Over the past month or so, my book club and I chose to read the outstanding novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer. This was about an odd young boy named Oskar Schell, whose father passed suddenly when the twin towers crashed on 9/11. When Oskar finds a key labeled, “Black” in his father’s closet, he becomes suspicious. Seeking closure with his dad, Oskar goes on a journey through the 5 boroughs meeting everyone under the name, “Black”. He makes companions and friends along the way and changes a lot. Oskar holds a unique personality and is a very independant kid. Throughout the story he uses lots of repeated metaphors and symbols that I have chose to expand on.
One of the first metaphors we encounter in the story is the saying, “heavy boots”. Oskar often uses this phrase to show his distress or sorrow towards something. For example, at his father’s funeral he had extremely heavy boots. Oskar expresses that he always had heavy boots after what happened to his dad, but some things lightened his boots. On page 2, during his dads funeral, Oskar says, “I desperately wish I had my tambourine with me now, because even after everything I’m still wearing heavy boots”. Having heavy boots is another way to say that something is weighing you down, and Oskars dad is always on his mind which makes him incredibly lonely.
Another symbol we found in the book in the key, and his journey to find the key. I think that finding the key is also a way to find closure with his father, because he never really got to say goodbye and know everything was ok. Oskar spent so much time trying to find this key because he so desperately needed to find out another thing about his dad and what the key could mean. Oskar visited (without using public transportation) 472 people with the last name Black and talked to almost everyone of them, creating acquaintances and never forgetting a single person. This key turned Oskar from a shy, reserved 8 year old to a boy who was honest and able to admit to things to total strangers. This key represents his journey to seek closure with his father and it resembles the whole premise and cause of the book.
One metaphor that I especially loved and thought was so genius of Foer to think of, was Oskar giving himself bruises. In the beginning of the book, I thought this was a metaphor and not an actual bruise on his body. When I found out it was an actual bruise on his body that he gives himself, I had a whole different view on the meaning of it. At first I believed this was when Oskar was feeling sad and he felt bruised on the inside. Oskar actually pinches or punches himself to leave a mark on his skin and feel pain. I now feel this is out of guilt. Oskar has a set of voicemails his father left for him on 9/11, and Oskar never told anybody about them, not even his mom. He felt that he was the reason his father died, if only he told someone. He knew his father was dying and didn’t to anything about it. Once after listening to the messages, he writes, “I invented. I gave myself a bruise. I invented.” (pg 69), Showing how guilty he was for not sharing the messages. Another theory that I have formed about the bruises is it is a way to find a feeling. Most of the time Oskar is lonely, without his father and his mother not around. By hurting himself, he is creating another feeling other than loneliness. When his mother befriends a man- the first man since his father- Oskar feels lonely and that it was unfair for his mother to be having fun after what had happened. “I zipped myself all the way into the sleeping bag of myself, not because I was hurt, not because I had broken something, but because they were cracking up. Even though I knew I shouldn’t have, I gave myself a bruise.”(page 37). Oskar gives himself another feeling to distract the loneliness that he always has.
This book was extraordinary. The way it was written, the vocabulary, the endless inventions and ideas, made the story all the more better. I grew as a reader because of this novel and made me get into the habit of reading good books again that I am interested in. This book was beautifully written and contained thousands of meanings to each sentence. In conclusion, Extremely Loud and Incredibly close held symbols and lessons that show what the experience of losing a loved one is like.
