Trauma affects the brain in a unique way. It can influence a person to write a whole story or stay completely silent their whole life. In John Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, he uses his own real life experiences to create a story of how people deal with traumatizing experiences from the Holocaust to 9/11. Foer writes more emotionally than historically and focuses on how people reacted in these events and how their lives change forever (Beautiful). Oskar Schell is one of the three main characters and narrators in the story. He is nine-years old and lives in New York. Oskar is always preoccupied with his own thoughts such as:
“What about a teakettle? What if the spout opened and closed when the steam came out so it
…show more content…
Oskar’s grandfather is like John Safran Foer in the sense that he writes everything he thinks about...because he cannot speak. The Grandfather’s narration is through letters saying how sorry he is for not being able to talk. He starts by saying “To my unborn child: I haven’t always been silent, I used to talk and talk...the silence took me like a cancer…” (Fore 16). When he was young, Dresden Germany where he lived was bombed and his whole family died including his pregnant wife Anna. He writes phrases into his notebook and has the words ‘yes’ and ‘no’ tattooed onto his hands. He later moved to AMerica to get over the loss of Anna and happens to meet his sister. Thomas doesn’t love Anna but he marries her anyways. However when she gets pregnant, the Grandpa moves away and does not come back for a long time because he cannot live with himself (Fore …show more content…
Walter Kern for example highly praises this book. “Such a high visual kicker, doesn’t need a title or even text” (Everything is included. He also call for brainy and playful. “Is contained a wealth of pictures and attention grabbing elements.” Another critic, Faber from the guardian says Foer was much more in his element in his first book Everything is Illuminated. He thinks that Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close “promises you Ground zero but detours toward Land of Oz with Neverland in between. Some writers take offence these subjects saying the Foer does not have the “right” to express his feelings on this
In Derek Walcott’s “XIV,” the speaker, an aged man, is having momentary, but significant, recollection of a childhood experience. This detailed and engraved memory described through Walcott’s tone, selection of detail, usage of tropes, and point of view fully helps to convey the comic surreal nature of aging. The speaker’s recollection of the visit to the elderly woman is rather vivid, revealing to the reader that this particular instance in his life is profoundly unexpected. However, it is also an intoxicating occurrence, moreover, an adventure.
Hutch, the main character of The Big Field, has played baseball all of his life. He has always played shortstop, the same position that his father dreamed of playing as a professional. “Hutch, had always thought of himself as the captain of any infield he’d ever been a part of” (Lupica 1). Hutch finds himself being demoted to second base because there is another player, Darryl, on his new team that is expected to go pro and also plays shortstop. Hutch struggles because he does not want to play second base and his father does not support him because he does not want baseball to break Hutch’s dreams like it did his own. Hutch is betrayed by his father and Darryl when he finds them practicing together. Hutch has to learn to adjust and eventually becomes friends with Darryl, the up and coming shortstop. He understands that if he wants to win, then he needs to work together with Darryl. His father also comes around and finally gives Hutch his approval. Students should read this book in a high school English classroom because it demonstrates how relationships can be difficult, but teamwork can help to solve many issues.
The book, Deaf Again, written by Mark Drolsbaugh, is an autobiography telling his life story which starts with a young boy growing up who goes through the process of losing his hearing and then, as he gets older, he struggles with trying to fit in as a normal child. When Mark was very young, he could hear fairly well then gradually he went hard of hearing until he eventually went completely deaf. Even though he had two deaf parents, the doctors advised speech therapy and hearing aids because they did not understand Deaf Culture and they thought that Mark would be a lot happier if he could hang on to his hearing persona. Throughout the rest of the book, Mark goes through a lot of stages of trying to fit in with everyone and eventually does find himself and realizes that being Deaf is not a disease, but just a part of who he is.
Life is a complicated process. It’s filled with many things that keep it interesting but at the same time, very dull. Life’s what you make it and for many, it’s something we all strive for. In the story, The Space Between, the author takes full advantage of the premise as there’s rarely a dull moment- as in life. The book is filled with many literary devices that work nicely with the plot and dialogue. These include; metaphors, similes, irony, personification, and many more. We follow a young man who is finding his way in the world. He has only a week to change his life for the better. But he will face many obstacles on the way that brings the readers into a startling and fun journey.
The entire city was annihilated while 135,000 people were killed. The number of casualties is greater than those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. The bombing of Dresden, Germany is why it took Kurt Vonnegut so long to write this book. The human pain and suffering is still fresh in the mind of the author twenty-three years later.
By means of comic illustration and parody, Art Spiegelman wrote a graphic novel about the lives of his parents, Vladek and Anja, before and during the Holocaust. Spiegelman’s Maus Volumes I and II delves into the emotional struggle he faced as a result of his father’s failure to recover from the trauma he suffered during the Holocaust. In the novel, Vladek’s inability to cope with the horrors he faced while imprisoned, along with his wife’s tragic death, causes him to become emotionally detached from his son, Art. Consequently, Vladek hinders Art’s emotional growth. However, Art overcomes the emotional trauma his father instilled in him through his writing.
In the essay “Everything Now” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, author Steve McKevitt blames our unhappiness on having everything we need and want, given to us now. While his writing is compelling, he changes his main point as his conclusion doesn’t match his introduction. He uses “want versus need” (145) as a main point, but doesn’t agree what needs or wants are, and uses a psychological theory that is criticized for being simplistic and incomplete. McKevitt’s use of humor later in the essay doesn’t fit with the subject of the article and comes across almost satirical. Ultimately, this essay is ineffective because the author’s main point is inconsistent and poorly conveyed.
The two classic war novels ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ by Erich Maria Remarque and ‘Catch 22’ by Joseph Heller both provide a graphic insight into the life of soldiers serving their country in the historic world wars. One distinct theme of interest found in both books, is the way in which war has physically and mentally re-shaped the characters. Remarque creates the character Paul Baümer, a young soldier who exposes anxiety and PTSD (commonly known as Shellshock) through his accounts of WW1’s German army. ‘Catch 22’ however, is written in the third person and omnisciently explores insanity and bureaucracy in an American Bombardier Squadron through its utter lack of logic. The two novels use their structure, characters, symbolism and setting to make a spectacle of the way war re-shapes the soldiers.
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.
War effects people in multiple ways, some worse than others. “Studies suggest that between twenty and thirty percent of returning veterans suffer, to varying degrees, from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a mental-health condition triggered by some type of terror, or a traumatic brain injury, which occurs when the brain is jolted so violently that it collides with the inside of the skull, causing psychological damage (Finkel 36).” Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the most common form of affect on an individual involved in warfare, whether it is the victim or the perpetrator. In Slaughterhouse-Five written by Kurt Vonnegut, Billy Pilgrim, the main character, is struggling with PTSD looking for a way to justify everything that occurred. This story reflects Kurt Vonnegut’s side effects from his war experience. As well as, explaining how trauma changes an individual’s circumstance in society.
War can be as damaging to the human body as it is to the mind. In Erich Maria Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front, this idea that war causes psychological disorders is represented throughout the book through the main character, Paul Baumer. This book follows the lives of young soldiers in World War I. Together, these men create powerful bonds. They go through terrifying experiences that continue to strengthen their bonds, but also destroy their mental state. Through Paul’s eyes, Remarque shows the devastation that war has on the mind.
To be Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, “Extremely loud & Incredibly close” opens with the narration of Oskar, the novel’s main character. Oskar’s narration starts with his thoughts, he indulges himself in “what about” and “what if” questions. Oskar opens the novel saying, “what about a teakettle? What if the spout opened and closed when the steam came out, so it would become a mouth, and it could whistle pretty melodies, or do Shakespeare, or just crack up with me?” In this brief introduction, Oskar can be seen as a critical thinker with a very imaginative side, engaging the readers and giving them insight into his adolescent mind.
The poem Nothing Is Far by Robert Francis is about awareness. Robert Francis wrote, “I have never caught the word/Of God from any calling bird” (Francis 1-2). The described character never spoke to God, but he is still aware of all the events going on around him. That person needs no hints, no help. Naturally, he is able to see, to hear, and to remember everything.
Therefore, without this reminder, Oskar spirals out of control. That is until he reconnects with his Grandfather. Oskar’s Grandfather not only struggles with a communication disorder himself as previously mentioned, but is also speaks truth to Oskar and inspires him like Thomas. Though he could not speak, the Grandfather’s voice of reason was the loudest and most powerful voice that Oskar could have heard as he reminded Oskar of his father, both outwardly and inwardly. Not only did he shrug his shoulders like Oskar’s father, but he spoke to, or in this case wrote, in a manner that was not derisive.
Urvashi Butalia in her book, The Other Side of Silence, attempts to analyze the partition in Indian society, through an oral history of Indian experiences. The collection of traumatic events from those people who lived through the partition gives insight on how history has enveloped these silences decades later. Furthermore, the movie 1947 Earth reveals the bitterness of partition and its effect of violence on certain characters. The most intriguing character which elucidates the silence of the partition is the child, Lenny. Lenny in particular the narrator of the story, serves as a medium to the intangibility created by the partition. The intangibility being love and violence, how can people who grew up together to love each other hate one another amidst religion? This question is best depicted through the innocence of a child, Lenny. Through her interactions with her friends, the doll, and the Lahore Park, we see silence elucidated as comfort of not knowing, or the pain from the separation of comfort and silence from an unspoken truth.