Analysis Of Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close

The concentration camps of the Holocaust were home to countless injustices to humanity. Not only were the prisoners starved to the brink of death, but they were also treated as animals, disciplined through beatings nearly every day. Most would not expect an ill-prepared young boy to survive such conditions. Nevertheless, in the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel, Holocaust survivor, Wiesel defies the odds and survives to tell the story. Wiesel considers this survival merely luck, yet luck was not the only factor to come into play: his father had an even greater impact. Prior to their arrival at Auschwitz, Wiesel lacked a close relationship with his rather detached father; however, when faced by grueling concentration camp life, the bond between Wiesel and his father ultimately enables Wiesel’s survival.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close stresses the importance of family, and when someone is taken away suddenly, how that can impact one’s views on life and one’s own morality. In addition, the novel emphasizes that people grieve in different ways and at different paces; this is shown through Oskar’s journey and his mother’s friend, Ron. Both characters use those things as ways to deal with the death of Thomas Schell, and both move at different paces. The book also looks into how deception can be an aspect of how people treat others who are grieving; both Oskar and his mother hide things from each other because they both believe it will help the other grieve more easily. Had the two characters not done this, they may not have coped with the death of Thomas the same way. The deception from the two characters when relating to the death of a family member shows how connected the themes of family, morality, and deception are in the novel Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close.

They gave him a ring with a Hebrew saying on it and a letter signed by all his workers that explains how good he was to the Jews in his camp. Oskar suddenly felt emotional over everything he had done, and he started to say, “I could have got more.” He realized that he was capable of saving people during the war and wished he had saved, “One more person.” Rahner believed that goodness was when one chooses to abide by the truth through virtuous acts, although he also believed good people were capable of evil acts (Lippert). Oskar began as a selfish, manipulative man who was using the war to benefit himself. Once he saw the truth, he acted through virtue. When the war came to an end he wished he had done more, seeing that he was capable of giving up so much more of his own life to save others. Unfortunately, goodness like that is rare, but so is evil.

The reader is able to see the emotional chaos the characters are subject to after trauma. It changes their behaviors and can make them take risks they wouldn’t normally take. Zucker opens readers to understand the sorrow of Jews and sympathizers that fled from their homes and families while under persecution during World War II, as well as World War I veterans. In the words of Death, the narrator “It’s the leftover humans. The survivors [...] I witness the ones who are left behind, crumbling among the jigsaw puzzle of realization, despair and surprise. They have punctured hearts. They have beaten lungs” (Zusak 5). It is true that this type of guilt is often paralysing to certain individuals; however, it can also create empathy and strength when survivors overcome these defining hardships in life. This is shown through Liesel’s friendships with Max and Hans, and the emotional maturity they each possess. These relationships help bring acceptance and joy back into survivors’ lives, and allow them to release the guilt of leaving one

This strong bond built between both father and son has truly benefited them both and helped them to survive the Holocaust and its’ horrible conditions in both emotional support and physical support. They both look out for each other, stick together, and confide in each other. For example, when Wiesel’s father became sick, he looked almost dead when he was asleep. A man told the others who were throwing corpses out to throw the father out as well. Wiesel, once indifferent to all the other bodies being thrown out, now states, “I woke from my apathy just

Even when faced with traumatic malice,humans have the capacity for great empathy and benevolence. To begin, when compassion was shown to Elie. Elie was beaten severely and backed up into a corner till he no longer fought back. A French girl merely wiped his forehead, smiled, secretly gave Elie a bread crust and offered advice. These inspirational, encouraging, and compassionate words were enough to keep Elie holding on with the little hope that he had, ‘“Bite your lips, little brother… Don’t cry”,she pleaded, “ Keep your anger, your hate, for another day, for later the day will come but not now… Wait. Clench your teeth and wait” (Weisel,53). Next,is when Elie shows compassion to Raziel's husband,Stein. Stein begins frantically passing through rows in the bunks,asking for “Weisel from sighet.” Once found, Stein begins explaining that he was deported in 1942 to a concentration camp and begged to know how his wife and two boys were,since Elie’s mother was Stein’s aunt. Weisel did not recognize Stein, but Elie immediately knew who he was. "Yes,my mother did hear from them. Reizel is fine.

Throughout Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, author Jonathan Safran Foer writes from the perspectives of Oskar Schell and of each of his paternal grandparents. In Chapter 11, entitled “The Sixth Brough”, Oskar, the narrator, recounts his father’s bedtime story about a Sixth Borough of New York City which once resided next to Manhattan. Incidentally, this innocent bedtime story would be Oskar’s last interaction with his father. The story itself, contained many similarities to the lives of Oskar’s grandparents and had an all too fitting moral, as if it was supposed to be Thomas Schell Jr.’s final lesson to his son. Foer builds parallels between the story of the Sixth Borough and the lives of Oskar’s grandparents to show the reader the importance

Besides the intuitive black-and-white graphics, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close displays a series of gripping texts that range from profound seriousness to adventurous lightheartedness. The story follows through the footsteps of a nine year old boy named Oscar Schell after his father passed away from the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center. Oscar is left traumatized and is constantly unhappy with himself and others. Through his story, Oscar illustrates how to forgive himself from the feelings of regret, loss, and emotional strain. Furthermore, he provides an explicit example showing that even after a painful heart-rending experience, one can overcome fear and transcend grief.

When Stein, a forgotten relative, approached Eliezer and his father on their eight day of living in the concentration camp, Auschwitz, he wanted information on his wife and two kids whom Eliezer's mother had corresponded with in the past. Stein and his family had been separated two years ago and he desperately wanted to know how they were doing. While Eliezer did not have any knowledge about Stein's family, caught between indecision, he decided to lie. He

At first glance, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close may appear to simply detail the story of a young boy aimlessly searching for a reason that his father was taken from the world. Once the reader digs deeper however, the symbolic nature of Oskar’s journey really comes to fruition. At only nine years of age, Oskar Schnell experienced a tragedy that would be tough for most adults to understand. Without health problems, bad habits, or any forewarning whatsoever, Oskar’s father was gone, and as a result Oskar was mentally battered. As his relationships with friends and family began to sour and he struggled to find the meaning of his own life, Oskar desperately searched for something, or someone, to bring back the spirit of the man he adored so much. Oskar found this, in the form of a key. While finding this key’s home seemed to be the top priority for Oskar, little did he know that this small piece of metal served as a representation of his father, and all

This book is told through the eyes of an extremely smart and funny nine-year-old who is also the narrator, Jonathan Safran Foer. He tells a story of the effects of his fathers tragic death, in the 9/11 terrorist attack, on his father, Oskar Schell, and his family as a whole. Oskar's father not only endured the pain of being trapped in the towers, but was killed due to not being able to escape. To add to the stories allready tragic story line, Oskar's grandparents had also witnessed terrorist attacks, like that of 9/11, during World War II and this brings back their old memories. The peoples horrible deaths in

The human psyche is such a fragile thing. Traumatic events can break the mind apart and reassemble it into something unrecognizable, unimaginable, or leave it nonexistent altogether. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, we see the family of nine-year-old Oskar Schell trying to cope with the loss of Oskar’s father in the 9/11 attacks. This tragic event has left him at odds with his mother, as it was his father who was the closest to him. He finds himself unable to confide in her, and keeps her in the dark about what’s going on in his life in order to keep her from worrying or bothering him about it. The little lies he tells her widen the gap in their relationship, but ultimately that deception comes from a placing of caring, as Oskar wants to protect his mother from the truth of what happened on September 11th.

Death in any person’s life is tragic, whether sudden or unexpected. Everyone experiences it at least once throughout a lifetime. In the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, the reader meets several characters that lose people very close to them. Each person has a certain way of dealing with the death, but overall his or her grief is out of love. These two emotions are triggered by one another. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close displays few characters that show any sign of moving on with their lives. Grief takes over and seems to stay forever. Characters such as Oskar, Grandfather, Mr. Black on the floor above, and Ms. Black in the Empire State Building experience grief

The novel describes his family life in the Austro-Hungarian Empire and his rebellious teenage years in the newly created state of Czechoslovakia. The novel informs the reader of Oskar Schindler’s relationship with his

Is there a catharsis in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close? If so, when does it happen for Oskar, and if applicable for the reader? Discuss. To discuss whether there are catharsises and if so where, it is important to have a clear definition of ‘catharsis’, so there can be no confusion. According to ‘Oxford’s: Literature Criticism and Style’ a catharsis is: “The purging of emotions which takes place at the end of a tragedy.” A good catharsis closes a story and does not leave the audience, or reader with questions. According to the Oxford definition of a catharsis, it is important to determine whether Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a tragedy, but for this essay, the focus will