Analysis of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

The excerpt is about the nine-year old Oskar trying to cope with the loss of his father, caused by the 9/11 terrorist attacks. He considers himself an inventor and the story starts with him describing crazy inventions, like a singing teakettle and swallowable microphones that amplify ones heartbeat.
While he thinks that, Oskar and his family are actually in a limousine driving to Oskar’s Dad’s funeral. His Grandmother and Mother are also in the car, together with the driver, but it is not clear what point in time the action of the whole story is actually taking place, because Oskar is constantly telling stories from his life, the first one being a conversation with his dad about taking over the family jewelry business, quickly followed by another memory of one of the rituals Oskar and his dad had together. After this he describes how he once sent a letter to Steven Hawking, because he was fascinated by the image of the tortoise carrying earth on his back in Hawking’s book. Before Oskar starts to tell the reader about how his father died, he reports about another one of their rituals they had together. He actually spends a lot of time telling how it all happened, including his father’s voice messages recorded shortly before his death, also describing his feelings with images. He wonders why his father had not said “goodbye” or “I love you” in his messages and wants to stop inventing to find out how his father died. The story ends with the last message, which is not understandable anymore because fractions of it are missing. Oskar is the Narrator and Protagonist of this story and because he authentically thinks like a nine-year old child, the reader is struck by all the events and thoughts Oskar is processing in a high density. The author did particularly not filter or evaluate all of Oskar’s thought-content, it is very pure and at first the whole text might seem messy and is demanding to read, but soon