wk15 - EXTREMELY LOUD - critique of the ending
Revise and post the paragraph you composed in class this morning, Monday, Nov. 30th.
In a topic-driven, well-developed paragraph, critique the "ending" of the Safran-Foer's story.
NOTE: After posting on the blog, open up the CANVAS assignment (by the same name) and DO copy and paste the URL address into the CANVAS "WEB URL" text box so that I have record of your submission on Canvas. Thanks.
Amanda McMahon
ReplyDeleteProf. Kirk
ENGL 3533
30 November 2015
Extremely Loud Critique of Ending
Jonathan Safran-Foer's novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close ends with Oskar having more questions about his father's death than he began with. Throughout the novel, Oskar is searching for clues that his father left behind, hoping that by solving the puzzle his father's death will make sense to him. In the end, Oskar ends up with more questions than answers. His father's death still does not make any sense to Oskar, however, through his search for answers, Oskar finds kindred spirits who teach him valuable lessons about life. Though Oskar still cannot grasp his father's death, he did make strides and grow as a person. Safran-Foer ends the novel with a lesson about being the one left behind. It takes more than just answers to understand death and more than reassurances to alleviate guilt.
Sadie Wyant
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
ENGL 3353
30 November 2015
Ending of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Safety
The ending of Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close introduces Oskar’s desire for safety in a different way than before. Previously in the novel, he had searched for safety in knowledge as he looked for clues about the key he thought was somehow linked to his father’s death. Oskar searched recklessly, not even thinking about the consequences a child alone in a city could face. He almost begs his mother to show some semblance of caring for his safety. Every time he leaves the apartment, he tells her he is leaving, and she never seems to respond in the way he wants her to. At one point he even remarks to himself, “Why didn’t she try to stop me, or at least keep me safe?” (1/3 of “A Simple Solution to an Impossible Problem”). Oskar later finds out that his mother had been keeping tabs on him and ensuring his safety around strangers. He says, “My search was a play that Mom had written, and she knew the ending when I was at the beginning” (1/2 through “A Simple Solution…”). Whether he admits it or not, it is obvious that Oskar is comforted that his mother truly cares about him. Near the end of the novel, Oskar finds the owner of the key and is disappointed. The last chapter is titled “Beautiful and True,” and Oskar invents a new way to cope with his father’s death. He imagines everything going backward until his dad is back in bed with him on the night before he died. Though this scene of Oskar imagining and finally saying “we would have been safe” is bittersweet, it is not quite beautiful or true, no matter how much Oskar wants it to be (last page of novel). Instead of searching for his safety in truth about his father’s death, or even in knowing that people care about him, Oskar decides to make up something, thus finding safety in a lie.
Callie Brothers
ReplyDeleteProf. Kirk
ENGL 3353
30 November 2015
As Safran-Foer finished his novel, it ended with hardly any clarity. Oskar ended at the same point where he started from. He met people, went on several ‘daily adventures’ but completely grasping his father’s death will never happen. Oskar and his mother went two years before having a conversation about the ‘phone’. “Because it’s the truth, and Dad loved the truth. What truth? That he is dead” (321) He spent his time examining the pictures of a man falling to his death from the World Trade Center, yet after flipping them around, he saw a different picture. He saw a man falling back into the building. He considered that the man falling was a sign of living, he then allowed himself to believe that his father was in a safe place. In reality, the end of the novel never truly has any closure for anyone, especially for Oskar. “I told her, ‘I promise I’m going to be better soon.’ She said, ‘There is nothing wrong with you.’ ‘I’ll be happy and normal.’ She put her fingers around the back of my neck. I told her, ‘I tried incredibly hard. I don’t k know how I could have tried harder.” (323) Foer never truly allowed his readers to cope with the idea of not having a ‘happy ending’. But that was the point, life isnt about ‘happy endings’ it is realizing the reality of death and that sometimes, just sometimes we are never able to fully grasp the concept of death.
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ReplyDeleteMikkaela Bailey
ReplyDeleteProf. Kirk
ENGL 3353
30 November 2015
In-Class Paragraph: The End
In Jonathan Safran-Foer's novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the final chapter fails to truly live up to the name given to it. In "Beautiful and True" everything is mostly resolved, yet Oskar and the reader are both left devoid of closure. The beauty of the truth, to Oskar, is the fact that his father loved the truth and embraced it fully (321). But the truth of the matter at hand is that there is nothing to hold on to at the end of the novel, for Oskar or the reader: "I was surprised again, although again I shouldn't have been. I was surprised that Dad wasn't there. In my brain I knew he wouldn't be, obviously, but I guess my heart believed something else. I was surprised by how incredibly empty it was" (321). Oskar is left feeling as empty as his father's coffin at the end of his desperate search for closure and understanding. The reader is left to cope with the knowledge that all of Oskar's efforts were in vain and that his endeavor was set up to fail from the beginning. There was no real ending to the story for the reader or for Oskar, which leaves one feeling empty and searching for the beauty in such a harsh truth.
Kelsey Wheatle
ReplyDeleteProfessor Kirk
ENGL 3353
20 November 2015
Critique of the End
In Jonathan Safran Foer's novel, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", the final chapter entitled "Beautiful and True" attempts to show Oscar trying to find the beauty in his dad's death by asking a lot of 'what-if' questions, and trying to re-write the story of his dad's death. In the novel, Oskar believes that maybe if the world was different, then his dad would have been saved. Oskar asks, "What if skyscrapers had roots?"(323). If skyscrapers, like the World Trade Center, had roots then Oskar believes that his dad would have been saved. The ending of this novel leads Oskar back to where he was at the beginning of the novel; clueless, full of questions, hurt, and confused about his dad's death. Oskar hasn't come to any conclusions about his dad, and he is still filled with remorse. The novel ends with Oskar wishing that he could reverse the order of the events of 9/11 so that his dad falls up into the building, instead of plummeting to his death. Oskar's only way of coming to terms with his dad's death is creating a flipbook with pictures of a man falling from the World Trade Center, in reverse order. "I ripped the pages our of the book. I reversed the order, so that the last one was first, and the first was last. When I flipped through them, it looked like the man was floating up through the sky"(325). As readers, we can only assume that this is the only way that Oskar is able to deal with his dad's death. Although this ending does not bring Oskar closure, it can be viewed as being "beautiful and true" because he flips the pictures around to make the story beautiful. This is Oskar's truth, because he recreates the story so that his dad is in a safe place. Although this is not the truth that the reader expects, this is Oskar's beautiful truth because he is still able to fund beauty and safety in the death of his dad.
At the end of Safran-Foer's novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar is still searching for answers and closure to his father's death. The entire book has been dedicated to Oskar's search for answers and it seems as if he is only left with more problems and questions at the end of the book. It ends much the same way as it begins, with Oskar wondering 'what if' things had been different, although he never actually comes right out and says it (323). Oskar doesn't understand his father's death entirely, perhaps because of his lack of faith. Without any true faith in what happens after death, Oskar struggles with the idea that his dad is just out there somewhere in the universe. Oskar seems to be someone who enjoys having an answer for everything. He likes to have closure and for things to be concrete, which is why Oskar struggles so much with his dad's death, there is too much unknown about it. The pictures at the end of the novel show a man rising up back into the burning building. It is Oskar's way of thinking that his dad is safe (or resurrected). Although this seems to give Oskar a little bit of closure to think that wherever his dad is he is safe, it will never be enough for him. Oskar will always wonder 'what if' and readers are left with the same question.
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