Since the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is being used in class to highlight the ways that people deal with personal grief, I thought it might be helpful to point out the ways various characters are grieving in the novel. The two most obvious grievers in the novel thus far are the two narrators of the first three chapters. The first narrator, Oskar, is dealing with his grief primarily by trying to hold onto his dad’s memory, but also in trying to replace him. Oskar mentions that he wanted to give the Morse code jewelry (which he ended up giving his mother) to the man at the French embassy, or a person in a wheelchair, among others. However, while Oskar tries to connect more with some people, he shies away from others. He doesn’t like Ron very much, for obvious reasons, but he also starts to lie to his mother in order to pursue his dad’s key.
The second narrator we have been introduced to, Thomas, is mourning the loss of Anna. While Oskar’s mourning brings him into contact with more and more people (the Blacks as well as the woman in the art supply shop), Thomas is “losing words”, and eventually comes to the point where he cannot speak. While Oskar is being more social, Thomas is shutting himself off from the world.
Those aren’t the only grievers in the novel, however. Oskar’s mom and grandma also mourn the loss of Oskar’s father in distinct ways. Oskar’s grandma seems to be clinging to Oskar more and more. In the limousine, for instance, she is becoming so attached that Oskar feels the need to climb in the front seat with the driver. Oskar’s mom, on the other hand, exhibits a bit of contradiction. On the one hand, she is shown squeezing her hands in the limousine, apparently out of anguish. On the other hand, she seems to be moving on at home, still playing board games and laughing and being around Ron, her “friend”. Although this is a bit of a simplification of the different ways of grieving in the novel, I hope its helpful as we learn more and more about these characters.
good post, i agree that the novel depicts the different kinds of ways people deal with their grief. being from new jersey even though near philadelphia, there was a significant impact on many peoples live since many people travel to new york for business. a fair amount of people have family in new york and working in the WTC. the differences in people that i know can be generalized into some of the ways described in the book, but other still cannot. the book does a very good job of illustrating the characters deal with their greif and this make the characters dynamic. while the plot can sometimes be a bit overwhelming, it illustrates different attempts of people to move on in their drastically changed life.
ReplyDeleteMark, I liked your comment, "while the plot can sometimes be a bit overwhelming, it illustrates the attempts of people to move on in their drastically changed life." I found the multiple plots to be a bit confusing at first, which frustrated me a little as I was trying to untangle the web. However, I also feel that the complex plots are a nice parallel to the many experiences people have had in relation to post-9/11 life, particularly those directly affected (although I'm not taking anything away from those who did not necessarily lose someone but were affected nonetheless!). There are so many stories and experiences that came out of 9/11 that I believe that having too simple of a plot would not have does it justice. Therefore, Mike I think it was great that you summed up how each of the characters grieved differently because it demonstrates reality in the fact that people, even in the same family, can grieve and react to the same tragedy or loss in completely different ways. Such is obviously the case with 9/11, which was a national tragedy that affected people all over the country, but each individual had an entirely different experience post-tragedy.
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