Essay: Areas of interst

1. Area of interest I am going to explore:
-I am going to explore how Oskar, tries to understand how his father died and how to stop missing him so much so that he can stop mourning him.  (In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Oskar tries to be able to understand how his father died and how to stop missing him so much so that he can stop mourning him.)

2. Questions that I will explore
-How does he try to find out how his father died?
-How does he try to stop missing him so much?
-Can these things be understood (why or why not?)
     -What does he do with the realization of whether or not these things can be understood?

2.5. Other points
-When Oskar finds out what the key opens, it doesn't give him the answer to either of these things he is trying to understand
-Oskar has to accept the fact that he will not know the answer to either of these
     -If he does not accept this, then he will live a life like grandpa
-Did grandma eventually accept the loss of loved ones? (yes)
     -How?
          -Is the way to accept the loss of loved ones to love those that you already love more than you                had previously (to maintain the same amount of love that you gave previously)?

3. Key passages I will explore:
"It's better to lose than to never have had" (310) (Grandma)
-Meaning: Grandma believes that love is something that is very important to have.  Even if you lose that person, you can still love them and miss them at the same time.  Grandpa believes that it is better to not know anybody to a point where you love them, when he says "I'm sorry I know." (310)  He is referring to his unborn child.

"I'm gonna bury my feelings deep inside me." (Oskar)  "No matter how much I feel, I'm not going to let it out.  If I have to bleed, I'll bruise.  If my heart starts going crazy, I'm not gonna tell everyone in the world about it.  It doesn't help anything.  It just makes everyone's life worse." (Oskar)  "But if you're burying your feelings deep inside you, you won't really be you, will you?" (Dr. Fein) (203)
-Meaning:  Burying feelings is what Grandpa tried to do in order to deal with loss.  He eventually buried himself, hence "you won't really be you, will you?" is the perfect way to put Grandpa's actions of burying his feelings into words.  If Oskar decides to bury his feelings as well, then he will end up like Grandpa, who decides that is better to protect yourself from sadness by protecting yourself from love.

"He wrote, I do not know how to live.  I do not know either, but I am trying.  I do not know how to try.  There were things I wanted to tell him.  But I knew they would hurt him.  So I buried them, and let them hurt me." (181)

"You cannot protect yourself from happiness without protecting yourself from sadness." (180)

(more quotes to come...)