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In "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", Foer suggests that even after the death of an influential person in one's life,  they may obsess over what possible preventative actions could have been taken to keep them in their lives.

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In "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", Foer suggests that even after the death of an influential person in one's life,  they may obsess over what possible preventative actions could have been taken to keep them in their lives.

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Connor Walsh -  In the middle of grandma finishing up her life story, Grandpa makes a note to Oskar, “I’m sorry...I’m sorry for everything. For having said goodbye to Anna when maybe I could have saved her and our idea, or at least died with them” (132). This quote shows how grandpa has many regrets in his life, demonstrated through  repetition of the phrase “I’m sorry”. Foer also uses fragmentation in the second sentence of this quote, which has the effect of  the Grandpa struggling to get his feelings even out of his own head in time to process them, maybe not fully, but present. In this moment, it also feels like the breaking point for him inside of his head only. Simply in the midst between Grandma’s problems with her life story and the final product, Grandpa just breaks this out, regardless of the years and years spent without Anna. As a result, the reader learns that the grandpa struggles to escape his beloved past, which haunts him to this day. 

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Connor Walsh -  In the middle of grandma finishing up her life story, Grandpa makes a note to Oskar, “I’m sorry...I’m sorry for everything. For having said goodbye to Anna when maybe I could have saved her and our idea, or at least died with them” (132). This quote shows how grandpa has many regrets in his life, demonstrated through  repetition of the phrase “I’m sorry”. Foer also uses fragmentation in the second sentence of this quote, which has the effect of  the Grandpa struggling to get his feelings even out of his own head in time to process them, maybe not fully, but present. In this moment, it also feels like the breaking point for him inside of his head only. Simply in the midst between Grandma’s problems with her life story and the final product, Grandpa just breaks this out, regardless of the years and years spent without Anna. As a result, the reader learns that the grandpa struggles to escape his beloved past, which haunts him to this day. 

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Connor Walsh -  When Oskar visits the Mr. Black that lives in the apartment above him, he asks where the bathroom is and is told to go up stairs: “As I walked up, I held the railing tight and started inventing things in my head: airbags for skyscrapers, solar-powered limousines that never had to stop moving, a frictionless, perpetual yo-yo” (160). In this quote, Oskar thinks up a list of inventions that could fix some problems in the world. One result of this is that it reflects back the insistent, almost therapeutic process which helps Oskar up the stairs. In Mr.  Black’s apartment, the reader knows that the staircase to the bathroom can’t be more than one story, and yet Oskar still has time to think up three inventions. This shows that inventing for Oskar is no longer a choice, it’s a function that Oskars’s brain instantly takes to in times of stress. What’s more, is that while stairs trigger thoughts of his dad’s death, the inventions regarding this subject in particular strike just as quickly. The idea, “airbags for skyscrapers”, truly represents Oskar clinging to the past, during the absence of his dead father.

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Connor Walsh -  When Oskar visits the Mr. Black that lives in the apartment above him, he asks where the bathroom is and is told to go up stairs: “As I walked up, I held the railing tight and started inventing things in my head: airbags for skyscrapers, solar-powered limousines that never had to stop moving, a frictionless, perpetual yo-yo” (160). In this quote, Oskar thinks up a list of inventions that could fix some problems in the world. One result of this is that it reflects back the insistent, almost therapeutic process which helps Oskar up the stairs. In Mr.  Black’s apartment, the reader knows that the staircase to the bathroom can’t be more than one story, and yet Oskar still has time to think up three inventions. This shows that inventing for Oskar is no longer a choice, it’s a function that Oskars’s brain instantly takes to in times of stress. What’s more, is that while stairs trigger thoughts of his dad’s death, the inventions regarding this subject in particular strike just as quickly. The idea, “airbags for skyscrapers”, truly represents Oskar clinging to the past, during the absence of his dead father.

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On the way to his dad's funeral, Oskar begins to create inventions, "if you're on the ninety-fifth floor, and a plane hits below you, the building could take you to the ground, and everyone could be safe" (3). Oskar constantly demonstrates behaviors indicative to regret. While Oskar had no control over the tragic death of his father, he seems to feel as though it is his job to "invent" a false reality where his father escapes the burning building. Oskar is very aware that his father is gone forever; this sad realism however, doesn't stop Oskar's extremely active mind from constantly creating feasible ways for his dad to escape. This is because although Oskar knows his dad is dead, he refuses to let this be true. His denial is why he invents. An example of this in the quote is when Oskar says, "the building could take you to the ground, and everyone could be safe". This is Oskar's solution to nine-eleven; he has a burning desire for safety, although he knows this is impossible due to the fact that this event is over and done with. He is consumed by the idea of his father making it out alive. Once again fueling the fire that is Oskar's refusal to let go.

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"'Hold on, hold on, hold on' they said,
‘You're a dandelion in the breeze,
Look what the winds of change have done
to all these autumn leaves'

'Hold on, hold on, hold on,
This big wide world is not for you,
Hold on for long enough
for the last gust to dance on through.'

So I held on, held on, held on,
They said that's how you know you're strong,
But not until I waited
did I notice something wrong.

I thought holding on was bravery,
But when winds of change do blow,
Sometimes it's even braver still,
To let go, let go, let go" (Hanson, N/A)

commentary: This poem speaks volumes to the common misconception, that holding in your feelings is a better, more healthy way of grieving. Oskar, and his grandpa both experience this. Oskar uses inventions to hold on to his fathers spirit, while his grandpa uses his wife to hold on to Anna's. Neither realize how unhealthy their obsessions with the past really are until the end of the story. Oskar mindset through out the story is represented by line thirteen of the poem, "I thought holding on was bravery". By the end he corrects this behavior and learns the bold lesson from lines 14-16, "But when winds of change do blow, Sometimes it's even braver still, To let go, let go, let go". And with the learning of this lesson, inventions will no longer be a necessity, rather a choice. Previously they were like a drug and Oskar was addicted he couldn't stop. In this quote the author, Hanson, uses repetition of "let go", and "held on". She does this to emphasize the two options one has when grieving.  Hanson uses personification as well, she uses this when stating that the winds contain a characteristic of change although this is impossible because this is a human characteristic. Hanson uses the environment to speak on loss, this is because she is trying to convey that in the wild, leaves, dandelions, and more, have no control over what change occurs, they must let go of the past. These literary devices only add layers to the deepness present in this text. Like the author says, "Sometimes it's braver still, to let go".