Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close Analysis

The novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer brings readers through the life of nine-year-old Oskar Schell as he is dealing with the hardship of losing his father in a cataclysmic event, 9/11, that changed the lives of many forever. The story also shows readers the life of his grandfather, Thomas Schell, who has dealt with sad events of his own. The novel uses the universal theme of dealing with tragedy and grief and relates it to readers. This makes it representative of the unique American experience. The theme is made present in the characters lives and is revealed to the readers in many ways throughout the novel.

The main protagonist of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell, copes with the grief from the tragedy of losing his father by focusing on something other than the loss of his dad. Oskar goes on a long adventure through the five boroughs of New York City in order to find out what a key he found opens. Oskar found the key when he broke a vase that belonged to his dad, and the key was in an envelope with the word “Black” written on the outside of it. After determining that the word “Black” was a last name, Oskar decided to “spend my Saturdays and Sundays finding all of the people named Black and learning what they knew about the key in the vase in Dad’s closet” (Foer 51). He “found 472 people with the last name Black in New York. There were 216 different addresses…” (Foer 51). He embarked on the trip which lasted eight