In EL/EC Oscar is obsessed with finding, discovering, looking for and inventing things. On the other hand, he is also obsessed with keeping things to himself, he hides the last voice messages his dad left. "[He] went through hundreds of books, thousands of them (28)." He made bracelets using Morse code; Jonathan Saphran Foer used numbers throughout multiple paragraphs, patterns are all over this book. The possibility of uncovering truth and meaning is what Oscar seems most entirgued by, it's almost as though the things he hids from others are what he deems unimportant or insignificant to his search.
"Another thing I decided was that I would be as secretive about my misssion as I could at home, and as honest about it as I could outside home, because that's what was necessary. So if Mom asked me, "Where are you going and when will you be back?" I would tell her, "Out, later." But if one of the Blacks wanted to know something, I would tell everything."(87)
"Maybe I could bury things I'm ashamed of," (322)