The Lock, Finally

The pages I have read were the very last ones of the book. I must admit, these were the very best ones of the entire novel. However, the ending was sort of disappointing to me.

     The renter, who was the guy writing all those letters, wrote one in which he confessed he was Oskar's grandfather. With this, the mystery of who the letters were directed to was solved, they were aimed to be read by Oskar's dad. I also found out that the letters weren't only sent by the renter, or better said, the grandpa, but also by the grandma, surprising isn't it? On the other hand, Oskar continued his search for the lock, trying never to give up. The last black he visited was Peter Black, a sweet man with a little baby, but not useful regarding the key. Eight months had already passed by when Oskar arrived home that afternoon, to find a surprise he was surely not expecting. Oskar reached towards the phone to hear the messages for the first time since his dad had died. He listened to a message from Abby Black, the second Black he had met. The message stated that Abby wasn't totally honest with Oskar, and that she could help him with the key. But the message was cut. Oskar went to Abby's house to talk to her and find out more about that confusing message. Once he got there, she told him that her ex-husband might be able to help him with the key, and gave Oskar an address were he could find him. Moreover, Abby confessed that she had talked to Oskar's mother, and that she knew everything about the key mission, she knew exactly were Oskar was going every time he left the apartment, and that's why she never asked questions. Oskar went to the address Abby gave him. To make a long story short, he found Abby's husband and found the solution for his key problem. This man told him all about the key and the lock, but unfortunately, nothing about his father. The key turned out to open a safe-deposit box of Abby's ex-husband's father, who had nothing to do at all with Oskar's father. This was a tremendous disappointment for me and surely for Oskar as well.      
      After talking to this man, Oskar went back home, but first he met with the renter to plan how they were going to dig up Oskar's father's grave. The night that finally happened, was one of the hardest nights for Oskar. The renter and Oskar went to the cemetery and started to look for his father's grave. Once they found it, they opened it and found nothing inside, which was nothing knew to Oskar, since he had known his father's body was not found or buried. The renter filled the grave with all those letters he never sent, letters Oskar knew nothing about. That night, Oskar confessed something about the day his father died, he had never told anyone. That afternoon, when he reached home, he heard the messages his dad had left. Afterwards, the phone rang, and it was him, it was his dad, but he didn't answer, he couldn't, and for so felt guilty for his Dad's death. Afterwards, when Oskar got back home, his mother was waiting awake in the living room and for once in a long while they talked like a mother and a son about life. They confessed things to each other and they ended up loving each other just a little bit more.

In these pages I was surprised by how many interesting and meaningful quotes there were. The first one is one originally said by Albert Einstein, but read by Oskar. It goes like this:

"Our situation is the following, we are standing in front of a closed box which we cannot open" (Foer, 305).

I believe Albert Einstein has just described every human's life in a sentence. We all want to unravel our own mysteries and keep on moving with our lives, we want to be strong and fight, but we are not always able to do so. We are always afraid of something, that something might happen or that something might go wrong, and destroy everything we builded. We stand in front of a closer door, box, or what ever it is you want to call it, that we cannot open because of fear. Why are humans so fearful? Why are we always afraid of everything? It is said that when you stop being afraid, you'll start enjoying. And it's true. Why do pass our entire life looking for something we are afraid to find, even if it's right in front of us. Why can't we open that closed box? I don't know, but what I do know is that we must overcome this in order to truly be happy in life, we need to stop being afraid about everything and start actually having fun.

"The mistakes I made are dead to me. But I can't take back the things I never did" (Foer, 309).

This quote reminds me of one I have read before which states that in the end you only regret the chances you did't take. I believe this quote is true. In the moment we need to make a decision on wether we do or not something, we think mainly about two things, what happens if we do it, and what are the consequences of it. Most of the times, we choose not to do that something, if there are severe things that can happen from it, that we might regret later. But are we actually going to regret that something more for doing it or for being too afraid, and not doing it? Life is only one, and moments and opportunities occur once, so take it or leave it, and it's better for you to take it. If you take a chance, it could go wrong, but it could also go right, so what do you prefer? Doing something with the chance of getting it wrong, or not doing it with the chance of getting it right? In the end mistakes
are forgiven and forgotten, but chances never occur twice.

     The book "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close", is a book that is confusing until the end, that keeps you hooked until the very end. Even if the end was sort if disappointing, because of the fact that the key had nothing to do with Oskar or his father, it was still a very emotive ending, with many messages to keep for the rest of my life. The last pages of the book were the ones that I liked the most. They were filled with emotions and events that touched me. This novel teaches people about life from a different perspective, from the perspective of a different boy with a very troubled mind. I believe this book is a very good one that most people should read at least once in their lives.

A Couple More Blacks

To begin this post, I want to clarify, both to you and to myself, something not quite clear of this book. Ever since the beginning, there have been chapters of things I don't understand, and for so, I have skipped this chapters in my previous summaries. However, after reading this week, I have gotten to somewhat understand, what these chapters are all about. These chapters are letters written by someone I hadn't met before, and were directed to a confusing receptor. Bellow, in the summary of this week's reading of the book, I will explain everything I have gotten to understand about these letters and chapters.

      As usual, Oskar kept on looking for the lock the key opened, and the Black it belonged to. First he went to see Agnes Black. It turns out she didn't speak any English whatsoever and she was only fluent in Spanish. For Oskar's good luck, Mr. Black was there to help him translate and communicate with this women. After much conversation, Oskar came to the conclusion she new nothing about the key at all. Then, they met Albert Black, who came from Montana and craved to be an actor, but he didn't want to go to Hollywood. Afterwards, came Alice Black, a women who lived in a building only made for industrial purposes, a place where no one should live, but still had nothing to do with the key. Allen Black was next, he was a doorman with no idea about the key. After, came Arnold Black, who simply stated he couldn't help Oskar at all.
    After the weekend, Oskar went through a terrible week. On Tuesday he had to go to his psychologist to get help with his father's dead, something he didn't understand why he had to do, but did anyways. The rest of the week went by with nothing interesting, until the weekend came again. Oskar and Mr. Black had looked for the key and the lock for six months, and that was one Mr. Black backed out. Oskar felt as if he had just been stabbed right in the heart after this happened. He felt empty and lonely all over again. It was then Oskar knew he had to talk to someone about what was going on, and that someone was his Grandma.

     He went over to her apartment, only to find she wasn't there. The only human habituating the place in the moment was his Grandma's renter. He was a man named Thomas, with no ability to talk, he couldn't say a word and he had the word "YES" tattooed on his left hand, and the word "NO" tattooed on his right hand. Reflecting back to the mentioned letters, the man who wrote them was named Thomas, just as the renter, and had no ability to speak either. With this, I infer the guy who wrote all those confusing letters was him. After a while of chatting with this man, Oskar felt the need to unburden, and so he did.
       He began telling him the story about the key the lock and all the Blacks he had met. From the ones all ready mentioned before, to Bernie Black, Chelsea Black, Don Black, Fo Black, Georgia Black, Iris Black, Jeremy Black, Kyle Black, Lori Black, Mark Black, Nancy Black, Ray Black (who turned out to be in jail), ending up with Ruth Black, a women who worked in the Empire State Building. Ruth didn't only work as a tour guide on the building, but actually lived there. Even though Oskar met several Black's, he didn't find a single one that had something to do with the key, the lock, or his father. It was after Ruth Black that Mr. Black decided to leave Oskar, once again alone, in his journey to uncover his father's secret. Oskar couldn't sleep that night, so as usual he started inventing, but this time he had a shocking idea, to dig up his father's empty coffin.

I have to admit that the pages I read this week were not the ones mostly filled with great quotes, however, there were a couple that stood out to me. The first quote goes like this:

"Life is impossible" (Foer 201).

    This quote stood out to me because I believe every one of us has said this before. When we are having a hard time, we all say life is impossible, we all believe we won't make it through our issues and we all believe our lives are way too hard. In my opinion, life is simple, but we insist on making it complicated. Us, humans, spend our time stressing out about everything, running from one place to another, doing one million things at the same time, without stopping and looking at what surrounds us every once in a while. Life was made for the wellbeing of humans, not for them to break down everyday because of it. Is life really impossible? No. Life is not
very hard, even worst impossible. If we try our best everyday, if we live happily, if we are in peace with ourselves and with others, if we aren't rushing life and if we stop and look around to what is beside us, life will be real simple, trust me.

The second quote I found interesting was the following:

"I knew it was there, I just couldn't see it" (Foer 252).

    The moment I read this quote, I had a flashback on, basically, my entire life. It happens almost everyday to me, that I am looking so badly for something, that I know is standing right in front of my eyes, that I just can't see. I am almost sure this has happened to many other people as well. For me, it is really frustrating to not be able to achieve what I want, or get to where I want, just because I can't
see what I want, even if it is right in front of me. It might seem rather illogical for this to occur, but those are the facts of what happens in life, at least in my life. I know things are there, but I just can't see them. Sometimes I wish I knew how to fix this or end with it, but I don't have a single idea on how to do so. It feels like if I'm suddenly, unintentionally, blind to what I want to see.  

   To finalize this post, I want to admit that these chapters were not my favourite ones so far, but were still very interesting and compelling. With these pages, my interest was shifted a little, from uncovering the lock mystery, to uncovering the letters mystery. The letters are far more confusing than everything else in the book, and now that I have a new clue on who is the person that wrote them, I am one step closer to discovering the reality of them, one step closer to solving one more mystery.

One Step Closer

One step closer to the final destination.

After the discovery Oskar makes about the key, he begins his adventure headed towards finding the lock the key opens and the person it belongs to. And so he starts his journey, by going all over New York finding the Blacks'. Oskar's first stop was Abby Black. She lived in a very nice home, with many images of animals and was an epidemiologist. She was indeed very kind, but knew nothing about the key or about what it could open. The next Black Oskar visited was Abe Black. He forced Oskar to get into his first rollercoaster, and later that day took Oskar back to his home, but again disappointment came, since this Black knew nothing about the key, the lock, or his father. After Abe, Oskar visited Ada Black. Ada was very rich, actually was the 467th richest person in the world, and owned two Picasso paintings. She lived in what Oskar calls "the most amazing apartment he had ever seen." Still, she knew nothing about the key at all. Afterwards, Oskar visited the next Black, who turned out lo live right upstairs from his apartment. He was a very old man, actually about 100 years
old. This Black, who Oskar calls Mr. Black, had lived through almost all history, and had gone through many experiences. Anyway, now he never left his house. Oskar felt pity for the old man and decided to offer him something incredible. Said offer was for him to accompany Oskar in his journey to find the lock the key opens and the person it belongs to, an amazing adventure that will forever change the course of Oskar's life. Later that night Oskar gets in a terrible fight with his mother, in which he states before her, that he would have preferred she died instead of his father. With this his mom walks away, and it takes a great deal of effort for Oskar to try and take back what he said.

While I was reading this book, I encountered a couple of quotes I found interesting and very meaningful. The first one goes like this:

"I miss what I already have, and I surround myself with things that are missing" (Foer 174).

This is how people nowadays are, with eyes only for money
and materials. 

This quote for me reflects and can connect clearly to the society of nowadays and how people now tend to fill themselves with meaningless, empty things. Think about materialism, it's the same concept. Us, humans try to fill the voids in their lives with materials. We want to buy happiness, but happiness can't be bought. We want to end with our loneliness and our lack of love with materials, but materials don't have emotions, materials can't think, they can't keep us company. Materialism is not equal to happiness, it doesn't express joy and nor does it fill the empty voids of life. We fill our lives with empty things, meaningless things, and we try to replace what we really care about with them. Like the quote states, we miss what we already have. We miss love and family, we crave for happiness and company, without realizing all those things stand right before us, and we have to simply open our eyes to see them. But we are blind, we are blind for real life, and we can only see the endless cycle of materialism we live through today. We now, like the quote states, surround ourselves with things that are missing, with things that aren't what we want, things that try to make us want what we already have, make us get what we don't really need. But who can change this endless cycle of emptiness, only we can change it for ourselves.

The second quote I found was the following:

"... there are so many times when you know you are feeling a lot of something, but you don't know what the something is" (Foer 163).

I really liked this quote, and not because it has a very deep meaning, but because I experience this very often. There are days when I feel something in my stomach, moving around, not allowing me to be in peace with myself, without having a cue n what it is. By having no idea on the why of its existence, there is no way for me to solve it, or end with it. It keeps bugging me, and it doesn't stop. I have, at times, reached the conclusion that it is a simple mixture of emotions I can't control. But at
other times, I don't know what it is that I'm feeling, and I wish it would just stop. Feeling a lot of nothing or everything at the same time, is not very pleasant, since you are in a constant inner struggle between trying to find out what that something is, trying to solve or end with it, or trying to forget and move on. I can connect my everyday life with this quote, and that for me makes a good book. If the reader can connect with the text quite often, the book will be more reader-friendly, it will be much more pleasant to read, and that is what this book is doing with me.

This is what pops right into my head when this occurs to me.

As farther as I continue to read, as interesting the book gets. With discoveries and the rising of new mysteries, "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close" continues to surprise me and intrigue me. I just want to keep on reading, but not only to find out more about the key, the lock, or its owner, but to uncover all the mysteries Oskar has inside him, everything that is still hidden. I want to find out more about the lives of all the Blacks' he meets and mostly I want to meet the one Black the key is related to.