Noisy and Touchy discussion

Oskar uses many coping mechanisms to help deal with his fathers death. He bruises himself when he is frustrated or did something wrong. What other sorts of things does he do to cope with his frustrations?

Ever since his dad died he became very paranoid with things like heights. He wanted to invent a building the moved up and down instead of the elevator so people could get out of the building. He also does not go above a certain level in a building. When he begins his journey of talking to all the Blacks he refuses to go up to meet one of them because he is too scared go up that high. It is like he has PTSD.

Another thing that Oskar has adopted as a coping mechanism is his tambourine. While an adult might adopt cigarettes and smoke to calm themselves down, Oskar simply taps his tambourine. The tambourine goes everywhere with Oskar, and it has become almost an extension of his body.

Also I feel that him asking questions about everything helps him stay connected and not feel so alone. It gives him a sense of security. A boy running all around New York City alone is not the safest thing you could do. Also listening to the messages at night helps him deal with his frustration.

I do not think that asking questions is a coping mechanism, I think it is simply part of his personality to be curious and question everything. So I disagree with you on that part, but the messages is definitely for coping. If he did not need those to feel better he would have told him mom about them and not kept them to himself.

I feel like Oskar uses many things to cope but he also plays up his father's death to people trying to make them take pity upon him. For example, at one of the Blacks apartment, he lied about his age saying he was 7 so the person would feel worse for him. I think that is a bit messed up but it is probably just part of being a 9 year old and being immature.

All of these are true, but I honestly think the entire book is detailing Oskar's biggest coping mechanism, distraction. Oskar uses things such as his quest to discover the key's origin to occupy his time, and help him think about something else besides his dad's death.