Reading Response 2: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer.
By Maddy Stutt 809
In the book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the main character Oskar Schell always follows his parents rules, until he finds an envelope with the word black written on it and a key inside. After that, he lies to his mom and continually sneaks out to try and find the true meaning of the key and possibly its owner and where it leads to. At first it wasn't clear to me why it meant so much to him that he answered all the questions brought with the key, and I have begun to realize that it is entirely about different aspects of his father
In the book, Oskars father, Thomas Schell is killed in the World Trade Center. Before he died, he called home to speak to Oskar or his mother many times while Oskar was home alone. Oskar never picked up, and I think that Oskar blames himself for him fathers death imagining that if he had picked up his father would be alive. Later, Oskar finds the key in his fathers pocket in his closet. I think that one reason that the key means so much to him is that he thinks that the owes it to his Dad to solve the puzzle and its as though he may be able to be at peace with himself and feel less guilt after he finds it. I think that that Oskars fathers death is one aspect of his father that makes the key very important to him.
I think that another aspect of Thomas Schell that makes the key so important are the stories that he used to tell Oskar before he went to bed. This is because he was always challenging Oskar and giving him mysteries to solve, and Oskar was in the middle of a huge mystery/story Thomas had told Oskar about. It was about a supposed sixth borough of New York City that Oskar wanted to find and learn about through clues from his dad. I think that Oskar thinks that the key may be one of those clues or may be related to another challenge from his dad. The time they spent together before Oskar fell asleep made the two incredibly close and meant a lot to Oskar and that's another reason why finding the story behind the key is so important to him.
Lastly, I think that Oskars father's faith in Oskar is another important reason why learning about the key is so important to Oskar. Thomas Schell was a jeweler, and he always was telling Oskar, who wanted to be just like him, that he was too smart and special to do something like that, and that Oskar could achieve greater things. At the time Oskar never believed him, but I think that after his father dies Oskar looks back and sees how far his father thought he could go. Oskar thinks that by not proving he can figure out even the most complicated mysterys he is letting his father down as a person and this keeps him moving and makes it so crucial that he figures this out.
I think that the reason learning about the key, whether or not it means lying to his mother, is so important to Oskar because of his father. I think that it relates to his fathers death, the stories he used to tell Oskar about, and his faith in Oskar.
