Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is based around the concept of how humans imagine the world, how they dream, and how they invent. However, the story of the nine-year-old Oscar Schell is much more about the story of invention and imagination. With the setting taking place in the aftermath of the tragic events of 9/11, the novel revolves around how people deal with the loss of a loved and close person, as well as how people struggle to find the balance between self-preservation and self-destruction.
Unlike many novels where the title reflects the events that occur with main characters, the title of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close represents what the characters felt and thought in the course of particular events. Unfortunately, their feelings are far from being described by words ‘extremely’ and ‘incredibly’ in a positive connotation.
To explore the significance of the title, it is important to understand the broad spectrum of meanings words ‘incredibly’ and ‘extremely’ bear. Despite the fact that these words have a similar meaning, their differentiation lies in the ways they are used. While incredibly describes a notion that is so unusual that it seems impossible, it extremely denotes something that exceeds the usual degree of measures. Because ‘extremely’ describes ‘loud’ and ‘incredibly’ relates to ‘close’, there is a dichotomy of feelings main characters experience in the course of the events presented in the novel.
Reasons for Choosing the Title
Safran Foer chose to use “extremely loud and incredibly close” as a title for his novel for a number of reasons. First, such a title indirectly reflects the setting of the book built around the attack on the World Trade Center in New York. When looking at these events directly, the explosion of the buildings was extremely loud for people that were present at the time of the event, the same way the explosions were incredibly close, it was nearly impossible to escape the buildings.
Second, the loudness and the closeness of the tragedy, unfortunately, affected the main character’s father. Thus, Oscar Schell cannot live in peace until he finds all the details of his father’s experience. The journey to find the truth about his father becomes extremely loud and incredibly close in the mind of the main character, it becomes the force that drives all of his actions. Oscar’s acts were also accentuated by his unexplained feeling that his mother does not really love him and would rather have him die than his father. This feeling is supported by the following quote: “I could tell that she didn’t really love me. I knew the truth, which was that if she could have chosen, it would have been my funeral we were driving to” (Safran Foer 6).
Third, “extremely loud and incredibly close” is metaphoric of the relationship Oscar had with his father: “I tucked my body incredibly close into his, so my nose pushed into his armpit” (Safran Foer 13) Their relationship was suddenly overshadowed by the unfortunate events of 9/11, events that had become so incredibly close to Oscar’s mind, as close as he had been with his father. The death of his father had become so incredibly close and extremely loud to Oscar that it was the motivation for him to develop and grow psychologically.
Oscar’s Vocabulary
‘Extremely’ and ‘incredibly’ are words that are very frequent in the vocabulary of Oscar. Every time a reader stumbles upon these words while reading the novel, he or she is instantly reminded of its title. The frequent usage of words incredibly and extremely can be explained by the mere fact that Oscar is only nine years old. Instead of using narrower and more precise descriptions like painfully, brutally, or unreasonably, children often use the same denotations a great number of times. Here are some of the word combinations with the repeated ‘incredibly’ or ‘extremely’ Safran Foer uses in his writing:
- “Incredibly far away” (36);
- “Extremely loudly” (93);
- “Incredibly distracting” (37);
- “Extremely serious” (93);
- “Incredibly beautiful” (44);
- “Incredibly close” (70);
- “Extremely close” (96);
- “Incredibly gently” (107).
These are just a few examples of the words ‘extremely’ and ‘incredibly’ used by Oscar in the novel. Based on the page numbers where the examples were found, the frequency of their usage is rather significant. This indicates that Oscar’s vocabulary was not developed enough to use synonymous adjectives to describe what he felt or meant. Thus, the title has a direct relation to the emotional state of the main character, a state that is affected by a number of internal and external factors that Oscar cannot control.
The frequency in which words ‘extremely’ and ‘incredibly’ are used is also representative of Oscar’s sensitivity to the events that surrounded him; furthermore, it seems that he felt threatened by the outside world. Even if the unfortunate death of his father did not happen, the supposed condition of Oscar (a form of autism, as believed by some literature critics) was enough to contribute to the exaggerated awareness that caused the boy to be socially inadequate.
Because autism can make some people have issues with sensory processing, it is possible that Oscar’s senses were increased, thus disrupting him to filter the necessary information, making everything extremely loud or incredibly close. Oscar’s hyperawareness led to his imagined responses to the life events being violent, like, for instance, in the passage where he imagined killing Jimmy Snyder on stage while performing Hamlet: “I smash his head again with all my force and blood starts to come out of his nose and ears. But I still don’t feel any sympathy for him” (Safran Foer 146).
Thus, in many ways, the title of the book reflects a scattered pattern of emotions, the main character Oscar experiences after the tragic events of 9/11. Eventually, he learns how to calm his feeling to be appreciative of what he has rather than being aggressive towards anything that causes him distress.
The Effect of 9/11
Despite the fact that the majority of the title’s semantic load is linked to what the main character felt, the events that caused certain feelings can also be found in the title of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The bombing of the Trade Towers was extremely loud, so loud that Oscar could hear it while he was at school. Apart from being physically loud, the accident occurred physically close to his home and school. However, the closeness can also be examined in the emotional meaning because Oscar’s father died in the course of the bombing.
Furthermore, there is a parallel that exists between Oscar and his grandfather (The Renter), who also went through a loss of his entire family in the course of the bombing of Dresden. The author describes the Dresden bombing as a full-page illustrating a picture of horror: “humans melted into thick pools of liquid, three of four feet deep in places” (Safran Foer 211). The grandfather is the third narrator in the novel and is known to the reader through the letters he wrote in his notebook but never sent.
Thus, the effect tragic events of Dresden and 9/11 had on people is universal regardless of age or origin. When a person loses a loved one, the silence of grief becomes extremely loud while the physical absence of a person becomes incredibly close. Because the effect 9/11 had on Oscar was not only emotional but also physical and because he could physically hear the explosion that happened incredibly close to where he lived, 9/11 has also added to the significance of the novel’s title.
On the other hand, one saying that the purpose of the novel was to highlight the effect 9/11 had on American citizens may miss the point. While 9/11 does bear significance to the title and the novel overall, it is important to remember that the main story revolves around how a boy had lost his father and began a journey to resolve a mystery that he was sure to be connected with his father.
Final Thoughts
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a title that, in my experience, is not easy to remember until you actually read the novel. The frequency with which Jonathan Safran Foer uses these keywords is phenomenal; however, it is directly linked to the emotional component of the main character Oscar. Because he is a nine-year-old boy, he failed to use complicated descriptions to express his feelings; thus, the words ‘extremely’ and ‘incredibly’ have become the focus of his developing vocabulary. There are other reasons Safran Foer chose such a title, for example, the close relationship Oscar had with his father was interrupted by a sudden tragedy that tremendously affected the boy’s psyche.
It is also important to take into account the words of the author himself, who, when asked about the significance of the title, replied that he liked titles that added to a book’s meaning rather than explained what the book is about. Furthermore, the author did not have a spot-on answer for the question about the title’s significance and just answered, “Oscar is Oscar. The title is the title” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt par. 13).
Thus, the significance of the title of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is in what the main characters were feeling, what they experienced, and what they wanted to achieve. Grief over the loss of Oscar’s father was extremely loud and incredibly close since it affected the boy tremendously – he became oversensitive to the outside world only at the end of the novel, understanding that it is better to value the present moment. The relationship between Oscar and his father was both silent and loud at the same time; it was far away and close.
The novel itself is extremely loud in the way it is written and presented, with a number of images, each with a particular meaning, and incredibly close to the reader because it is honest and realistic in the way fear, grief, mortality, existence, love, lies, and many other aspects of human life are described.
Works Cited
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. Press Release. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. 2006. Web.
Safran Foer, Jonathan. Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, London, UK: Penguin Group, 2006. Print.