Response to Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Pgs. 1-125

I have to admit that I thought the beginning of this book was very strange, especially when Oskar said, " Another good thing is that I could train my anus to talk when I farted. If I wanted to be extremely hilarious, I'd train it to say, " Wasn't me!" " This line was in the very first paragraph of the book and seemed very strange to me until I started to see that it was a little kid talking, a very intelligent little kid who knows a lot of random information. The reason why Oskar spoke in this manner in the beginning made a lot more sense to me as I read on and found out that his father died a potentially terrible death during the terrorist attacks to the World Trade Centers on September 11, 2010 in New York.

The death of his father was a very traumatizing blow to young Oskar because it seems like he was closer to his father than to anyone else around him. It was his father who taught him most if not all the random information that he knows and Oskar also saw his father as his role model because of the way he planned his life based on what his father taught him. This was evident when his father died and all of a sudden Oskar no longer wanted to continue on the family jewelry business as well as doubting his religious views of atheism.

The loss of his father left young Oskar with many questions that he needed or felt he needed to find the answers to which is why he starts going from door to door asking people if they recognized a key he had found that belonged to his father or if they knew his father at all. Oskar describes his emotions as feeling as if he was in "outer space, but not in a good way." He feels very alone because he believes that everyone has moved on with their lives and forgotten about his father. This feeling is amplified when Ron, his mom's "friend" appears and he wonders if his mother has started sleeping with him and forgotten about his dad. However, we can't rely on Oskar's depictions as facts because he is telling everything from his point of view and his poin of view may not necessarily be the absolute truth. I also think that Oskar may just want attention because like I proved before, Oskar feels like he is alone in outer space as he described in his own words.

This book became very interesting fast when the point of views from other family members started to show up. In the second chapter Oskar's grandpa, Thomas starts with a letter to his unborn son, also known as Oskar's father. It seems as if he were giving an explanation as to the reason why he abandoned his wife and child before his child was born. He aims his words to Oskar's father because he is the one who he seems to feel he abandoned and not necessarily his wife with whom he seemed to have a frustrating relationship with. And after this Oskar's grandmother starts telling her side of the story as her husband did in his letter to his unborn son. Oskar's grandmother writes her response to Oskar. I still don't understand why it is that she wrote this to Oskar but I hope I find out as I read on.