Extremely loud and incredibly
close
A. The book
Safran Foer, Jonathan. Extremely loud and incredibly close. United States: 2005.
B. The author
The author is Jonathan Safran Foer, he wrote more books, for example:
- Everything is illuminated
- Eating Animals
- Here I am
C. The contents
1. The themes of the book are death, because the father of Oskar dies. Love,
because the Oskar and his family are grieving, but this comes with love. They are
grieving together and being there for each other, especially Oskar and his
grandma spent a lot of time together, but Oskar doesn’t really know his
grandmother personally. Another theme is trauma, because there is a lot of
trauma in the story. A few examples are the trauma that comes with 9/11 and the
death of his father, he was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11 in
2001.
2. The main characters are Oskar Schell, his mom, his grandmother and Thomas
Schnell aka the renter, apparently his grandfather.
3. Developments:
Oskar Schnell:
After the death of his dad, he is very anxious, depressed and is feeling guilty,
because he didn’t answer the phone when his dad called him one last time. I think
Oskar has grown wiser, in the beginning of the book he tries to ignore the pain of
grieving, so he makes up rules for himself to make sure he is safe. For example: he
is avoiding heights. In the end of the book Oskar is still mourning/ grieving, but he
focuses on their last moments together, instead of thinking about the moment that his
dad died.
Mom:
The only development I think of, is the way she tries to hide her grieving from Oskar.
She realised that this was wrong, because Oskar thought she wasn’t grieving at all.
Grandma:
In the beginning of the book she’s not really opening up about her life. She has an
strong relationship with Oskar, but for Oskar it felt like they didn’t really know each
other personally.
Thomas Schnell Senior/ renter/ grandpa:
I don’t think he has a development.
4. The story is situated in New York. In the story you read that he is going to search
all the people named ‘Black’ who are living in New York.