Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close Character Analysis Essay

From the Harry Potter series to the television program Gossip Girl, stories contain characters whose actions are immoral, yet readers and viewers develop sympathy for them due to their presentation. Likewise, in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Grandpa’s character is portrayed as immoral. The reader witnesses Grandpa marry a woman for a dishonest reason and then abandon her and his unborn child. However, as the story progresses, the reader discovers Grandpa’s backstory and can sympathize with him. The reader learns the rationales behind his unethical behaviors and Grandpa becomes a sympathetic character. The method Jonathan Safran Foer uses to present Grandpa forms him into a dynamic character about whom the reader’s opinion shifts over the course of the novel.

Foer uses Grandpa’s outward actions as well as symbolism to originally portray him as an unethical character.

On the basis of Grandpa’s actions alone, he is immoral enough to dishonestly marry a woman and then leave her and his unborn child. He only married his wife because of her physical resemblance to her older sister, Anna. While Grandpa and Grandma engage in a romance where Grandma poses for Grandpa’s sculptures, Grandma notes that “After only a few sessions it became clear that he was sculpting Anna.” He left his wife traumatized when he departed, “She [Grandma] emptied herself of tears when Grandpa left.” Grandpa even admits to his immorality, asking “Why couldn’t I be the type of person who stays?” The author uses symbolism to lead us to unconsciously associate Grandpa’s traits with immorality. In many societies around the world, left-handedness is associated with evil. “Sinister” in Latin means “the left.” Therefore, the fact that “Yes” is tattooed on Grandpa’s left hand instead of the right is used as a technique to cause readers to either consciously or unconsciously associate Grandpa with the “dark side.” Through these devices, Foer crafts Grandpa as an outwardly unethical

persona.
Throughout the novel, flashbacks of Grandpa’s life are presented to change him into a sympathetic character. His first love was Anna, Grandma’s older sister. After he loses Anna, he is overcome by grief and longs to be with her again. He reveals this grief through sentiments, such as: “I’m thinking of Anna, I would give everything never to think about her again.” This longing to be with his lost love is why he ends up marrying Grandma, not because he loves Grandma but because he loves the physical resemblance she has to her older sister. He loses Anna and their unborn child in the Dresden Bombings. From this tragedy, Grandpa recalls, “I kissed her, I kissed her stomach, that was the last time I ever saw her.” The first time he loses his child and the mother of his child is in this event, in which she unintentionally leaves him. There is both similarity and contrast to the later reversed situation where he leaves his child and the mother of his child on purpose. By leaving Grandma, he causes her a great amount of grief. But the reader understands through the backstory provided that Grandpa leaves them due to his apprehension over losing these two people in his life over again. The disclosing of Grandpa’s backstory transforms him into a sympathetic character.
In Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Grandpa is portrayed as an externally unethical character. He marries a woman due to her physical resemblance to another person and then leaves her and his unborn child. As the plot of the story grows, the reader learns of the tragedies Grandpa faced earlier on in his life and can find sympathy for him. The motives behind his immoral actions are divulged to the reader, allowing him to become a sympathetic character. The author uses these methods to shift Grandpa from an immoral character to a sympathetic character.