Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close

Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close demonstrates how the motif of loss and closure significantly impacts people. The story focuses on a boy named Oskar Schell with Asperger’s Syndrome, who ventures around New York, searching for the lock his Father’s key opens in an attempt to comprehend death. The novel illustrates the personal, social, and global impacts that events related to demise can have through Oskar’s journey in dealing with the loss of his father and searching for closure. The loss of a loved one is an inevitable, life-altering experience composed of bereavement and various types of emotional and physical effects. Loss and closure are apparent in the September 11 attacks, through Dad’s death, Oskar’s constant

Foer underlines how the unpredicted death of a loved one has a serious personal impact, seeing as it engenders depression. This is evident as Oskar struggles through life without his father as he frequently reflects on their memories. Oskar uses the phrase: “heavy boots” (Foer 2) to convey his depression, which is a common symptom of grief. Oskar states: “... it made my boots lighter to be around his [Dad’s] things, and to touch stuff that he had touched, and to make the hangers hang a little straighter, even though I knew it didn't matter” (36-37). Which emphasizes how human connections can be so fervid, causing the termination of a relationship on account of demise to stem depression. Furthermore, the loss of a cherished person can affect people by inducing severe anxiety. The grief from the death of a loved one instigates anxiety as the person begins to irrationalize everything and fear for their safety due to the unfathomable event of death. Oskar portrays this as he develops a multitude of new fears after Dad’s passing: “There was a lot of stuff that made me panicky, like suspension bridges, germs, airplanes, fireworks,... scaffolding,... people with mustaches, smoke, knots, tall buildings...” (36). Oskar’s anxiety and fears are related to 9/11. Moreover, Oskar’s search for the

The myriad of deaths from 9/11, the Dresden bombings, and the atomic bombing of Hiroshima negatively influence the world as the tragedies promote stigma, discrimination, and racism. The discrimination and racism against Muslims, Arabs, and South Asians that skyrocketed after 9/11 is highlighted as the setting takes place during the aftermath of the destruction of the World Trade Center. Oskar makes racist comments regarding Arab people without thinking he is racist due to the media at the time: “There was a lot of stuff that made me panicky, like... Arab people on the subway (even though I'm not racist), Arab people in restaurants and coffee shops and other public places... turbans” (36). The islamophobia present in Foer’s work demonstrates how loss can negatively alter people’s perspectives. Additionally, massacres precipitate traumatic solidarity. Unity from shared death-related trauma is emphasized through Oskar’s hunt for the lock. Although it is human nature to drift apart, even after a tragedy like 9/11, Oskar’s journey brought people together and created new relationships, like the one between A. R. Black and Ruth Black. The new connections indirectly due to death, demonstrate how loss and closure, although the author emphasizes have a negative impact, can also