Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Step 1: Definitions of terms and concepts
- Heavy boots- would weigh a person down, slow them up, or even keep them in place.
- Reconnaissance- observation of a region to locate an enemy or ascertain strategic features.
- Detect- discover or determine the existence, presence, or fact of
- Ballast- any heavy material used to stabilize a ship or airship
- Irrefutable- impossible to deny or disprove
- Invigorate- heighten or intensify
- Mundane- found in the ordinary course of events
- Gibe- laugh at with contempt and derision
- Centrifugal- tending to move away from the middle
- Pacifist- someone opposed to violence as a means of settling disputes
The most significant words in the story are quest and tragedy. Throughout the story, Oskar(the main character) goes through many accounts of tragedy and wants to know the reasons why they happened. It’s important to be aware that there are a lot of tragic events occurring in order to fully understand what is happening in the book. He goes through hearing his father’s death, then reads stories on other family members experiencing traumatic events.
He discovers an envelope with “Black” on the back and a key inside. He wants to know what it fits into, and if it has anything to do with his father’s death. The motivation of curiosity gives him a reason to go on a quest to meet the most logical people related to the note with the key in it. Everyone with a last name “Black”.
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Step 2: Setting
The story takes place in New York, around the time of September 11th. The story mentions Oskar having voice messages from his father when the building is burning and asking if he’s there. Two years after his father dies, nine-year-old Oskar Schell finds a key in his Dad's closet. He sets out on an adventure to find the lock, hoping to reach some sort of closure over the tragic loss of his father. Towards the end, it talks about the day of September 11th and the family (Oskar’s grandma, grandpa, and mother) panicking and watching the T. V. and calling each other to check and see if he’s ok.
It is important to understand that it’s in New York and around the time of September 11th, to understand that Oskar has gone through a traumatic event and why his dad’s death is unknown. You can just simply think it was an unresolved death, but because he was working in The World Trade Center and he left a voicemail to Oskar around the same time it all happened, you can assume that he died in the September 11th attack.
Step 3: Plot and Structure
To start off, Oskar's father was in one of the buildings for a meeting when it came crashing down. The family had a funeral for him, but Oskar thought is was pointless because his body wasn't even in the casket. Oskar goes over to his grandmother's house to talk to her but she is not there so he begs the renter to let him in. The renter (his grandfather) lets him in and listens to the problems he has been having lately. Oskar's grandfather agrees to help Oskar dig up his father's coffin and help him put some of his personal items in it. Oskar's grandfather shows up with suitcases full of letters he wrote to his son (Oskar's father) and puts those in the coffin. He then reversed the pages of the man falling out of the building, so it looked like he was floating up. What seems to be the central conflict is man vs. himself. Oskar has a conflict within himself about his father. He does not want to forget his father after he dies, but he is struggling to hold on to him.
One night, Oskar looks back at the book he created about his life called 'Things That Happened To Me.' The book makes him remember his dad and gives him the strength to keep moving forward. This resolution is appropriate to the rest of the story because he was given something to make him stronger and could give the audience who is mourning while reading a connection and some hope.
Step 4: Characters
The key characters are Oskar Schell, his grandfather, Thomas Schell, and his grandmother, Oskar is a 9-year-old boy trying to figure out what exactly happened to his father. He had a strong bond with him and isn’t exactly healed from the trauma. While going to therapy, and often gives himself bruises if he does something wrong, or if something goes wrong(lying, anxious, etc.). His family is from Germany and his dad helped him learn very logical things at a young age, which made him smarter than your average 12-year-old. Thomas Schell fell in love with the girl and went through so much trauma when she left him, that he couldn’t talk anymore. His words slowly started to fade, and the last one was her name, Anna. He resorted to writing in a notebook in order to talk to people, such as making orders in coffee shops, or having conversations. He then met Anna’s sister (Oskar’s grandmother), they talked, had a rough conversation, but understood each other and got married. Oscar’s grandmother is all about boundaries and throughout their marriage made many rules, as did Thomas. for example they had “nothing spaces” for when they didn’t want to be seen or talked to. However, both of them fell through when their entire house became a nothing space. we know this through narration conversation and characters’ thoughts.
Oskar uses external cues to help him process his emotions. Oskar describes his grief not as being sad but as “having heavy boots,” which allows him to have a way of expressing an indescribable emotion. This can show character development because towards the end of the book he has closure and finds strength instead of processing his emotions externally. Some of the story’s minor characters are Oscar’s mother, the man who lives directly above his apartment the man who is deaf and helps Oscar on his quest to find where the key goes and all of the people with the last name of black who were in on it because Oscar’s mother called them and said to expect her son Many of the strangers Oscar met played along Although didn’t have any information for him he mentions his mother and how he wants to care for her as he recognizes that she is hurt from the death of her love.
Step 5: Point of View
The point of view is first person as Oskar is giving his input on his outlook on the world for example he gives his view on how his mother and limousine driver and everybody else looks on their way to the funeral. However the point of view changes throughout the story as he reads different letters given to him or his father The narrator was his grandmother on his dad side, or his grandfather on his dad's side, writing to their unborn child or the last time they would write to their true love. On his father‘s death, seeing the point of view from his relatives gives the kind of reasoning for his motivation to find things out, as they were all as curious as he is. Seeing the point of view from Oskar gives you what the point is to the story and what the events are. He gives different scenarios of how he is feeling and can make you feel like you’re living through those experiences with them. This is important so you can follow along with the book and feel sympathy towards the narrator.
The benefit of hearing from Oskar is to hear what’s going on in that time period and give you a good understanding of what you’re reading. He gives you nearly full detail of how he feels and doesn’t hold anything back. If the story was told any other way you could maybe see exactly what happened to his father perhaps he didn’t go to work that day and he was narrating how his day went or how his grandmother felt when he’s when she saw bodies flying from the buildings and thought that it was her own son.
Step 6: Theme
The story seems to say that you can overcome whatever emotional barrier you’re feeling from losing a loved one. You may feel like your world is falling apart but if you try your best to be optimistic you can find hope in continuing to live and accept things with them gone. The theme emerges naturally through dialogue and action and slowly gets you feeling sympathetic for the child. The title ‘Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close’ helps with the novel's theme because it is a title that makes more sense once the book is read because there are a number of things that can be extremely loud and incredibly close.
Step 7: Style and Tone
The style is in letters. The author uses both short sentences and long sentences uses a lot of dialogue as it is mainly on the boy experiencing events between him and another person or people, uses lots of description, and large words. For example, Foer uses the key he finds to say that what’s behind the lock that the key unlocks isn’t the point; rather, the main function of the key is the personal growth it allows Oskar to achieve, since it gives Oskar a sense of purposefulness in the face of events that seem chaotic and uncontrollable. He also uses letters. Letters and written words seem, at first, to be a more permanent way of preserving speech, but they also provide opportunities for missed connections. He goes through many missed connections throughout the book and can be a symbol of what he’s going through.
The novel’s mood is sorrowful. Each of the narrators is sunk in grief that pervades their narratives. Sure, we get moments of humor from Oskar's eccentric interests and naive observations, but for the most part the tone ranges from serious to downright bleak. Oskar's grandmother's letters have glimmers of hope, but they're just glimmers. His grandfather's letters just bury the reader in hopelessness and emotional numbness. The author wants to show us that ultimately, love can help us manage sorrow, but in overall tone, we think sorrow wins. “ Maybe the hearing aids didn’t work anymore, or maybe the batteries have died of old age, or maybe he’d gone completely deaf since he turned them off, which was possible. We looked at each other. Then out of nowhere, a flock of birds flew by the window, extremely fast and incredibly close. Maybe 20 of them. Maybe more. But they also seemed like just one bird, because somehow they all knew exactly what to do. 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, pg. 168). I chose this passage because it gives an idea where the title came from. He uses many commas and kind of forces you to stop and feel that there are birds present.
Step 8: Interview
Was this book based off true events? it seems real enough to be true. With being in New York and a boy going on adventures with his mother knowing all for him to find closure with his father's death. The fact that the thoughts of the narrator are so detailed and in depth that it touches your heart makes it sound like it’s something that took place. What compelled you to write about the september 11th attack? There have been many tragic events that made a huge impact on the world and I am curious as to why he chose to do September 11th. There were some thoughts made by Oskar like “Why didn't he say goodbye? I gave myself a bruise. Why didn't he say 'I love you'?” which makes it sound so realistic and I can see why you’d choose to write about it. Choosing to write about a traumatic event can catch the readers attention.
Step 9: Evaluation
I think the book is extremely good. It could be a bit confusing as it switches narrators but it was worthwhile. There are a lot of visuals that will leave you thinking but later explain. I think doing that has a strong impact and gives you a sense of what you’re reading.
I believe there are some things people can take offense to. First of all, writing about the deaths of September 11th could get people upset. There are many vulgar statements made by Oskar such as, “I wish you were dead instead of dad.” or feeling that there was no point to having a funeral for his father because there wasn't a body in the casket. I think if you push those aside it can inspire you to find ways to overcome your problems in life. I believe they can motivate you to find a solution to everything.
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