Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

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Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close Essay Everyone has different and personal ways to deal with loss, there is no proper prescription for the loss of a loved one. The novel “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” written by Jonathan Safran Foer is the story of Oskar Schell, a very peculiar 9-year-old, who loses his father during the 9/11 attacks, as he embarks on a quest for closure. The novel also has a second story line of the tragic relationship between Oskar’s Grandma and Grandpa as they struggle in coping with their losses. The major theme of the book is loss, and the ways one comes to terms with this loss. Almost all the major and some of the minor characters have been affected by death of a loved one. They have all suffered a loss. The story focuses on how they have dealt, or are dealing with their losses. There are many different ways to come to deal with a loss, do you try to forget about it like Oskar’s Grandmother did or do you become depressed and lose a piece of yourself like Oskar’s Grandfather did? An interesting thing about “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is that most of the characters in the book have lost someone and find a personal way to handle this situation, Oskar for example stumbles on to a key with the name black on the envelope containing it one day while snooping around his Fathers closet and embarks on an adventure to find out what this key opens. Oskar is a determined, and strong-willed boy, but most importantly he is lost and depressed and unable to cope with the loss of his father, he sometimes bruises himself in an attempt to either hide from the emotional pain that weighs him down. His father was the person closest to Oskar, and now with him gone he is lost, throughout the book Oskar describes what he is feeling to him as having “Heavy Boots” which weigh him down every second he lives. His mother brings him to doctors
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