Widelande Coleman Mrs. Van Houten College Literature 9 Mar. 2018 Literary Analysis What is grief? where does it come from? According to an online dictionary grief is a deep sorrow, especially that caused by someone's death. As Oscar journeys to find answers to lighten the heavy feelings, he finds that all of the people he meets have “Heavy Boots” (referring to Oscar’s feelings or grief.) too, Mr. Black, the renter, Abby Black, Ruth Black, and even his mother. Though meeting these people did not give him the answers he was looking for, the journey allowed him to share his heavy boots with them and become a witness to their heavy boots as well. All of the characters in “extremely loud and incredibly close” by Jonathan Safran Foer are grieving. …show more content…
One of the many people he met while on his journey is Mr. Black. Mr. Black did not have the answer that Oscar was looking for, which would’ve somehow given Oscar peace and comfort about his father’s death. Oscar become a witness to Mr. Black’s grief. Oscar began helping Mr. Black in way that he could not help himself. It was Oscar who after learning about Mr. Black’s deafness thought of “Something else. Something beautiful. Something true” (Foer 165). He turned on Mr.Black’s hearing aids for the first time in a long time Oscar sees the depths of grief as he watched Mr. Black cry to many sounds, including the sound of his own voice “not out of happiness, I could tell, but not out of sadness either” (Foer 168). Grief in this case, is the realization of moments loss, the regret of moments missed, the sounds unheard, and the memories that could/will never be made. But grief is also the thing that brings us all together as a Humanity. Grieving gives us reason to reach out of our comfort zone and help others find their own peace. If it had not been for Oscar’s grief and his desperate need to solve the mystery of the key that his father left, Mr. Black would have continued to live in the silent, and lonely world that he created for himself. Grief is extremely loud even though it is the one thing we often silence