Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close By Jonathan Safran Foer

“I thought about all of the things that everyone ever says to each other, and how everyone is going to die, whether it`s in a millisecond, or days, or months, or 76.5 years, if you were just born. Everything that’s born has to die, which means our lives are like skyscrapers. The smoke rises at different speeds, but they`re all on fire, and we`re all trapped.” (245)

September 11, 2001 was a tragic day in American history. A day that took over 2,500 innocent lives of men, women and children. A day we will never forget. The day Oskar Schell loses his father in the non-fiction book Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer. In this novel Foer explores the life of nine- year- old Oskar Schell as he embarks on a journey that will

Through his point-of-views he tells of his life before and after losing his father. He feels alienated, he hurts, and he feels like no one understands him. Oskar is also very curious and smart, yearning to know everything he can. He likes to invent things that will better the world, he likes the feeling of his boots being lighter, and he liked playing Reconnaissance Expedition with his dad. Oskar`s first main shift occurs when he finds the key in his dad`s closet. He believes that the key is a clue to his father`s death. So he sets out on a journey to find where the key belongs and will stop at nothing until he does. In the middle of the novel twelve weekends after the events of his previous chapters, Oskar is playing the skull of Yorick in the school production of Hamlet. Later that evening he and his mother get into an argument and he wishes it was her who had died instead of his father. He tries to apologize but she just leaves. In his feelings` journal he crosses out EXTREMELY DEPRESSED and replaces it with INCREDIBLY ALONE. Oskar`s second main shift occurs twelve weekends earlier when he meets Mr. Black who is an old man who lives in the same building as Oskar. Despite their age difference he is able to provide a friend figure to Oskar since he doesn’t have any of his own. He also provides a distraction, so Oskar is not bruising himself as much. In vice versa, Oskar is helping Mr. Black by bringing him out of his

Foer creates a melancholy tone early on in the book. The first shift happens when he says, “Because even after everything I`m still wearing heavy boots.” (2) Heavy boots is a metaphor for all of the things that weigh him down. He wants his dad back but knows that is not a possibility. The second shift happens when he is giving his final performance of Hamlet. He wonders to himself about the universe and if life was worth all of the work it took to live. “What exactly made it worth it? What`s so horrible about being dead forever, and not feeling anything, and not even dreaming? What`s so great about feeling and dreaming?” (145) He feels so numb inside, not knowing what to do anymore that dying seems like a better option than living, and for a nine year old to think that way is a tragedy. The third shift happens when Oskar and his mother have their heart to heart (323). This scene creates a loving tone. As his mother holds him close and comforts him, they have a confession. Oskar understands that his mother has cared all along even if she did not show it. They talk about Thomas, falling in love again, and the day that changed their lives forever. This talk made Oskar understand life as simultaneously simple and