extremely loud & incredibly close jonathan safran foer

She seems to have retreated into her own silent world, where she barely seems to notice anything at all. Moreover, the quest by Oskar to find the person named Black, who has information about the key, which is a symbol of personal growth in the story, can be construed as an expression of him trying to deal with the trauma of his father’s death.Īs is evident from the summary of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar’s mother is also traumatized by the death of her husband. Oskar holds fast to this secret, perhaps as a link to his father that only he shares. He left many panicked phone messages, Oskar is the only person who heard these messages, he bought a new phone and replaced the old one to prevent his mother from noticing. He also becomes intensely secretive, before Oskar’s father died. Oskar’s trauma is manifested by a measure of self-mutilation. Oskar considered his father his best friend, so he felt the loss particularly hard.

Oskar and his father shared a very close relationship characterized by a shared love for solving mysteries. The narrator of the novel, Oskar, is traumatized by the death of his father. Practically every character in the book has experienced death and loss in one form or another and is dealing with the traumas in the best way they know. Presenting the story from Oskar’s point of view, a 9-year-old boy, is an illustration of this fact.Ī central theme that runs through the novel is trauma. This technique has been utilized In the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. (Smith 79) This implies that, at that time, putting a message across meant showing it and vice-versa. In the analysis of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, it is possible to apply McCloud’s “ show and tell.” In the book, McCloud reflects about years past, in grade school, when showing and telling were concepts that were virtually interchangeable.

(Foer 16-33) In my opinion, a central theme highlighted by Foer, in the novel is trauma, particularly emotional trauma. The events of the novel are set in motion with the death of Oskar’s father in the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the world trade center, where he was having a meeting. Themes in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Safran Foer Additional insight is provided through the letters of Oskar’s grandfather to his father and Oskar’s grandmother’s letters to him. The age of the boy introduces the irony in the story from the very beginning.

The story is told through the perspective of Oskar Schell, a remarkably perceptive, sensitive, and intelligent 9-year-old boy. There are many issues, themes, and underlying meanings in Safran Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Extremely loud & incredibly close jonathan safran foer