Grandparents of Oskar, Grandma and Thomas Schell, are placed within the plot to help Oskar’s exploration in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. They separately play insignificant roles that doesn’t fully interfere with Oskar’s path, but do asist him. Grandma stays as an emotional supporting system as Oskar goes through his adventure to ease his pain. I started at the fake stars forever. I invented. I gave myself a bruise. I invented. I got out of bed, went over to the window, and picked up the walkie-talkie. “Grandma? Grandma, do you read me? Grandma? Grandma?” “Oskar?” “I’m OK. Over.” “It’s late. What’s happened? Over.” “Did I wake you up? Over.?” “No. Over.” As Grandma works as some kind of haven that Oskar can return any time, readers are …show more content…
Their roles may seem minuscule; however, their personal letters provide insight to their significance to Oskar’s life. Through Grandma’s letters addressed to Oskar, readers understand how contrasting her life has been to Oskar’s relationship with Thomas Schell Jr.. The letters of Oskar’s grandfather, Thomas Schell, to his deceased son in Why I’m Not Where You Are chapters deepends the background story of grandparents. I went to the guest room and pretneded to write. I hit the space bar again and again. My life story was spaces. … We made safe places in the apartment where you could go and not exist. As presented above, Grandma abbreviates what has happened into simple words that adds onto the emptiness she feels. On the other hand, Thomas Schell’s perspectives writes detailed descriptions of the events that happened. Only a few months into our marriage, we started marking off areas in the apartment as “Nothing Places,” in which one could be assured of complete privacy, we agreed that we never would look at the marked-off zones, that they would be nonexistent territories in the apartment in which one could temporarily cease to