Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

            I’m currently reading the book “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer which is about a boy named Oskar who lost his dad during 9/11 and it now on the search for a lock that goes with a key he found in his dad’s closet. Finding the key is clearly the issue of the book but I also noticed a smaller issue in the book.

           

            After his dad died Oskar and his mom started to drift apart. Oskar likes to ask lots of questions and it a little bit socially awkward even for a nine year old. Whenever he tries to talk to her she seems tired of listening to him. Maybe it’s hard for her to raise him and deal with him without Thomas Oskar’s father. But she still has Oskar’s grandmother to help her. I’ll also noticed that out of the family, Oskar, his mom and dad and his grandmother, Oskar’s mother seems the least close to the father. Maybe that’s because we just don’t see their relationship very clearly or in detail. But I also think this because while Oskar and his grandmother are still grieving Oskar’s mother has found a “special friend” named Ron. It is healthy for her to move on, but Oskar is still mad at her for it. I think Oskar’s mother knew that Oskar was always closer to his father especially after his death. I think that Oskar and his mother need to face their problems, before Oskar really feels satisfied after finding the lock.

           

           I wonder if finding this key will lead to more sadness for Oskar. The journey might lead him to find things about his parents that he might have never wanted to know. He’s also very young and going around New York City by him self could lead to danger. But more importantly he may be to young to understand the actions or the things the adults around him did, and it may hurt him more then help him. I know that whatever the lock leads to will be of value because it’s a fictional world, but in reality the key might not lead to anything of significance which would leave the person who opens the lock with great disappointment, especially if that person was a nine year old boy looking for answers about his dead father.

            

          I’m currently reading the book “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Safran Foer. The over arching problem in this story is that Oskar wants to find the lock that goes with the key that he found in his dead fathers closet. But I think his quest won’t really be finished unless he resolves the problems he has with his mother.