Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
by Jonathan Safran Foer
The story begins with Oskar Schell, the narrator and main character posing 'life questions,' meaning: seemingly useless questions, but when further looked at, very insightful. His father played a huge role in his life, always encouraging Oskar to think deeper and creating "scavenger hunts" for Oskar to use his intellect to solve problems. These hunts would usually have no real meaning at all, just serve as a new adventure and how to bypass tricky situations. He is a young boy who loves asking questions; especially ones that grant deeper meaning to life and help people find something they never would have thought before. For example: "what about a teakettle? what if the spout opened and closed when the steam came out, so it would become a mouth, and it could whistle pretty melodies, or do Shakespeare, or just crack up with me?"
(pg 1) is one of the many interesting thoughts trailing from Oskar's mind. His father, who he believed to be the smartest, best role model in the world, died in Semptember 11th. Oskar returned home from school on that day, just in time to hear his dad's voice messages left on the machine. In turn, played them continually just to hear his dad's voice, but knew that he couldnt bear the pain of having his mother hear it. Oskar hid the phone with the messages on it, deep in his closet and replaced the old phone.
Later, Oskar was going through his dad's closet, feeling his warmth in the unmoved suit coats and untouched dress pants. He stumbled upon a vase on the top shelf. Reaching up in hope to safely bring down the object, it smashes to the ground. Yet a surprise that would begin a new world of questions for Oskar fell into his hands: an envelope with a key inside and the name 'BLACK' written on the front of the secret container. Oskar knew his mother had no idea about the secluded vase, and reasoned that his father left it for him to explore. Searching New York for the name Black could take years, he knew that a plan had to be made and he must go about it very cunningly. Oskar then sets up a plan for his excavation of the Burroughs to find who, or what the 'BLACK' key belongs...
