A Disappointing Ending to a Great Book

We started our literary circle by discussing our general feelings after finishing the novel. We all agreed that we were disappointed by the ending because we though that Oskar deserved more. I shared my thoughts of how I had been imaging an ending full of explanations and excitement, but much was left up to the reader to decipher. Surprisingly, we had less to talk about than usual today. This could have been because we did not have very many pages to read, but also could have been caused by what seemed to be a disappointing ending.

Another idea that we all agreed upon was the fact that there were some connections to Slaughterhouse-Five in this novel. The most obvious connection that we all made was that in both novels, the protagonist goes through a horrific event backwards. In Slaughterhouse-Five, Billy Pilgrim watches a war movie backwards, watching the bombs go back into the planes. In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar goes through the fateful day of September 11 backwards, going back to the night before when everyone was safe. We discussed how, in both instances, the ending result is peace and safety, which was Oskar's goal all along. I also made a connection between Oskar and his grandmother because they both went through their worst days backward to reach their peace. The other connection that we made between the two novels was the reference to Adam and Eve, and we decided that this also represented peace.

On the same note, we discussed connection that these two novels may have to the greater idea of a just war. Alex started this conversation by referring back to Oskar's session with the therapist who asks if anything good came from his father's death. We decided that Oskar's grandparents got back together because of Thomas Schell's death, but not much else seemed to come from it. Our ideas seemed to build, and we decided that the characters had to go through some sort of pain to finally achieve peace within. I then thought of the references in the novel to Stephen Hawkins and the fact that Oskar only received form letters from him. I proposed that these letters from Stephen Hawkins could represent Oskar's disappointment, and his response at the end could represent Oskar's healing process.

Our discussion was very productive, but we must still look into the idea of just war that is presented in this novel.