Jonathan Safran Foer's Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close

The exploration of what it means to be human is heavily focused on in Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. The story follows a nine-year-old boy whose father died in the 9/11 attacks as he struggles to find some reason behind it, wondering along the way about existence and, more importantly, human emotion. All humans experience a range of emotions, from happiness to anger and everything in between. One of the most prominent human experiences is loss and the grief that follows it. The grieving process presents itself in many ways, and it is different for everyone. Through examining the text via formalism, which focuses solely on the text itself and not on the author on any other element, it becomes clear that the varying ways of mourning and receiving closure are well represented. The setting, plot, and structure used in the text all tie together the examination of grief as part of what it means to be human—everyone deals with grief, but each person must find a way to do so.
However, the timeline of the story is not entirely set in stone; the telling of events is fragmented, switching between different time periods and chronologies. There are three narrators: Oskar, whose telling of the story occurs shortly after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001; Oskar’s grandfather, Thomas Schell, Sr., who tells his story through letters (to “my unborn child” and “my child”) written between 1963 and 2003; and Oskar’s grandmother, who also writes letters (to Oskar) in 2003. The distinction between the narrators becomes clear further into the book, as they differ greatly in structure and grammar. By having three different narrators telling about their respective sources of grief at different times, the meaning of the work is reinforced — everyone experiences grief and