One unfortunate part of the human experience is trauma. It’s inevitable, inherently common and completely complicated. As with many things in life, many people turn to literature in hopes of finding a magic remedy for a traumatic event, some step-by-step process for how they’re supposed to react, or, at the very least, a character who makes them feel less alone. There are a lot of books that are misleading and useless, but there are some in the most unlikely places that offer the soundest sympathy and the best company. One such novel is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. The novel has a relatable representation of the chaos and destruction that surrounds traumatic events, which is enhanced by the novel’s use of historical truth, within three main characters that represented three very different stages of grief.
It’s important to examine how Foer is able to accurately represent trauma in his story, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Todd Atchinson states, “Trauma literature depicts a survivor’s personal struggle in responding to and representing the mass atrocities suffered through the threats to individual, cultural and inhuman eradication.” Breaking that down, he is arguing that trauma literature like Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close attempt to follow a person’s journey to redefine themselves after facing a tragedy that as threatened their individual and cultural identities. The hardest part of this is creating a text that is both realistic and relatable, with a narrator that can be trusted to relay important information accurately throughout the story. Now if a reader were to try to think of a trusty narrator, Oskar might not pop into her mind right away. However, it appears that Fo...
... middle of paper ...
...y healed.
“…Foer refuses to deodorize 9/11 with a simplistic redemptive framework of collective identity; instead, he constructs a complicated, posttraumatic framework by stressing the partial inaccessibility of three characters‟ traumatic experiences—Oskar, his paternal grandfather and grandmother—and the failure of referential language for historical reconstruction in order to problematize redemptive narratives and critically question the political and ethical dimensions of working through the trauma of 9/11” (Mendel).
The use of three narrators enhances the message that the novel is trying to send: trauma affects everyone different and reoccurs through different stages of their lives. It also provides three different perspectives to show the political and cultural effects of the trauma and how those people plan on/actually deal with those effects.
Darryl’s life is worth fighting for. “You can’t buy what I’ve got.” ‘The Castle’ directed by Rob Sitch, about one man, his family and neighbours on the verge of being homeless. Darryl Kerrigan, the “backbone of the family” won’t stand for that. Of course no one can buy what he has. He’s spent almost his entire lifetime building what he has, why should he give it up? Darryl’s way of life is simple yet filled with family values. 3 Highview Crescent is the home to Darryl, his wife Sal and their 3 children: Wayne, Steve, Tracy and Dale. (Wayne currently being in jail.) The house is made up of love, and simple family values. Darryl’s also added bits and pieces to it. He’s added on so much to the house, his own personal touch. His neighbours, also in the same bout are almost family to the Kerrigans. Jack and Farouk are another reason why Darryl’s ready to take matters into his own hands.
It was very sad to read about Frau Holtzapfel’s sons. First, Michael Holtzapfel, He fought in the battle of Stalingrad. “Stalingrad happened to my hand. I was shot in the ribs and I had three of my fingers blown off” (Zusak 466). This was an awful time for Michael Holtzapfel. Getting shot in the ribs and three fingers blown off, must have been extremely painful! Next, there was Robert Holtzapfel, he also experienced a tragic explosion. “His legs were blown off at his shins and he died with his brother watching in a cold, stench- filled hospital” (Zusak 469). This is so devastating, I could only imagine the emotions Michael felt that day, so sad. This adds characterization of the narrator because I remember the narrator saying in the beginning how
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer is a non-fiction novel written by an American author. The book mostly follows the three main characters, Oskar, his grandmother, and his grandfather, Thomas Schell, Sr. Oskar is a nine-year-old boy from New York whose father died in the World Trade Center on 9/11. He is exceptionally intelligent and curious and goes on a quest through New York City’s five boroughs to find the lock which belongs to a key his father had in his closet. Between chapters, a separate story is told of his grandparents marriage and life in Dresden, Germany. His grandfather, Thomas Schell Sr. is mute and collects stacks of daybooks in which he writes what he needs to say. His first love, Anna, died in a bombing while pregnant with his child. Shortly after starting his new life in the United States, he runs into Anna’s sister, they get married, and he leaves her after he found out his wife was pregnant. His wife, Oskar’s grandmother, lives across the street from Oskar and his mother and helped raise him.
Elisabeth Kubler and David Kessler have a hypothesis in which they have discovered the five stages of grief. Many people experiences grief in many different ways, but they usually follow the 5 stages of grief. In the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly close they discuss the recent events of 9/11. Jonathan Safran Foer talks about grief through a nine year old's point of view about grief and the loss of his father. This novel was very real and personal it shows that type of human emotions you go through when you lose a family member, in this novel many people are able to go through the five stages of grief and it also shows how these characters are able to get through each death individually. Grief is one of the most powerful emotional forces
Mental abuse is sometimes overlooked, because of the rough physical abuse, but soldiers see a good side of both during wars. Maria Remarque shows the mental part of abuse on the book All Quiet on the Western Front. The narrator discusses all the hard times that went on during World War I, all through the book. Paul Baumer, the narrator, explains it when he and his friends enter the German army, very deeply although he is only eighteen. Baumer tells a story about fighting for their own sanity as well as their country. As the war begun, he and his friends got an real look at what the war was truly about. This book shows the conflict coming during the actual war, the boys use their spirits to try to overcome it. But the mind against reality that is described in the books, gives them a reality check on how life really is. During the beginning of the book, Remarque explains the boy's job, relating it to how hard it is to be in the war. Their was always something, not getting much sleep, relieving the front line, and they also didn't have much to eat. What was going to happen, is described good by the way that the author talked about the life of the soldiers, but the boys failed to realize reality.
Weird. If the relationship between the characters of Grandpa and Grandma could be described in one word, it would be weird. Then again, Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a shining example of everything unconventional, exploring the nuances of grief through multiple and varying perspectives, each with a unique approach that attempts to achieve recovery and solace. The relationship of Grandpa and Grandma is an example of one such attempt at recovery, one that tries desperately to reconcile past traumas, yet ultimately acts as a futile effort that harbors more grief and denial.
... horrors of war such as, his parents who still view war as glamorous and idealistic. War takes a heavy toll on soldiers who fight in it and in these dangerous moments anybody would have gone insane. It takes a very special type of soldier to be able to handle both the psychological and physical challenges that a soldier has to face in everyday battle. A soldier such as this must be capable of handling the sight of a mutilated comrade and not immediately chatter to pieces. The author conveys this message in his extreme use of words with negative connotation such as shells, typhus, dysentery, and trenches. In this portion of the novel a great deal of emphasis is placed on the word death which is repeated several times and standing on its own it holds a great deal of negative connotations. Therefore, due to the severity of the situation and the extensive use of words with negative connotations the overall tone of the novel appeared to be very depressing or serious. This selection also demonstrates just how mythical the character of war that many individuals who have not experienced the tragedy of battle believe to be true by illustrating just how appalling and grim war is in reality.
As Dr. Carnes explains exploitative relationships can create chains that link a victim to someone who is hazardous to them. Trauma bonding can occur as a result of divorce, litigation of any type, incest and child abuse, family and marital systems, domestic violence, hostage situations, professional exploitation and religious abuse. These situations involve an incredible amount of intensity or importance and they can become a trauma bond when there is an exploitation of trust and power. An important factor in understanding trauma bonds is that “stress becomes traumatic when danger, risk, fear or anxiety is present. This critical analysis will examine some specific aspects of the content within the text.
Pain is one of the most complex words in the modern day language. It is perceived differently with every situation with varying definitions for all types of people. Pain for an infant who scraped their knee seems petty compared to a terminally ill mother who will leave behind three children. The feeling of discomfort or agony may never go away in some cases, especially mental pain. Author of In the Lake of the Woods, Tim O’Brien, writes a novel about war stress and how PTSD can change a person’s entire personality. John Wade suffers through tremendous pain that eventually leads to the disappearance of his wife Kathy. O’Brien portrays the effects of pain through John Wade’s post traumatic stress disorder throughout his lifetime during
The prevalence of trauma of all types is widespread throughout much of the world and includes trauma from accident, child abuse and neglect, domestic violence, political conflict, war, or other human struggles. The many faces of bullying, hatred, economic insecurity and oppression (racism, sexism) leave a steady stream of survivors carrying the burdens of fear, anxiety, rage, and physical illness.
When one faces a traumatic experience, his or true nature often reveals itself. Trauma forces its sufferers to cope. How one copes is directly linked to his or her personality. Some will push any painful feelings away, while others will hold onto pleasant memories. Both of these coping mechanisms can be observed in Katherine Anne Porter’s “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily.” In “The Jilting of Granny Weatherall” and “A Rose for Emily,” the two protagonists’ prominent characteristics distinctly affect the way they cope with trauma and influence the short stories’ outcomes.To begin, Granny Weatherall is a prideful control freak. In contrast, Miss Emily is delusional and stubborn.
Jackson, K. (2013). Understanding traumatic grief - Mass violence, shattered lives. Social Work Today, 13(3). May/June, 12. Retrieved from http://www.socialworktoday.com/archive/051313p12.shtml
When faced with a life altering situation although Molly’s characteristics and personality aid her in courageously defying them, the effects of facing this traumatic event will lead to long term psychological repercussions. When severe harm is inflicted on a person’s psyche, it is viewed as an emotional trauma (Levers, 2012). The emotional harm inflicted on Molly’s psyche originates from different dimensions; like her upbringing, her trauma is multidimensional too. As a child of the Indigenous community, whose ancestors and elders were killed violently in inter-group conflicts, and whose children were forcefully removed from families, Molly is would experience intergenerational trauma (Atkinson, 2002). Intergenerational trauma is trauma passed down from one generation to another; as a close knitted community group, the grief experienced by family members of losing their loved ones, would have been transferred across generations (Atkinson,
First off, “The Forever War of the Mind” by Max Cleland gives readers a personal experience dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder. This article shocks the readers with what replays in his
As a first hand observer of the Civil War, the great American Poet, Walt Whitman once said,"The real war [of the mind] will never get in the books."Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a horrible mental ailment that afflicts thousands of soldiers every year. Besides the fact that it is emotionally draining for the soldier, it also deeply alters their family and their family dynamics. Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier's Home” illustrates how this happens. Harold Krebs returns home from World War I. He has to deal with becoming reaccustomed to civilian life along with relearning social norms. He must also learn about his family and their habits. The ramifications of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder have a ripple effect on the lives of not only the victim, but also the friends and family they relate to.