Social Commentary in the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Many times, human beings have no idea as to why things happen, and may spend an entire lifetime trying to search for answers in a bid to understand why they happened. A tragedy is among some of these things, and it can happen to any given person at any time. In the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, written by Jonathan Safran Foer, the social commentary entails social conditions that come as a result of tragic death and more so that of a close person such as a family member. It entails the suffering that people go through before they accept the reality of death and particularly a sudden death. While writing about Oskar Schell, the author draws upon the emotions faced after the death of his father. Oskar is nine-year-old boy and a super smart kid who seems to enjoy inventing things. However, all is not well as the death of his father Thomas, who lost his life during the September 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center has led to grieving. The death of his father has traumatized him and has made him feel frightened of just about everything. Moreover, Oskar feels incredibly guilty since on the morning of the attack, his father had left five voice messages, which he was aware of, and had not told anyone about and more so that he was actually in the house when his dad was leaving the messages, but was so scared that he could not answer the phone. Oscar decides to go on an expedition aimed at getting to the reason behind his father’s death, which actually makes up …