Loss In Extremely Loud And Extremely Close

It is better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. However, one character in the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer, would completely disagree with the statement. A young man who once lived Dresden, Germany drastically changed the path of his child and grandchild because he was never able to recover. The old man who was once the young boy would now rather had never fallen in love in the first place. If he had healed and moved, then it is possible no one else would have lost. The first person point of view in the novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, helps display the incredible loss experienced through the three main characters and their characterization. The main character, Oskar Schell,

The first person point of view helps readers comprehend the non chronological order of the book. The first time Thomas Sr. is introduced, he is in New York, and slowly losing his voice, and resorting to writing down his words. “I haven’t always been silent… silence overtook me like a cancer” (16). Readers are at the moment confused of the reason as to why he has lost voice and they do not know whether it is physically impossible, or something traumatic has happened to him where he mentally does not want to speak. It is later understood the grandfather lost the love of his life, Anna, not even a day after finding out she was pregnant. This was the traumatic experience that caused him to lose his voice. Later, after moving to New York, he finds Oskar’s grandmother, also known as Anna’s sister. She reminds him of Anna, but she will never be Anna, and he will never be able to truly love her. Their relationship is for the most part, minimal and superficial, without true love. By knowing his thoughts through first person point of view, readers are able to understand the difficulty of their relationship and how they will never move on from what they have lost. Readers can tell through the point of view that Thomas Sr. will never be able to move on, especially when he finds out his wife is pregnant. He already lost one child and Anna, and he can’t stand to go through it. “I lost a baby… I’m so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything” (216). He even states that he has something buried deep in him that he can’t act normal, and that his losing of loved ones is his greatest fear. It is ironic how Thomas Sr. decides to leave this new life, with a new child on the way, just to be in more misery. He could have healed with the child, and yet it in the end, his child is killed in the attacks. This is why Thomas Sr. has lost the most. He lost his first love