Incredibly Close Themes

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Recommended: The meaning of life and death in literature

Bryan Wandrych
Mrs. Clemons
CP English IIIB
April 9th, 2014
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is written by Jonathan Safran Foer on December 25, 2011. The book starts out with a little boy name Oscar who is dealing with the tragic loss of his dad due to 9/11. In the beginning of the book, Oscar always talked about how he and his dad used to do scavenger hunts. Then a little later on in the book, Oscar finds this key in a vase. Through the process of him doing scavenger hunts with his dad, he makes it his own personal scavenger hunt. In this scavenger hunt, Oscar finds and meets new people. Throughout the book, as he meets new people, there are different themes, symbols and motifs that appear throughout the story.
One of the most prominent theme in this book is death. With death as a huge role in this book..This is not just for Oscar, this is for all of the character throughout the book. Death is taken very personally by every character and it shows throughout each of the character on how they cope or deal with the tragic losses. Just look at Thomas Sr.(Oskar's Grandfather) time when he was out in Germany during the Dresden bombing. Thomas Sr.’s experiences during the bombing were devastating to him. He was seeing all of the destructions to the city while seeing countless of families dead. With Thomas Sr,’s experiences in the bombing, it rendered him speechless. Yes it was very hard for Thomas Sr. to talk but the one thing he did do is tattoo the words yes and no on his hands because he figured that most people throughout his life would mostly ask him yes and no questions, but he also carries a small book with him to right answers in it. Obviously the bombing rendered Thomas Sr. speechless bu...

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...d that he really didn’t like her and he always thought that she did not care for him at all, but something in the book makes the audience think that the mom really does care about Oscar, but it is his ignorance that makes him think differently about her. For example, when Oscar went to the therapist, and the therapist called Oscar’s mother into the room to talk to her and it seems that there conversation was about protecting Oscar and not being able to take him away from her. For that conversation it seemed like “every moment before this one depends on this one.” [232]. So it seems like the mom does care for Oscar, but it is his childish mind that makes him think differently. It seems that family is very well connected throughout this book and it plays a huge roll in the making of this book.
The last important theme that happens throughout the book is Correspondence

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