Extremely Loud... Blog 1

The novel is a first person narrative, told by nine year old Oskar Schnell. He is the child of a newly widowed mother. His father, who he cared for deeply and looked up to in everything, died in the attacks on the World Trade Center. The fact that a nine year old is telling the bulk of the story, except two excerpts where his grandparents speak, made the book a little bit of a tougher sell for me. I do feel genuinely sad for Oskar, because he has obviously gone through something horrible and been scarred by it. But, at the same time, the mannerisms of a socially awkward 9 year old don't really come off as endearing to me. 

As I said before, Oskar Schnell is a nine year old boy who's father died on 9/11. About a year after his fathers death Oskar finds a key in his dad's room and feels the nees to find out what it is to and what it will unlock. So Oskar goes on a quest to find the lock that the key will fit into. Oskar is not only looking for a lock though, he is looking for some form of closure for his relationship with his father.

I found the picture of keys on page 53 to be especially interesting. The picture shows a wall with racks and racks of uncut keys. To me this adds a lot to the story. It shows the vastness the of the challenge that Oskar wants to take on. To me the fact that all the keys are uncut illustrates the ideas of possibilities and possibly second chances. Through out the first 107 pages it seems that not only is there a a theme involving keys but also the copying of keys. This picture while maybe the most mundane of the pictures, to me provided a deeper insight into Oskars feelings.