Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Essay PDF

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An essay analyzing the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer....

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Suffering Individual Trauma In the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, written by Jonathan Safran Foer, two of the main characters, Oskar Schell and Thomas Schell Sr., both experience individual trauma but only Oskar is able to succeed in communicating that trauma while Thomas Schell Sr. tries and fails. Oskar Schell tries to communicate his trauma by not answering his father’s call, returning the key to William Black, and even digging up his father’s empty grave but through these actions will be successful in communicating his grief. Thomas Schell Sr. will leave Anna’s sister who is pregnant with his son, helps Oskar on his quest, and will end the novel by leaving Anna’s sister again, all of these are his attempts to communicate his trauma but he will be unsuccessful in his endeavors. Oskar will have successful but still will crave closure on his father’s death.

Oskar Schell throughout the entire novel has to deal with the trauma of his father dying in the tragic events of 9/11 and by the end of the novel is successful in communicating his personal traumatic experience. Oskar is searching for a resolution to his trauma is trying throughout the novel and succeeds in the end by finding closure. Oskar first tries to communicate his trauma by failing to answer the phone when his father is calling from work after 9/11 has occurred. Oskar tells William Black, “’But this is the thing that I’ve never told anyone. After I listened to the messages, the phone rang. It was 10:26. I looked at the caller ID and saw that is was his cell phone… I couldn’t pick up the phone. I just couldn’t do it. It rang and rand, and I couldn’t move. I wanted to pick it up, but I couldn’t” (Foer 301). Oskar’s first attempt at trying to communicate his trauma is a failure but he continues to search for the truth behind his trauma. Oskar holds a key

that he believes will help him find his father and ultimately find the answer to his trauma but the key belongs to William Black. When Oskar meets with William Black, “I pulled the string around my neck, and made it so the key to our apartment was on my back and Dad’s key rested on the pouch of my overalls, over the Band-aid, over my heart… I handed him [William Black] the key” (Foer 295). By returning the one time that Oskar believed would end his search for his father he fails again in finding the cause of his trauma. In Oskar’s final attempt to find his father he decides to dig up his father’s grave hoping this would be what he is searching for. At the end of the novel to resolve his trauma, “Oskar copies these images from a Portuguese website and imagines that the falling man might be his father. The traumatized boy needs the falling man to be his father because he craves closure” (Phillippe Codde, Philomela revisited: traumatic iconicity in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close). Even after digging up his fathers empty grave Oskar has little closure but his personal trauma has been resolved when he draws the flipbook of a man falling upward into the sky, pretending it is his father. This symbolizes his understanding of his father’s passing and he now has successfully communicated his individual trauma.

Thomas Schell Sr., also known as The Renter, is another character who is trying to communicate his individual trauma and is searching for a way to reconnect with his family, similar to what Oskar is searching for. Unlike Oskar, Thomas Schell Sr. fails in his trying search. When Thomas Schell Sr. discovers that Anna’s sister is pregnant with Thomas Jr, he flees to return to Germany. When Oskar talks to Thomas Schell Sr. about his past they say, “’My grandpa started it.’ ‘Who’s your grandpa?’ ‘I don’t know.

He left my grandma before I was born. She says he could talk to animals and make a sculpture that was more real than the real thing’… ‘What do you think about your grandma?’ ‘I don’t think about him’” (Foer 256). Thomas Schell Sr. tries to make family connections but fails because of his fear of commitment and instead runs away from the only family he has. He is searching for an escape from his trauma but instead just creates guilt and remorse for himself, creating more personal trauma. Thomas Schell Sr. next tries to connect with his grandson, Oskar Schell, by assisting him on his searching path to uncover the truth about Thomas Schell Jr., but Thomas Schell Sr. never reveals to Oskar that he is his grandfather. Thomas Schell Sr. never played a role in Oskar’s childhood and was an absent family member despite trying to connect with Oskar and ultimately failing by not revealing his true identity to him. This means that, “Since Oskar's grandfather is unable to make that distinction, he passes the trauma down to Oskar, ironically enough, through his own absence from Oskar's life. This seeming detour into the complications of Thomas Schell's life mirrors the quagmire of trauma and identity that arose in the wake of the World Trade Center attacks” (Matthew Mullins, Boroughs and neighbors: traumatic solidarity in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close). Since Thomas Schell Sr. never makes a connection with his grandson the trauma he possesses is passed to Oskar because Thomas Schell Sr. was an absent figure who failed in communicating his own individual trauma. Towards the end of the novel Thomas Schell Sr. can no longer be around the grandmother, Anna’s sister who he abandoned earlier, and decides to abandon her once again. Thomas Schell Sr. runs away to the airport where he says, “Everyone was coming or going. People around the world were moving from one place to another. No

one was staying” (Foer 312). Thomas Schell Sr. final attempt to stay with his family is again a failure and his search for a family connection he is unable to find. This failure to communicate his story with family can also be connected to the visual and textual elements of Foer’s novel, specifically on pages 281 to 284. On these pages the text becomes increasingly difficult to read as the letters overlap each other. This symbolizes how throughout the novel Thomas Schell Sr. was unable to communicate his trauma to any character and is visually shown so the reader is also unable to communicate all of his personal trauma.

In conclusion, Thomas Schell Sr. and Oskar Schell are two of the main characters from the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer, who suffer from individual trauma and are trying to be resolved throughout the novel. The authors use of visuals and the theme of trauma is unique and helps develop the characters throughout the novel.

Works Cited Codde, Philippe. "Philomela revisited: traumatic iconicity in Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close." Studies in American Fiction, vol. 35, no. 2, 2007, p. 241+. Expanded Academic ASAP, http://link.galegroup.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/apps/doc/A175021845/EAIM?u= ko_acd_shc&sid=EAIM&xid=6e422999. Accessed 25 Feb. 2018. Foer, Jonathan Safran. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. Penguin Books, 2005. Mullins, Matthew. "Boroughs and neighbors: traumatic solidarity in Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close." Papers on Language & Literature, vol. 45, no. 3, 2009, p. 298+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com.library.sheridanc.on.ca/apps/doc/A207062478/GPS?u= ko_acd_shc&sid=GPS&xid=44c7322f. Accessed 25 Feb. 2018....