Student Question
In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, who marked up the letter in red pen and why were phrases like "my child," "I love you," and "your father" circled?
Quick answer:
We think Oskar's dad marked up the letter. After all, Oskar's dad has a penchant for marking up texts. Before he died, he liked to mark the mistakes in the New York Times. What's circled seems to be Oskar's dad’s way of talking to Oskar via his own father. Because "I love you” and “your father" are circled, maybe that means that Oskar's dad loves him.
We might think of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close as a novel. Yet it might help us better understand the red pen motif if we think of it as a book of puzzles as well. Yes, Foer tells a story, but he also does more. He includes images, documents, letters, and, yes, puzzles.
When Oskar goes to the art store on 93rd Street, what happens? The employee shows him the sample paper for pen testing. Who else gets to see those papers? We do. It's like we have to solve the puzzle or mystery too.
Now let's try and think about the puzzle you need to solve. Who circled the words in the letter? What do they mean?
Before we read the marked-up letter, we know there was someone who liked to mark up things. It was Oskar's dad. He used a red pen to circle mistakes in the New...
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York Times.
In the letter, we notice grammatical and spelling mistakes are circled: "refugie" is circled, as is "over joyed" (it should be "overjoyed"). There are also tons of circles when it comes to commas. Perhaps the person doing the circling doesn't like comma splices. Perhaps they prefer a semicolon, colon, or period.
It's interesting to note that commas separate things. Yet they separate things in a rather loose way. Their separation isn't as official as, say, a period. You don't say "comma" if you want to tell someone you're done talking, you say "period."
Maybe the person who's marking the letter is separated from someone in a final way. Maybe they're dead. Maybe they're Oskar's dad. Again, Oskar's dad liked to circle things. He also liked to leave clues.
What's circled could be Oskar's dad's way of taking what his father wrote and passing it along to Oskar. The circled parts that are not related to errors could be wisdom or thoughts that Oskar's dad wants to impart to him, like "Life is scarier than death."
Again, we'd go with Oskar's dad. It seems obvious. Although, with Foer, what's obvious might be misleading.