Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer, tells the story of a young boy with, what readers can assume, Autism whose Father was killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Oskar, the young boy that the novel is centered around, finds a key in his Father’s closet and makes it his mission to find out what this key, the last ‘clue’ his father left him, opens. Oskar is dedicated to his mission as he walks all the way to Staten Island, the Empire State Building, Manhattan, and across the rest of New York City, without knowing that the answer is in fact ‘incredibly close.’ Meanwhile, the novel also follows the stories of Oskar’s Grandfather, who is suffering from PTSD and can no longer talk, and his
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One example of this is how he avoids things like tall buildings, public transportation, and even elevators. Everywhere he looks and everything he does reminds him of his father, making the attacks incredibly close to home. This can also relate to Oskar’s Grandfather’s own tragedy, as his entire family was killed in the Dresden Bombings. Although the tragedy took place many years prior to the story, the memories are still incredibly close to the Grandfather. The images of those they lost and how they lost them, will never leave Oskar and his Grandfather and they are forced to have them incredibly close to them every incredibly loud silent second of the day.
There are many possible reasons that Jonathan Safran Foer chose the title, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, as the title of his novel. It could be a literal commentary on how Oskar is a young boy suffering from some sort of mental disability so everything that happens to him seems to be extremely loud and incredibly close. Or Foer could have chosen the title based on a metaphor comparing it to the tragedies the character’s go through in their lives. No matter what the real reason behind the title is, Foer does a fantastic job at linking it to the novel and telling a story that hasn’t been heard
One example of this is how he avoids things like tall buildings, public transportation, and even elevators. Everywhere he looks and everything he does reminds him of his father, making the attacks incredibly close to home. This can also relate to Oskar’s Grandfather’s own tragedy, as his entire family was killed in the Dresden Bombings. Although the tragedy took place many years prior to the story, the memories are still incredibly close to the Grandfather. The images of those they lost and how they lost them, will never leave Oskar and his Grandfather and they are forced to have them incredibly close to them every incredibly loud silent second of the day.
There are many possible reasons that Jonathan Safran Foer chose the title, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, as the title of his novel. It could be a literal commentary on how Oskar is a young boy suffering from some sort of mental disability so everything that happens to him seems to be extremely loud and incredibly close. Or Foer could have chosen the title based on a metaphor comparing it to the tragedies the character’s go through in their lives. No matter what the real reason behind the title is, Foer does a fantastic job at linking it to the novel and telling a story that hasn’t been heard