I have one all time favorite passage in this book (and I’ve read ahead and finished it), but still Oskar meeting Mr. Black is my favorite scene. On page 165, Oskar fixes his hearing aid, “We looked at each other. Then out of nowhere, a flock of birds flew by the window, extremely fast and incredibly close. Maybe twenty of them. Maybe more. But they also seemed like just one bird, because somehow they all knew…” The next page is a snapshot of about 16 birds, all wings spread and utilized and I can actually hear the soft beats of their wings, “…exactly what to do. Mr Black grabbed at his ears and made a bunch of weird sounds. He started crying – not out of happiness, I could tell, but not out of sadness, either. ‘Are you OK?’ I whispered” (168).
This is such a perfect placement of the birds, right in the middle of that sentence, when the first half of the sentence actually reaches the last line of the bottom right page, and then the visual gets a full spread, completely harnessing a different set of senses that subconciously were already prepared to see birds in flight – cause that’s what was already in the readers mind, and then to see it take form on paper..
I also like how Oskar’s narration includes the description of the birds – he says they flew “extremely fast and incredibly close”. This is not the first time part of the title has appeared in Oskar’s descriptions, yet it is the only one I have marked 🙁 However, I like that the title is a recurrent theme in the novel, exactly word for word, because it makes me think precocious, particular, Oskar picked the title.
Which is another thing. When I read, I’m very aware of the author behind the narrator. I think the last book that a character completely bewitched me into thinking, this is a completely real person, was Catcher in the Rye’s, Holden Caulfield. And now, Oskar completely has me. I feel ‘incredibly close’ to Oskar himself for his bluntness and innocence. Also, I feel there is no effort on writing his person of a traumatized 9 year old, that’s incredibly smart and socially different as well.
I think its his hidden yearnings of violence, actually, that reinstate how realisitic Oskar can be. When Mr. Black tells him he is done with the searching, “His hand was still open, waiting for my hand. I told him, ‘I dont understand.’ I kicked his door and told him, ‘You’re breaking your promise.’ I pushed him and shouted, ‘It isn’t fair!’ I got on my tiptoes and put my mouth next to his ear and shouted, ‘Fuck you!’ No. I shook his hand….” (254). I love it because when Oskar starts narrating in this voice, I know immediately it is in his imagination because his narration lacks any indication of feelings. Every few sentences from Oskar are just filled with his sentiments: he is so emotional, he really can’t keep them out of narration. There is also page 146 which Oskar imagines himself taking over the stage during Hamlet and smashing JIMMY SNYDER’S face. His blood. I knock…skull against his skull, which is also RON’S skull (for letting MOM get on with life) and MOM’S skull (for getting on with life) and DAD’S skull (for dying) and GRANDMA’S skull (for embarrassing me so much) and DR. FEIN’S skull (for asking if any good could come out of DAD’S death). THE AUDIENCE. Thank you! Thank you, Oskar! We love you so much! We’ll protect you!” pg 146) Oskar’s so smart he even continues his imagining in screen play format. He is so angry with everyone, really, but its really not his genuine self to lash out – he’s just not sure how to handle his trauma, which only makes it more traumatizing.
But! I’m confused. Maybe I missed something prior to pg 146, but I don’t remember DR. FEIN asking Oskar if any good can come out of his father’s death before pg 146. I only remember it from 203, when Dr. Fein asks Oskar that extremely touchy question (what 9 year old wouldn’t think this way? I’d probably think this way as a 23 year old): “I kicked over my chair, threw his papers across the floor, and hollered, ‘No! Of course not, you fucking asshole!’ That was what I wanted to do. Instead I just shrugged my shoulders” (203). More hidden anger. Oskar really reminds me of Holden Caulfield. The next few pages where he can only hear snippets of the conversation between Dr Fein and his mother is juxtaposed accordingly next to that picture of Stuff that Happened to Me, the body falling from the trade towers. If I read this snippets aloud, I have a good idea of who says what, but I just thought, how completely accurate that the most definite statement Oskar would hear is the ending, “absolutely no way…hospitalize my son”. This part kind of made me hurt a little for him, because if the book took that turn and hospitalized Oskar.// well I odnt know if I could read it anymore. Oskar’s already so painful to read sometimes, but he is just a 9 year old that doesn’t know how to handle this, despite all his intelligence, and that is what gives me the bond to him, that I’m really hoping for him, smiling genuinely when something cute happens because poor Oskar needs it to happen. Oskar’s character, Oskar himself, is Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
I agree — Foer has some really good use of bird imagery, timed just right. If we think of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as a narrative of trauma, I wonder if there’s a way to connect the appearance of birds to the other elements of the narrative you talk about — like Oskar’s violent (imaginary) episodes, which you (rightly) see as evidence of his difficulty of dealing with trauma.
(And by the way, our good friend Google Books can help us figure out when “extremely loud” or “incredibly close” appear in the novel.)
O yea! I looked at the words on google books. Extremely Loud can up about 12 times, but I think the usage of “Incredibly Close” is more interesting. For the most part, ‘incredibly close’ appears when Oskar is with other living things: pg 97 “our faces were incredibly close”, the birds flying “incredibly close” on 165, Oskar with his Dad for a bedtime story, “incredibly close”, so ‘incredibly close’ to kissing Abbey Black, Grandma is ‘incredibly close’ to the walkie talkie when she speaks to it, etc.
I feel like these usages support that Oskar is always feeling suffocated, especially with other people. He doesn’t seem to have a personal “bubble”; he is always incredibly close to things. Does this make him panicky? Because on page 145, he is under the skull and has his own little space bubble, and he feels “incredibly close to the universe” but also, “extremely alone” and wonders if “life is worth all the work it took to live”. I think under the skull, he has a moment to realize that he is very alone, even though when he’s with other people he feels crowded.
Or maybe his presence is too overwhelming, even to him, especially to others? Because my original blog, even I said : “I feel ‘incredibly close’ to Oskar himself for his bluntness and innocence”
Poor Oskar. Even without his personal trauma adding to it, I feel like he is naturally a peculiar, and in turn, slightly depressed, child.