Foer's use of color

[Alix]

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer is a story narrarated by Oskar Schnell, a 9-year old boy who lost his father to the attacks on September 11th. While going through his father’s belongings, he finds a mysterious key in an envelope labeled with the name “Black”. In hopes of making sense of this abrupt tragedy, Oskar decides to go on a quest to find the lock the key opens. He combs through New York City, searching for the “Black” that can answer his questions. Letters from his Grandparents are featured to supplement Oskar’s narration with insights and comparisons to their own history.
Foer uses color description throughout the story to hint at personality cues about the characters and the relationship between them.Sometimes he describes the symbolic meaning represented by the color, for example, Oskar makes a bracelet for his mother converted from his father’s last voice message, “I used sky-blue beads for silence, maroon beads for breaks between letters, violet beads for breaks between words.” Other times he leaves it to the reader to analyze for himself.
The most obvious of these comparisons is the relationship between black and white. Although he never explains why, Oskar mentions that he only wears white clothing. White can be interpreted to resemble innocence, emptiness and transparency, all of which are parallel with Oskar’s tendencies to question everything and respond to every situation with shameless honesty.
The color black is used in the book often to describe mystery and complexity. Each of the characters that Oskar encounters with the name “Black” has been touched tragedy or has an intricate background that Oskar gets lost in. While he explains things that made him “panicky” following the death of his father he compares his feelings to that of being “in the middle of a huge black ocean, or in deep space,” further exemplifying his despair and uncertainty.
Since the grandfather is unable to speak, he writes in notebooks that he carries around with him to write messages to people in order to communicate. In his letters he discusses his use of paper and how he is constantly filling and running out of white space. This is fitting because everything that was once simple and beautiful in his life has been tainted with calamity. There is point where he runs completely out of blank space and words get closer and closer together until the entire page is completely black.
Toward the story’s midpoint, where Oskar is lonely and overwhelmed with depression, he invents in his mind a chemical in the water in your shower that responds to your heart rate and body temperature to gauge your mood and change your skin to a color to that communicates that mood to everyone around you. This conveys Oskar’s desire to be understood by the people around him.
Another of his inventions is a mood identifier where the chemical turns your skin to a color to tell you what you are feeling when you are unable to recognize what it is. This further aids Oskar in communicating to the reader his feelings of despair.
Finally, as Oskar is digging up his father’s grave, he describes the severe darkness of the night as so consuming that it makes it to difficult to hear.

[Zulfiya]

Wow! This is a wonderful analysis of color semantics. I also think this book is about hidden communication.Language, plain words and sentences do not work in the world of Oscar Schnell, and that is why he has to invent codes and mysteries. The same thing happens to his grandfather - he can not speak, but it is a rather voluntary commitment not to speak which later has grown into a forgotten and lost skill. He uses the media of scrapbooks and hands to mitigate the blatant simplicity of a language.
The book itself is never a complete story - there are several narrators, flashbacks, break-in narration; and readers and even characters are asked to put pieces of the jigsaw together to seek the truth. But as usual the truth is somewhere there:-)

[Adri]

Two excellent reviews. Well done Alix and Zulfiya. Could not have said it better.

[Martine]

Incredibly insightful & extremely interesting! Thank you!