Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Sentence Sleuth

Taryn Deirmenjian 10-10-12 Snyder AP Seminar

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Sentence Sleuth “I spent hours at the dog run on the side of the natural history museum, a pit bull, a Labrador, a golden retriever, I was the only person without a dog, I thought and thought, how could I be close to Oskar from far away, how could I be fair to you and fair to your mother and fair to myself, I wanted to carry the closet door with me so I could always look at him through the keyhole, I did the next best thing.” (278)

“Or I would have forced him to keep searching with me. Or I would have told him about how Dad called when I was home.” (286)

These three sentences are examples of good writing and expand the meaning of this novel. The first sentence is said by Thomas Schell Sr. It is a very wordy run on sentence. All of his thoughts become jumbled up and it appears as though he is trying to rush them out without running out of time or space. This emphasizes his age and thoughts on life; how it can end at any moment. The second and third sentences are said by Oskar. As compared to the first, they are fragments. This can show the reader the difference between Oskar and his grandpa and how they see life. Oskar sees life as a series of events and these two sentences are merely facts, one right after the other.

“I pressed the Message Play button, since I hadn’t done since the worst day, and that was on the old phone.” (288) this is said by Oskar. The underlined part is an allusion to an event in the novel. In this case it is an allusion to the day Oskar’s father dad. This use of allusion throughout the novel has really revealed Oskar’s character and how he has come to define his life around that event: his father’s death.

“We were incredibly close.” (290) this is another allusion, however this allusion is to the title of the novel: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. This allusion develops the theme of the novel because it emphasizes that everything in this book is very up close and personal, with no sugar coating or barriers.

“’I was being childish’ ‘Yeah, but you were his child.’” (297) this play one words is another device to develop Oskar’s character. His character is very similar to his father’s. He is about facts; yes and no. This shows Oskar taking something very complicated- this mans relationship with his father and how that affected his marriage- and turning it into something very simple, using kid logic.