Exploring Grief and Repentance in 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close'

In his novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Jonathan Safran Foer conveys how repentance along with certain losses of peers attract a variety of individuals together, including strangers. He incorporates several elements such as sophisticated diction, rambling, and humor to demonstrate how the protagonist Oskar distracts himself from mourning over his father’s loss, who had been killed in the nine-eleven accident. Oskar is pursuing a mission for his dad where he struggles to discover a lock to the enigmatic key; as a result, he gets involved with strange types of personalities. Jonathan Foer presents a multitude of characters who employ various techniques for coping in times of agony.

We observe Oskar has a quite a decent personality,

which makes him appear to be overly mature for his age. However, he is not able to grapple with his father’s loss nor conceal his candor. Throughout his journey, his father’s cryptic death regularly intrudes in his mind; thus repulses his life. Oskar implements multiple methods of distraction such as a birdseed shirt, pockets, and microphones for the heart. These inventions enable him to form bonds with others and protect their loved ones. While these inventions continue to aid others, they do not allow Oscar to save his father. Evidently, Oskar senses isolation as he feels no one can truly understand his emotions. The key which opens up Oskar’s journey introduces him to diverse aspects of life. Initially, he does not seem to understand forms of struggle and hardships, as he only tries to affiliate with people to impel himself towards accomplishing the mission. Oskar realizes that in order to gain other people’s knowledge and help he must listen to their endeavors. While following his journey searching for various clues and answers, he seems to be bringing closure to his peers, ultimately bringing closure to himself.

To begin, the people with the last name Black contend with loss in several ways. For example, Mr. Black neglects his loss by devoting his time towards writing bibliographies and by turning off his hearing aids. He cannot bear listening to what is going on in the external world as it includes his deceased wife. When Oskar consults Mr. Black, Mr. Black fails to answer most questions relating to his past. When Oskar gets caught searching for the lock in Mr. Black’s apartment, he asks “Are you mad at me for snooping?” only to hear Mr. Black’s perplexing response. “By the reservoir. She tripped on its roots once! That was back when I was courting her! She fell down and cut her hand! A little cut, but I never forgot it!” (Foer 161) Oskar is astonished at the fact that Mr. Black recalls such a detail. Turning his hearing aids off, Mr. Black repels from the present and allows himself to be ingrained in the past. His past echoes reverberate in his mind, as he is unable to expose himself to the present. Similarly to Oskar, he is unable to make amends and therefore feels isolated. Once Oskar turns the hearing aid back on, Mr. Black immediately transitions into the present after being trapped in his past. “Then out of nowhere, a flock of birds flew by the window extremely fast and incredibly close… Mr. Black grabbed at his ears and made a bunch of weird sounds. He started crying -- not out of happiness, I could tell, but not out of sadness either.”(Foer 168). The birds serve to be symbols of liberation throughout the novel. In this scene, they rescue Mr. Black from his dreaded past and successfully transport him back to his present. His tears symbolize his acceptance of the world which he has been mostly ignoring. This feat allows Mr. Black to arrive in the present world to help Oskar proceed with his journey.
In addition to the deaf Mr. Black, Oskar encounters another individual belonging to the Black family who meets is also entangled in the past overcoming his father’s death. Unlike the previous Mr. Black, this one is unable to proceed with his life since he sold a vase which held a key leading to his father’s deposit box. Mr. Black reached extreme measures to try and obtain closure. “For a few weeks I’d go over to the neighborhood on my way home from work, even though it wasn’t on my way. It was an hour out of the way. I’d walk around looking for him.”(Foer 299). “I followed on man around Central Park for more than an half an hour.”(Foer 299). His lack of success de-motivates him in locating the ke . However, it still remains in the recesses of his mind, ever present. While Oskar searches for the key with this Mr. Black, Oskar has the courage to admit his past regrets which provide him answers to the key. This search seems to unravel more mysteries coincidentally occurring rather than corresponding to Oskar’s father’s design. Mr. Black finally attains closure when he obtains the long sought key, thus leading him to discover what his father had left for him many years ago.
Finally, Oskar's grandfather, or the “renter”, serves as a person who endures traumatizing tragedies which lead to his suffering of loss. Hoping to not to heal his deep wounds, Oskar’s grandfather abandons his wife when he learns she is pregnant. His wife’s pregnancy continuously taunts him about his past love, and fears this relation may cause him to be lost again in the world. In order to atone for his absence and deep shame, Oskar’s grandfather writes a myriad of letters to his son whom he never sees. Attempting to evade from his awful past, he still encounters the present’s impacts. His silence justifies a poignant wound left from his past. Although he does not communicate effectively, he is the only one who trusts Oskar in understanding his nature. Both Oskar and his grandfather hold secret meetings which help them both in bringing peace to death. Approaching the final stage of the mission, they discover the key’s owner and decide to exhume Oskar’s father’s coffin. Here, the renter is finally able to fulfill his delayed duties. Within this scene, we notice somewhat of an obscure notion. “Life is scarier than death.” “So what’s all that paper?” He wrote, “Things I wasn’t able to tell him. Letters.” (Foer 322). Although no one reads the notes, they signify the renter’s parting from the past. While the past definitely never vanishes from his life, he is able to temporarily bury it.

While Oskar does not fully recover from his past, he supports a number other people in escaping their traumas which implicitly alleviates his own burden.

He encounters a diverse range of individuals from New York who are in difficult phases of overcoming adversities. Oskar’s journey does not primarily concentrate on pain and sorrow, but the common strain which humans share and struggle to survive through different means. Although his wounds do not heal instantly, Oskar is able to fully take control of his past towards the end of the novel when he finally acknowledges his mother’s relationship and informs her “It’s OK if you fall in love again.”(Foer 324). Oskar realizes that other individuals need similar support to move on in life . What he considers to be his mother's betrayal is simply just another form which allows him to recover over his horrific loss. Oskar finally succeeds in recovering over his loss by investigating himself and others similar to him, fulfilling his journey’s purpose. If we look closely at McCloud's Show and Tell Comic we see that he focuses mainly on symbols and their use of enlightening one on understanding complex concepts. He writes, "Some of this art show considerable attention to detail, concerned with pictorial representation."(Page 715, Show and Tell). Symbols are greatly used in this novel to explain concepts. For instance, the birds allow Mr. Black to flee from his past, and the coffin serves as a symbol where Oskar is able to fade his past. Without symbols, it would be nearly impossible for this story to have any sort of a meaning. Symbols along with words are conducive to one’s understanding of the external world. Therefore pictures and text play an equal role in helping us learn various forms of nature and the surrounding

ambience.

Reflection
For this essay, I wished to focus mainly on Foer’s use of symbols to explain certain concepts. I observed from the very beginning that he successfully formed relationships between the images and the concept. I believe most novels should be written in a similar novel. I wanted to write about the story’s main plot and then delve into the major theme of dealing with trauma. Oskar does this by dealing with the loss of others as well. I learned that bearing with other people’s adversities on multiple occasions, allows us to overcome our own. Only due to this, Oskar realizes who he truly is. I may implement this method the next time I encounter into any sort of severe difficulty.