Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

   So the plot progresses...
Oskar continues his search for the BLACK that holds the answer to his key. In his adventure, he finds that there is a man living in the apartment above theirs that is the next on the list. The doorman tells Oskar that he thinks the room is haunted because he had never seen anyone go in or out of the room ever. He enters the room to find a very talkative elderly gentleman. The man tells Oskar that he was born in 1900 so he has lived more than a century. Black kept a record of every single person he had ever met in his whole life; oddly, the biography of that person was only one word long. Usually the words were: war and money (two of the most important things in his life.) Oskar was immediately intruiged by this system and asks the man if he has one for his father. He checks and sees no card containing that name; Oskar's disappointments continue. Apparently the man hadn't set foot out of his apartment since his wife died, so Oskar invites him to join him on the remainder of his travels.
     Oskar is depressed because his mom has a "friend" named Ron that always hung around the apartment. He was so upset that his mother could even think of replacing his deceased father. They get into a fight one day and Oskar becomes so upset about the situation that he blurted out: "if I could have chosen, I would have chosen you!" After that comment, his mom left the room, extremely hurt. Oskar felt terrible after the occurance and begged his mom to forgive him.
     The story is then interrupted by another flash back. It is now finally clear that the letters are reffering to a war: World War II. The hidden comparisons of Oskar's struggles with 9/11 and the problems reguarding WWII finally make connection. All of the 'narrators' share common difficulties and resolutions to problems. The letters finally tie in to the piece as a whole.
     I have finally been able to make some connections in this book!!! :)
     Jonathan Safran Foer named this book perfectly: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. He purposely places the words 'extremely' and 'incredibly' constantly throughout the novel. The words 'close' and 'loud' finally show some reason too--Oskar is getting ever closer to his father by just continuing what his father would love for him to do; and as Oskar revists the recordings of his dad on the answering maching, the answers to his life become louder and louder, and Oskar finally realizes new things about himself.
     The letters that had been placed so interruptedly in the novel finally prove some importance. The person writing the letters is Oskar's grandfather(i think), who he never met. And some of the other ones are written by his grandmother, about why her husband left her and why he will never meet his grandfather. It is very interesting because the letters were written at the time of the Holocaust- they lived in Dresden, Germany and were constantly around the bombing and warfare. The man writer (grandfather) says there is so many 'unwritten rules' between him and his wife ((which I find super ironic because I am German, and our family has so many of these unwritten rules-- about not hugging or about a certain tradition or food or conversations-- but we all know them and no one else would)) He discusses how he went mute after the war and they just explained things with their hands and their touch(which was very minimal being German.)  Everything is beginnging to tie in so much better in the novel and the little pieces of genius that Foer throws in captures the reader with every glance of a page.