"'Do you want to know how a jujitsu student becomes a jujitsu master?' 'I want to know everything.'" (Foer 2)
Through the book he brings up random facts that he knows.
"'I'm a pacifist,' and since most people my age don't know what that means, I turned around and told the others..." (Foer 2) He seems to know a lot of facts that most kids don't know, assuming that he's around nine-years-old.
The idea of "wanting to know everything" is very important in showing Oskar's innocence as a child. The book (at times) is written in the form of a child asking questions, wanting to know everything. An example of this questioning would be; "Mom?" "Yes?" "I have a question." "OK." "What are you squeezing in your purse?" "Just squeezing."(Pg.7)
Such an innocent conversation really seems to represent the way a child thinks about things.
Oskar can't help that he talks so much because of his condition. It may seem like he is annoying and rude to people but he is only thinking out loud. If everyone was like Oskar I think our comunication would go faster and we would get a lot more tasks accomplshed during the day. The randomness that he displays and boasts out to people is completely innocent.
A conversation with oskar could last hours maybe days. It's not a crime to want to know everything. In fact, it is a great thing to try to accomplish in life.
I think the reason that he describes such random events like he is thinking out loud at the beginning of the book is getting the reader comfortable with the pattern of being introduced to a thought, then, the thought being explained. This seemed to be a pattern at the beginning of the book.
"I didn't know what a mini-bar was, so I called the Plaza Hotel, which I knew was a famous one, and asked. Then I knew what a mini-bar was." (40)
"sometimes I wondered if she cried when no one was looking." (100)
Here Oskar wonders things, as usual, but this time wonders how other people are feeling. He is wanting to know why he feels certain ways, and why other people feel certain ways.
"I Googled around and found out that Black wasn't the name of a company that made lockboxes." (41)
This is an obvious example of Oskar wanting to know things and knowing how to find them out.
Oskar always wants to know everything about everything, but finds that if you know too much you start wishing you didn't know about things.
everyone has a thirst for knowledge, i think young children more than adults just because they have so much to learn.