Michelle Hansen
Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close debuted to immense success, and was deemed a notable book for adults by the American Library Association, as well as selected as a New York Times Bestseller. Despite the book’s many awards, honors, and positive reviews, a common criticism of the novel points out the precociousness of its young protagonist, Oskar Schell, and the potential insensitivity involved in depicting the events of 9/11 so soon after its occurrence. However, many critics (e.g., Aragi, 2005; Faber, 2005; Miller, 2005; Updike, 2005) have since responded by highlighting the ways in which Oskar’s descriptions of his experiences were heartfelt, and truly indicative of how a child would process the trauma of this national tragedy.
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is a work of historical fiction narrated by a nine-year-old boy named Oskar whose father, Thomas, was one of 9/11’s nearly 3,000 victims. After finding a key in his father’s closet, Oskar embarks on a journey across New York City to find its corresponding lock in an attempt to make sense of his father’s death. Midway through the novel, the reader finds out that Oskar has voicemails on his phone that his father left for him while he was trapped in the second tower, and that Oskar has not told anyone about these voicemails. The reader learns that Oskar feels an overwhelming sense of guilt for not answering the phone when his father attempted to call him prior to his death, and Oskar does not know how to handle the intense emotions that arise whenever he thinks about that day.
Oskar researches the events of 9/11 in detail and documents the gruesome images he finds from his research in a binder entitled Stuff That Happened to Me. He fixates on one picture in particular: a man falling from the building, presumably having jumped in order to escape being burned alive. Oskar convinces himself that despite the pictures’ pixelation, the man it depicts is his father. Oskar is obsessed with figuring out the way his father died, even telling his grandfather, “If I could know how he died, exactly how he died, I wouldn’t have to invent [how he died]…There were so many different ways to die and I just need to know which was his” (Foer, 2005, p. 356). This obsession is accompanied by fear, as Oskar is also afraid of anything that has even the slightest relation to the 9/11 attacks, including suspension bridges, fireworks, and smoke, showing the extent to which Oskar’s fears are generalized. Throughout the book, Oskar admits that these fear-inducing thoughts give him “heavy boots”– his way of saying he feels so exceptionally distraught that he cannot even pick his feet up.
Oskar is intelligent, vigilant, and well-read. He writes letters to people who inspire him, including Stephen Hawking and Jane Goodall, which is one of his self-articulated “raisons d’être,” or reasons to live (Foer, 2005, p. 14). He also researches widespread man-made tragedies aside from 9/11, such as the bombing of Hiroshima. Subsequently, Oskar only wears white to absorb less heat in the case of another tragedy involving fire. He is also always conscious of other locations that are potential targets for another terrorist attack (e.g., the Staten Island Ferry, and the Empire State Building). In an attempt to rid himself of the negativity associated with these types of locations and situations, Oskar often invents solutions to possible threats, such as skyscrapers that can move out of the way of airplanes or trampolines at the bottom of elevator shafts. He is “panicky” when he cannot contact family members regarding their whereabouts, and once convinced himself that his grandmother was “unconscious at the bottom of the swimming pool at the Y” when she was not in her apartment (Foer, 2005, p. 320). With all of this in mind, one can see how Oskar has had trouble processing the events of 9/11 and the death of his father. Oskar exhibits symptoms of low emotional well-being associated with grief, and consequently, this paper explored the relevance of Oskar’s case study compared to the ways in which children respond to national- and personal-level trauma.
Children’s Response to Large-Scale Tragedy
Though Oskar is a fictional character, he is representative of the thousands of school-aged children who experienced the terrorist attacks that occured on September 11, 2001, both in person and through the media. These attacks were unprecedented and unparalleled both in death toll and their subsequent media coverage (Zelizer & Allan, 2011). Therefore, there had been relatively little research done regarding the psychological effects of large-scale catastrophes prior to this event. However, research examining the aftermath of the Oklahoma City Bombing, another national-level traumatic event, found that a child’s emotional closeness to the victim of a widespread calamity is predictive of the level of anxiety they may display in the weeks following the event (Pfefferbaum et al., 1999). Additionally, Oklahoma City residents who had experienced the bombing directly through seeing, hearing, or feeling the blast were significantly more likely to show avoidant coping behaviors and experience strong feelings of grief than Oklahoma City residents who did not directly encounter the event, suggesting that an individual’s physical proximity to a large-scale traumatic event is negatively related to their psychological well-being after the event (Sprang, 1999).
After the events of 9/11, a spike in stress reactions across the country was observed in both children and adults, comparable to what occurred after the Oklahoma City bombing (Pfefferbaum et al., 2000; Schuster et al., 2001). In a nationwide poll of public school students just six months after 9/11, evidence of at least one anxiety disorder was found in more than one-quarter of children (Hoven et al., 2005). A few of the factors associated with meeting criteria for anxiety disorders, as observed in these children, included the amount of television they had viewed in the days after the attack, as well as seeing their parents cry in front of them as a result (Fairbrother et al., 2003; Hoven et al., 2002).
The character of Oskar, though not allowed to watch television, states, “it was on a TV…that I saw that the first building had fallen” (Foer, 2005, p. 101). Further, Oskar experienced insomnia due to persistent thoughts about his father, and had shouting fits with his mom, including one where he told her, “If I could have chosen [who died], I would have chosen you!” (Foer, 2005, p. 230). These events align with previous research findings that after a crisis, some of the most common symptoms of post-traumatic stress that children nationwide exhibited were difficulties with concentration and sleeping, as well as irritability and emotional outbursts (Schuster et al., 2001). Therefore, it is evident that Oskar is experiencing symptoms similar to what is to be expected of a child his age dealing with the repercussions of a large-scale tragedy.
Child Bereavement after Parental Death
Beyond the trauma of a terrorist attack, the loss of a parent is often traumatic as well. One in five children who experience the death of a parent will meet criteria for at least one psychiatric disorder and have a higher susceptibility to psychiatric problems within the following two years (Cerel, Fristad, Verducci, Weller, & Weller, 2006; Dowdney, 2000). Psychological outcomes are even worse for children whose parents die suddenly (i.e., not of a terminal illness), as was the case with Oskar’s father (Melhem et al., 2008). A major risk factor for a prolonged difficulty in typical functioning after a death is feelings of guilt (Pynoos & Nader, 1988). Because Oskar feels guilt for not picking up the phone when his father called him from the towers on September 11 and is frequently reminded of not answering his father in the manifestation of the voicemails on his phone, there is a higher likelihood of him not faring well psychologically. Additionally, many bereaved school-aged children are likely to meet the criteria for clinical depression (Melhem et al., 2008; Worden & Silverman, 1996).
Luckily, there are several resiliency factors present in Oskar’s life. For instance, Oskar’s mother is very invested in his well-being. When Oskar divulged that his father had left him voicemails during the morning of 9/11, he cried into his mother’s chest until he fell asleep. He recalled, “at some point she was carrying me to my room. Then I was in bed. She was looking over me,” showing that she cared for him even when he was sleeping (Foer, 2005, p. 456). This may prove to be beneficial in Oskar recovering from his loss, as having a warm and accepting caregiver after losing a parent is negatively associated with both internalizing and externalizing problems (Lin, Sandler, Ayers, Wolchik & Luecken, 2004). Additionally, a child’s surviving parent displaying low depressive symptomatology is further associated with better psychological outcomes for the child, and Oskar admits to being upset that his mother seems relatively undeterred by her husband’s death (Cerel et al., 2006). Therefore, Oskar’s combination of both risk and protective factors influence the subsequent psychiatric disorders that stem from his bereavement, specifically in the case of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD; Stroebe, Folkman, Hansson, & Schut, 2006).
Post-Traumatic Stress in Children
Following a traumatic event (i.e., a real or perceived death, serious injury, or sexual violence), children tend to display the same two key factors of PTSD frequently observed in adults: re-experiencing and avoidance (American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013; Dyregrov, Kuterovac, & Barath, 1996). Re-experiencing a traumatic event occurs through intrusive memories (i.e., visual memories commonly composed of sensory stimuli that were present preceding the traumatic event; Ehlers et al., 2002), distressing dreams, and dissociative flashbacks (APA, 2013). In children, PTSD-induced nightmares often manifest through recurring dreams that may not have content directly tied to the traumatic event (Coalson, 1995). Oskar says he has nightmares, but never really specifies what he dreams about, which is aligned with what previous research has shown on the nature of PTSD-induced dreaming (see Bilu, 1989; Levine, 1991). Further, dissociative re-experiencing, or flashbacks, are involuntary, intrusive, and distressing memories of a traumatic event that are different than willful memories; flashbacks often feel as though they are happening in the present, while non-traumatic memories feel as though they are happening in the past (Brewin, 2015).
Another common symptom of PTSD in children is the purposeful avoidance of triggering stimuli. An example of Oskar being avoidant is his refusal to take the Staten Island Ferry because he believes it is a potential target for another terrorist attack. Although he eventually faces his fear of riding the ferry, Oskar’s fears impede his daily life and are frequently found in children who are undergoing post-traumatic stress (Dollinger, O’Donnell, & Staley, 1984). This corroborates the literature findings that avoidance of traumatic event-related stressors can occur through thought suppression and avoidant coping (Thompson & Waltz, 2010). Thought suppression is the process of internalizing unwanted thoughts as to not think about them through distraction or “emptying the mind,” which can be done on command or spontaneously (i.e., repression; Wenzlaff & Wegner, 2000), while avoidant coping is eschewing places, people, or situations that evoke memories of the original trauma (Seiffge-Krenke & Klessinger, 2000). Avoidant coping does not allow for adequate exposure to the source of one’s fear, which is a necessary step in overcoming its effects on the individual (Seiffge-Krenke & Klessinger, 2000). As a result, avoidant coping after a traumatic event is predictive of meeting criteria for a specific phobia, or the irrational fear of specific objects or situations (Ollendick, Langley, Jones, & Kephart, 2001).
Oskar’s Exhibition of Grief and Trauma
Oskar Schell’s case is unique in that he not only has to cope with the events that transpired on 9/11, but he is also plagued with the sudden death of his father, the only person who he says fully understood him. As a result, Oskar copes with the intense emotions and fears associated with life after a large-scale tragedy through inventing things. When he struggles to fall asleep, Oskar invents a birdseed shirt (so birds can grab onto a person and fly them away from danger) and a frozen plane (so heat-seeking missiles could not detect them) to comfort himself.
Oskar also self-harms in an effort to suppress his thoughts and feelings. This is evident when Oskar tells his therapist, “If I have to cry, I’m gonna cry on the inside. 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” (Foer, 2005, p. 278). Oskar admits to “going crazy” and copes with it through physically harming himself whenever he feels like his “boots are too heavy” (Foer, 2005, p. 278). This behavior aligns with Grenklo and colleagues’ (2013) finding that children who are grieving a parent are significantly more likely to partake in nonsuicidal self-injurious behavior.
Further, Oskar’s PTSD-related symptoms are evident through the manifestation of thought suppression and avoidant coping. One example of an intrusive thought is Oskar’s narration at the top of the Empire State Building, saying, “Even though I knew the view was incredibly beautiful, my brain started misbehaving, and the whole time I was imagining a plane coming at the building, just below us. I didn’t want to but I couldn’t stop” (Foer, 2005, p. 335). The way Oskar describes his cognitions as “misbehaving” and his statement that he was unable to make them stop shows that the thoughts he had were both involuntary and distressing. Since he did not experience the tragedy firsthand, Oskar would not meet the criteria for an intrusive memory, but his thoughts show the vivid imagination that would be present in a child of his age. Lastly, Oskar’s phobia of heights and rule that he will not go above the sixth floor of a building shows avoidant coping through a post-traumatic stress-induced phobia. His rigidity in this rule is demonstrated when he finds a man who he believes can help him find the lock the key fits into, telling the man, “‘[Y]ou’re on the ninth floor and I don’t go that high.’ ‘Why not?’ ‘It isn’t safe.’” (Foer, 2005, p. 123). Overall, the case study of the fictional character, Oskar Schell, shows many similarities to the ways that children have processed grief after traumatic events, and is a relatively accurate representation of PTSD and bereavement in children.
Conclusion
Though his book faced criticism, Jonathan Safran Foer claims that he did not have any deeper meaning behind portraying Oskar’s character the way he did. In an interview on the meaning of his work Foer said, “I’m never interested in telling people what [Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close] means, but I’m very interested in hearing what it means from readers” (MSU Alumni Association and Friends, 2011, 3:30). While this story shows not only the psychological hardships that children who have lost a parent face, it also highlights the unique resilience it takes for a young boy to overcome the hardships of grieving. While there are valid reasons for literary critics to claim that Oskar is almost unrealistically mature for a nine-year-old (Oskar describes himself as an “amateur entomologist” and a “francophile” on his business card among other titles), Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close attempts to depict its challenging subject matter with grace. Its depiction and subsequent normalization of the common psychological phenomena associated with bereavement makes Oskar Schell an important character for other bereaved children to watch, relate to, and hopefully learn from.
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