Hi everybody!

After coming back to school from a relaxing winter break, my ASTU 100 class got right back down to work and read the novel “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” written by Jonathan Safran Foer. This novel tells the story of Oskar Schell, whose father died in 9/11. After his father’s death, Oskar finds a key and a scrap of paper with only the word ‘black’ on it in a vase in his father’s closet. Still reeling from the loss of his father, Oskar sets off on a journey to find the lock that will fit the key using the only clue that he has which is the word ‘black’. While most people would just try all the locks in their house and give up, Oskar stretches his search throughout New York City, asking people with the surname Black if they knew his father or anything about the key or lock.

This dedication Oskar shows in his search is prominent when he asks all the people with the last name Black(all of them strangers but he quickly befriends Mr. Black who lives just upstairs from him) in New York City for information; as if finding the lock that fits the key will bring him closure for his father’s passing. However in my opinion, the search itself is serving as a way of closure for Oskar. It is as if he feels as long as he is doing something, he will be able to find the answer and closure he is looking for.

Even though his search turns up with not much closure for Oskar, he finally meets his grandfather (the “renter”) for the first time as he was absent ever since his father was born. Both he and his grandfather experienced terrible things (Oskar 9/11 and his grandfather the bombing of Dresden) they responded to these experiences very differently. Oskar goes out into the city on a search while his grandfather retreats into silence and loses his ability to speak due to the horrors.