof could flash[...] or if it were something major,[...] And maybe you could rate the people you knew by how much you loved them, so if the device of the person in the ambulance was really badly hurt, and might even die, the ambulance could flash GOODBYE! I LOVE YOU! GOODBYE! I LOVE YOU!" (72)
"What I'll do is this, I'll invent an invisibility suit that has a camera on my back that takes video of everything behind me and it plays on a plasma screen that I'll wear on my front, which will cover everything except my face." (142)
"What if you trained Seeing Eye dogs to be bomb-sniffing dogs, so that they'd be Sniffing Eye Seeing Bomb dogs? That way, blind people could get paid for being led around, and could be contributing members of our society, and we'd all be safer, too." (193)
"What if the water that came out of the shower was treated with a chemical that responded to a combination of things, like your heart-beat, and your body temperature, and your brain waves, so that your skin changed color according to your mood." (163)
"Inside, I was wishing that she were tucked away in a portable pocket, or that she'd also had an invisibility suit." (Page 144)
"So I invented Black Box Yellow Pages, which is a phone book that's made out of the material that they make the black boxes on airplanes out of." (193) Oskar invents this phone book because he wants everyone in that phone book to be remembered.
Like usual, Oskar is having trouble sleeping, so he invents this amazing stamp. "I invented a postage stamp where the back tastes like crème brûlée."(193)
"What if you trained Seeing Eye dogs to be bomb-sniffing dogs? That way, blind people could get paid for being led around, and could be contributing members of our society, and we'd all be safer, too. I was getting further and further from sleep" (193). This quote is in Oskar's thought progression alongside the two quotes above it (on this wiki page).
"I squeezed Mr. Black's hand, and I couldn't stop inventing: the elevator cables snapping, the elevator falling, a trampoline at the bottom, us shooting back up, the roof opening like a cereal box, us flying toward parts of the universe that not even Stephen Hawking was sure about..." (244)
When Oskar and Mr. Black are on top of the Empire State Building, they talk to Ruth, the woman who lives in the building and gives tours of the it. During their conversation Oskar tells Ruth about all the birds that die from crashing into windows. "I told them, Yeah, so I invented a device that would detect when a bird is incredibly close to a building, and that would triggers an extremely loud birdcall from another skyscraper, and they'd be drawn to that. They'd bounce from one to another." (250)
Even though i didn't want to, I started inventing.
She'd been hit by a cab while she was crossing Broadway, and the cab zoomed away, and everybody looked at her from the sidewalk, but no one helped her, because everyone was afraid to do CPR the wrong way (235)
"She was unconscious at the bottom of the swimming pool at the Y. Kids were swimming thirteen feet above her." (235)
The Beatles are included in some of his inventions.
Birds are related to Oskar's birdseed shirt.
Oskar's inventions represent his desire for safety
In some ways this is an addition to the 5 Stages of Grief
His sign for ambulances is an invention.
This links to the question "What is the significance of the inventions Oskar creates?"