Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Catcher in the Rye

            One of the books that came to mind as I was reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer was The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. Both stories are told in stream of consciousness (Just in case you do not know, stream of consciousness refers to a series of thoughts or images that help the reader connect to the character by allowing the reader into the character’s inner thoughts.). The protagonists of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close and The Catcher in the Rye, Oskar Schell and Holden Caulfield, respectively, are actually pretty similar and both novels are told in their points of view (except for some of the chapters in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close in which they are narrated by either Oskar’s grandfather or grandmother).

            In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, the novel begins with the readers finding out that Oskar’s father, Thomas Schell, has died in the World Trade Center as a result of the September 11 terrorist attacks. Because Oskar has an incredibly close relationship with his father, he suffers a traumatizing experience from the death of his father and loses his best friend. From then on, he has trouble making friends his own age, especially in school, and is self-abusive. For a nine year old, he is actually pretty smart and intuitive, from knowing about the science behind the bombing of Hiroshima to being an amateur inventor. After finding a key in an envelope that he finds in the remains of a vase he shatters in his father’s closet, he embarks on an adventure around New York to try to find the missing lock, hoping that it will unveil something that his father left for him. Throughout his journey, he meets a bunch of people who share their stories with him; unfortunately, many of them do not even know of his father and provide little help.

            In The Catcher in the Rye, we are introduced to Holden Caulfield, who is at that moment hospitalized, as he reflects back on his time at Pencey Prep and his eventual trip back home to New York. Because of some emotional trauma such as the death of his brother and the suicide of a friend, Holden, like Oskar, is also troubled. He has a cynical view of the world, often making comments about things that are so absurd that it becomes funny to the reader. He also meets many people around New York, but ends up thinking that everyone is just phony and fake because they’re all just liars. Ironically, they are not the only ones that lie; he has a habit of lying too. Holden has difficulty with the transition from childhood to adulthood and wants to save children from growing up and becoming all the phonies that he has met in New York.

            One of the main things that stood out to me was that Oskar Schell and Holden Caulfield are both minors roaming around New York. They both seem to have some issues: Holden with his pessimistic and judgmental opinions of the world around him and Oskar and his troubles with befriending people of his own age. Both of the characters’ resulting personalities originate from the trauma of a family member’s death: Oskar with the death of his father and Holden with the death of his brother. They also do a fair amount of swearing (or almost swearing in Oskar’s case—Shittake) and lying (though not for the same reasons). Oskar and Holden also end up having psychiatric help to deal with their emotional trauma.

            Both characters embark on a journey in search of closure and reconciliation for the loss of a loved one. Oskar roams around New York looking for the mysterious lock to his key and parallel to his narration are the grandparents’ narrations of their lives through their letters. He is looking for closure from his father, trying to understand how his father died and why his father never said “I love you,” but in the end, he never really finds the truth but only closure when he digs up the grave. When Holden leaves Pencey Prep, we as the readers find that he’s actually a pretty angry guy, suffering from the death of his friend and brother. It makes him angry that he does not quite understand everything and blames it on the phoniness of the adults. At the end of the novel, he finally begins to feel a little happier after seeing his little sister Phoebe on the carousel and decides to approach life more optimistically and go back to school.

            I think that one of the big lessons that both novels try to teach us is that life is unexpected and to expect the unexpected. Events such as deaths are bound to happen at some point, but the exact time is unknown. When it does, we cannot allow it to eat us up on the inside but rather to accept it and make the best out of the situation.