Themes of loss in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

¶ … Loud and Incredibly Close

The Key is the Journey: Life and Loss in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

In the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, the key and lock are respectively symbolic of loss and recover and/or discovery. The novel concerns the adventures of a young boy, Oskar Schell, who lost his father during the 9/11 attacks. Unsurprisingly, his feelings of loss and loneliness are nearly overwhelming. He is a young boy who recently lost the most important role-model in his life. However, the way in which he handles this loss is highly unusual and moving. From the beginning, the reader is transported through the search that Oskar begins to find the lock that he believes will also unlock the secrets he needs to carry on with his life. Several characters accompany Oskar on his journey; most notably his mother, his grandfather, and his grandmother. The story is told from the first-person narrator perspective of Oskar, his grandfather and his grandmother.

Significantly, Oskar feels his loss most keenly within the family context. He feels alone in his family after the loss of his father. It is this loneliness however that begins the journey to ultimate peace. He cannot recover his father, but he can discover himself and others; a process that ultimately makes life worthwhile. Oskar learns to not only love life, but to treasure it.

Although Oskar experiences his loss on an intensely individual level, the author demonstrates that such loss is hardly unique. Oskar's grandfather loses his family and his love, Anna, during the war in Germany. Anna was also the sister of Oskar's grandmother, who also lost her family during the same war. The result is that the narrators each search for a way to make meaning in their lives, with varying degrees of success.

Oskar's grandfather is for example so badly damaged by his loss, that he is unwilling to commit to anything on such an emotional level again: "I'm so afraid of losing something I love that I refuse to love anything" (pg. 216). His grandmother in turn lives with the regret of never having told Anna how much she love her (pg. 314). With time, both learn to live with their losses, although Oskar's grandmother adds to her existing regrets the one that she had not enjoyed her life more. Only during old age does she realize that life is precious, and that loss only makes it more so.

While his grandparents' search is generally symbolic, in terms of years rather than physical distance, Oskar's journey functions on both the physical and symbolic levels. After the death of his father, Oskar discovers the key in question in a vase after his father's death. For the boy, the key becomes the symbol of his father's memory. Discovering the lock it opens becomes vital to discovering himself and the perpetuation of his father's memory. During the better part of the novel, the key and the search are what keeps Oskar's father alive in his mind. His words to Mr. Black summarizes the feeling: "The key used to belong to my dad,' I said, pulling it out from my shirt again, 'and I want to know what it opens" (pg. 160).

Mr. Black, in search of adventure, agrees to help Oskar look for the meaning of the key and what the opened lock might reveal. Initially, Oskar is confused as a result of his father's death. It feels as if his father's life meant nothing at all -- the world continues without him as if he never lived. Discovering the key however focused Oskar's loneliness into determination. Finding the purpose of the key, according to Oskar, would also mean finding the meaning of his own life in the face of death. This in turn culminates in the already mentioned theme that life is precious, precisely because it is not permanent. This preciousness is what provides meaning, rather than how the world functions with or without any particular person.

In the action of opening the lock, the key is symbolic of the human search to fill the void left by loss. The key and the search function to help Oskar survive the loss of his father by occupying him with the search for meaning. It is altogether a more fruitful or at least less lengthy search than those of his grandparents. It is also more proactive than his mother's search, which begins with denial.

The key is also symbolic of the new connections that Oskar forms in his search. In searching, the void is filled not so much by the final achievement as also by the accomplishments along the way. In addition to learning more about his family in general while also making new friends in the process, Oskar makes closer connections with his living relatives. In this way, his father's memory serves to reaffirm life rather than the tragedy of death. Contrary to what Oskar and his grandmother initially believe, neither life nor death is meaningless. Both convey a deeper meaning to life as something to be lived as fully as possible.

Ironically, Oskar's final discovery of the key's purpose is only a small part of what the journey gave him. He not only made new connections, but also strengthened existing connections with his family. He no longer needed to feel lonely, because he was surrounded by family who experienced similar losses and pain as himself, although each felt the emotion in a unique way. While the story then began with a tragic event, the author leads the reader to a glorious, hopeful, and even joyful conclusion.

In addition to being a symbol of connection, the key in the novel also connects people in a very concrete sense. Like tragedy, the key signifies different things for the different people in the novel. It is initially and most closely connected to Oskar's demised father. In Oskar's search, however, the key becomes much more to many more people. It transcended its initial purpose to yield to Oskar's journey something more than he expected.

Oskar's initial purpose was to become closer to the remaining idea of his father. It began as an individual journey. Ultimately, however, the journey became collective. The key was inserted into the lock. The lock then is symbolic of the fulfillment of the key's ultimate purpose, and the completion of the journey.

Oskar Schell eventually joins his voice not only with the other first-person narrators, but also with all his family members. He is no longer expected to carry the burden of his father's death alone. In the end, the idea of his father becomes a collective family celebration rather than individual mourning. While the sorrow remains, and probably will for life, it is a sorrow without regret. It is tempered by the memory of a life that was meaningful to many people. In this way, Oskar was able to come to terms with his grief and move on. He would never forget his father, and he would never regret the journey that led him to the purpose of the key and the purpose of his life.