Analysis Of Doorknobs In Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close

The novel “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” (Foer) is littered with pictures of doors, and more specifically doorknobs. These images of doors, and doorknobs, show Oskar and his family’s emotional standing and the way it changes as the story progress as a result the trauma they have suffered from either the Dresden Bombings, the terrorist attacks on September eleventh, or both. They also symbolise the repetitive nature of the healing journey that both Oskar and his grandfather embark on and the plot of the story as a whole. The first image of a door is located on the very first page after the cover, a close up of a key hole (Foer 1). The keyhole appears to be completely see through allowing us to look through to the other side of

Both these images are extremely similar both in their aesthetics and in the subject matter that surrounds them. The images both are located in the story of the grandfather, but this in itself is not remarkable. The first image (Foer 212) is of a brass doorknob. The brass doorknob has no key hole and appears to be relatively unworn. This parallels the grandfathers healing process at that time in the novel, where the grandfather is just starting to open up about the trauma he faced during the bombings. This parallel is made stronger by the second image of a very similar doorknob later in the story (Foer 265). This doorknob differs slightly from the original in a few key ways. First the doorknob is upside down, in regard to the first image. This represents how the grandfathers perspective have changed, no longer is the world as pointless as it was before he began to work through his memories. Furthermore, the doorknob now has a key hole. Much like the doorknobs that were discussed earlier in the novel, this new feature shows a lot about the emotional standing of the grandfather. It shows how he has finally decided to unlock his emotions and begin to seek help. Finally, this doorknob appears to be well used and slightly dirty this give the idea that perhaps the grandfather has already begun to work through his issues, and reenter the

Nothing represents the grandfather and Oskar’s respective journeys like a revolving door. The book makes it seem “as if the world itself was repeating” (Foer 272). This idea of going in circles is basicly what the grandfather has done, leaving his wife and unborn child and then returning. His journey, although it has lead him all around the world, has got him back to the same place, where his life is plagued with problems from his traumatic past. Oskar is much the same, his journey also follows a very circular path. He repeatedly goes out and talks to “the blacks” (Foer 87, 143, 231) and yet, he always ends up back at home in the same situation. This theme of always ending back in the trauma that the characters are trying so hard to work through is central in this text and represented by this revolving