Jonathan Foer's Novel 'Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close'

Coping with Loss Jonathan Foer 's novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, deals with many themes, the most significant being how one deals with loss. In the novel, Oskar Schell found a key in his late father 's closet and makes it his mission to find the missing lock. Along the way he is faced with many challenges in coping with the tragic loss of his father. Oskar 's personality and the way he deals with situations is greatly affected by his father 's death, his relationship with his mother is strained because he doesn 't comprehend how she is coping with the loss, and he is constantly faced with losing the memory of his father. Foer shows us how deeply such a tragedy effects someone, not only as an individual, but how their loss
There are many scenes throughout the novel where Oskar turns to harming himself to deal with his overwhelming emotions. For example, when his mother and her boyfriend were in the living room giggling and listening to music, and Oskar was in his dad 's closet, he writes, "I zipped myself all the way into the sleeping bag of myself, not because I was hurt, and not because I had broken something, but because they were cracking up. Even though I knew I shouldn 't, I gave myself another bruise" (Foer 37). In these lines Foer reveals the true pain Oskar is hiding. Oskar recedes into himself, and causes himself physical pain in order to avoid the real reasons he is hurt. Another example of Oskar losing himself is when his mother was tucking him into bed, and he was begging her not to fall in love with anyone or he would stop loving her. Oskar was being very childlike, Linda got frustrated and said, "You remind me so much of Dad" (171). Oskar, with venom in his voice, replied, "If I could have chosen, I would have chosen you" (172). Here Foer shows us just how angry and hurt Oskar is, how overwhelmed he is by his frustration. Later in the scene Oskar apologizes profusely for his words, which were extremely hurtful and intended to do
According to a review in The Harvard Book Review, " Oskar 's paradoxical status - as an impossibly mature child, an explorer fearful of most means of transportation, a fatherless child who wants to define himself as a son - makes him a saturated object of tragedy; Safron Foer 's key into the events of September 11th lies thus in his creation of the ultimate composite grieving character" (Ullman 2). Ullman 's take on Foer 's development of Oskar Schell as the main character shows that the innocent, less cynical mind of a child, that also happens to be extremely mature, and brilliant is the perfect way to convey Foer 's perception of the grief of a very heartbreaking moment in history. Although Ullman praises Foer 's choice, The New York Times sees it differently, commenting on the sometimes random trains of thought Oskar has, "In theory, there 's nothing wrong with a narrator like this, especially when he 's a cunning combination of other narrators from the kind of books that his author wants to conjure with, but there are neurological limits to some reader 's ability to tolerate a wee one who says whatever springs to mind at roughly the same speed it springs to mind and keeps circling to the clue of cluelessness and other riddling Oriental insights" (Kim 2). While it may be at times hard to understand what is