"And also, there are so many times when you need to make a quick escape, but humans don't have their own wings, or not yet, anyway, so what about a birdseed shirt?
Anyway.
My first jujitsu class was three and a half months ago" (2)
"For my ninth birthday last year, Grandma gave me a subscription to National Geographic, which she calls "the National Geographic." She also gave me a white blazer, because I only wear white clothes, and it's too big to wear so it will last me a long time. She also gave me Grandpa's camera, which I loved for two reasons. I asked why he didn't take it with him when he left her. She said, "Maybe he wanted you to have it." I said, "But I was negative-thirty years old." She said, "Still."
"So I went to my piano teacher. I always wanted to kiss him, but was afraid he would laugh at me. I asked him to write a letter."(78)
Curiosity about everything shows his young age: "What about little microphones? What if everyone swallowed them, and they played the sounds of our hearts through little speakers, which could be in the pouches of our overalls."(1)
"Actually, if limousines were extremely long, they wouldn't need drivers. You could just get in the back seat, walk through the limousine, and then get out of the front seat, which would be where you wanted to go...I kicked a French chicken in the stomach once." (5)
"I timed myself and it took me 3 seconds to open a lock. Then I figured out that if a baby is born in New York every 50 seconds, and each person had 18 locks, a new lock is created in New York every 2.777 seconds. So even if all I did was open locks, I'd still be falling behind by .333 locks every second. And that's if I didn't have to travel from one lock to the next, and if I didn't eat, and didn't sleep, which is an OK if, because I didn't actually sleep, anyway." (41)
"I Googled around and found out that Black wasn't the name of a company that made lockboxes. I got a little disappointed, because it would have been a logical explanation, which is always the best kind, although fortunately it isn't the only kind." (42)
I think that the author is trying to show that even grownup adults have childish thoughts at times. Also, I think he is trying to relate back to his childhood when his father was still alive and his mother only liked his father.
I think the style that the book is written stays true to a child's mentality. It also shows a child's sense of humor (references to farts) and annoying-ness.
“I have no need for the past, I thought, like a child. I did not consider that the past might have a need for me.” (78)
This demonstrates Oskar's awareness of how he used to think in the past. It shows him having a moment of reflection and consideration on what he used to believe, and what he believes now.
"Even if it was relatively insignificant, it was something, and I needed to do something, like sharks, who die if they don't swim, which i know about.
Anyway." (87)
"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." (71)
"Yeah. And I conducted a pretty fascinating experiment once where I told Feliz to save all the dust from our apartment for a year in a garbage bag for me. Then I weighed it. It weighed 112 pounds. Then I figured out that seventy percent of 112 pounds is 78.4 pounds. I weigh 76 pounds, 78 pounds when I'm sopping wet. That doesn't actually prove anything, but it's weird." (93)
"In my head, I tried to calculate all of the forces that kept the car on the tracks and me in the car. There was gravity, obviously. And centrifugal force. And momentum. And the friction between the wheels and the tracks. And wind resistance, I think, or something. Dad used to teach me physics with crayons on paper tablecloths while we waited for our pancakes. He would have been able to explain everything." (147)
"It was 2:36 a.m. I went to Mom's room. She was sleeping, obviously. I watched the sheets breathe when she breathed, like how Dad used to say that trees inhale when people exhale, because I was too young to understanda the truth about biological processes." (107)
"I skipped my classes, the walk happened so quickly, my neck strained from hiding my face, my arm brushed the arm of someone passing--a strong, solid arm--and I tried to imagine whom it belonged to, a farmer, a stoneworker, a carpenter, a bricklayer."
Oskar's eratic thoughts may be the result of a lack of a sense of direction, represented by his raisons d'être.
Thinking out loud is often part of a child's thought process, and not so much part of an adult's.
"I liked watching a baby make fists. I wondered if he could have thoughts, or if he was more like a nonhuman animal. Do you want to hold him? I don't think thats a very good idea. Why not? I don't know how to hold a baby."