This is my first post of the New Year on my blog. Within our ASTU class we have finished the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, a novel I very much enjoyed and would recommend, and we have read an analysis of Foer’s novel and trauma connected to terror attacks called Frames of War by Judith Butler.
Last week as class blogger I noticed many people spoke about the trauma of 911 and how characters within Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close responded to trauma either unreasonably or logically. I commented on how my classmates spoke about Oskar’s response to trauma and how it transformed his character, some saying negatively (like his racism and sexism) or positively (after all he is just a child trying to remember his father).
This week though we focused on Judith Butler’s Frames of War, and spoke about how she relates Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close to other trauma and discrimination such as Guantanamo Bay. What I found most interesting in our discussions in class was the idea that we all vulnerable and that creates an interconnectedness. Vulnerability means that a part of everyone is subjected to suffering and that being a victim can come in all sorts of forms. Vulnerability not only creates interconnectedness but it also reminds us of our responsibilities to each other. This leads to another conversation we had in class, “What makes a global citizen?” A global citizen feels sympathy for others resulting in an intergenerational connectedness and awareness. A global citizen realizes that “intervention is not a form of responsibility” and imposition does not mean resolution. The guilt we feel is the emotional manifestation of responsibility because we feel remorse for acts that hurt others. Often our media and even government shape our impressions of other cultures by attributing negative or positive connotations to images. Oskar is afraid of turbans, which is just a misconception that has been projected onto him by images he is exposed to. As global citizens we must realize that who we are is nothing without others lives, this world cannot be made by any one individual culture.