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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Curiosity and Adventure are two words I feel best represent Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, a fictional book written by Jonathan Safran Foer set in New York City after 9/11 around 2003. The story involves a nine year old named Oskar Schell, a self-proclaimed future inventor and explorer. Oskar is our narrator throughout the story who tells us the events in his life in the first person point of view. Oskar, being the protagonist and focal point of the story, shows us the struggle of losing someone in a tragedy, showing us flashbacks of his father when he was alive and the activities they would do together that serve to fill the large void in his life.

Oskar is known to himself and others as an inventor equipped with such a great world with imagination and knowledge. He is also an atheist, pacifist, explorer and scientist. He also makes a point to use the fact that he can speak French to his advantage. In the beginning, Oskar and his father Thomas Schell, show an inseparable union between father and son by the strong connection the two had between each other. Whether it be spell-checking the Sunday paper or playing their Reconnaissance Expeditions on Sundays, there were always activities planned. Nonetheless, the death of his father in the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11 has taken a large toll on him. Oskar has suddenly lost the second half of his well-being and cruises into a sad, depressed state of mind. Along with the social and mental disconnection from his mother (who will never fall in love again), it has been more of Oskar to start fending for himself in certain situations.

During some time, Oskar has grown to miss things from his father that he has grown to love. Like their chats and debates on issues in society to Thomas’ faint smell of aftershave, Oskar truely misses it all. He even secretly kept his father’s voicemails that he left during his last hour in the World Trade Center. While reminiscing through his father’s

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