Blessed are those who mourn.
They will be comforted.
Matthew 5:4 God’s Word

The novel Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close is a heart- warming tale that speaks of strength regarding the human ability of healing. This gift of strength is portrayed in the novel by showing emotion freely to its entirety to other characters. This portrayal of emotion promotes patching of emotional scars and hurt that accumulates in the human heart. This type of emotional expression is crying. Through interaction and time spent together, the characters also find healing power through the power of touch. Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close uses both touch and emotional release to heal the scars of the past of both themselves and each other.
In the title we see the words “Extremely Loud”. Foer used this particular word choice because of the importance of emotion and emotional healing in his novel. Crying is a unique ability of emotional release due to pain that human beings use as an expression and as an escape route to their sorrows.
All of our main players associate with each other through the act of crying. “ It looked almost like she had been crying”(100). This passage came from the thoughts of Oskar regarding his Grandmother. His Grandmother has dealt with tremendous amounts of emotional trauma, and she cries a lot because of the loss of her son in the Twin Towers tragedy as well as the man who she loves who left her. The Grandmother is also barren of the fruits of her desires. She was left empty of the pleasures of marriage and the fires of her desire. She was left deprived of human touch and emotional bondage through the power of love.
We even have an instance where two unrelated characters cry. Mrs. Black cries to Oskar when he asks about her love of elephants. On page ninety- five there is a picture of a crying elephant. Oskar over time heals this woman who is suffering her denial to study elephants because she is merely a novice. We also see the Mother cry tears to her own son. Through the actions of crying the mother hides nothing back from Oskar, and it shows Oskar that it is ok to cry because she does as well. “ I cry a lot too, you know… I was never mad at you… just hurt” (172). This comment was said by Mother to her son when he tells her it is wrong to love again and that she must not miss her husband if she loves again. Oskar makes a huge dynamic change at the end of the book where he tells his mother that it is ok if she finds her comfort through Ron.
At last we finally see men cry, a powerful movement in life as well as novels. Tears shed represent strength to any man that is strong enough to cry. Even Jesus wept, and his tears represented the strength of his heart and his power to love. The action of crying is a healing tool that a hurt being uses in front of another, and that relationship creates a system of healing and understanding that alleviates all the pains within. “ He hid his face in the covers of his daybook, as if the covers were his hands. He cried” (180). This passage is the Grandpa and the Grandma together. The Grandmother wants to feel the pain from her husband, and she wants to alleviate it. She doesn’t want him to hide his pain from her. “Let me see you cry.” (180). He uncovers his face and she watches him cry. Through all of the weeping in this book, there is healing. Characters begin to listen to one another and help one another. The Black families come together and are individually affected by Oskar’s actions. Each Black truly finds meaning through Oskar’s journey of finding this key. The Grandmother and Grandfather heal each other by coming together as a union out of physical touch. They feel the power of love and experience something that they never have before. Mother finds relief through her family, and acceptance through her son.
All of these moments of crying must have been Extremely Loud, and that is why the wording is written as it is in Foer’s novel. Through loud sobs, gasps, and teardrops, there was meaning and healing in every bout of weeping from each individual character.
The importance of Incredibly Close and the graphic of the hand represent the power of touch as the key of healing. Oskar is a precocious young boy, and I believe his sexuality is more advanced than most boys of his age. This is proven because of Oskar’s comments of being close to women at times. “ Our faces were so incredibly close” (97). Oskar is talking about when visiting the beautiful Mrs. Black, whom he finds her attractive. I think he tries to use his sexuality to find healing and comfort. “ Could we kiss for a little bit?”( 99). Oskar gets so wrapped up in his sexuality that he forgets he doesn’t realize that is not proper to ask, especially to an older woman.
The reason why Oskar wants to be incredibly close is because through touch he finds healing. It is human nature that even at birth we use touch as an intimate source of healing. Oskar is so battered by emotional strain that he craves for understanding, and his understanding is through touch. I also believe Oskar has jealousy that his mother has Ron to touch her and heal her, and I believe he wants that too, but doesn’t have it. That is why I believe he opposes her relationship with him at first.
The power of touch has indescribable abilities. Touch is a sensory system that powers passion, love, healing, and comfort. There are many types of touch. The Grandparents also have an impact on touch. The relationship at first between them was not Agape love, but through Eros, or desirous lust. They never intimately touched each other, and their act of love was not passionate and love driven, but rather just for the peak in the end. This upset the Grandmother extremely. She wanted to feel the man she conceived a child with on top of her, to feel, to touch, for him to touch her. And they never had that. They never found love. Until at the end did the old Grandfather become one with her, and lay his weight on her. He gave her something that allowed her to truly find love, and heal her broken heart. “Touching him was always so important to me. It was something I lived for” (181). Another pair of hearts healed.
The symbol of the hand represents the symbol of touch: a hand. The hand symbolizes the ability of reaching out to the hearts of others. The hand has the most sensors in the body. This means that the hand feels the greatest amount of feeling compared to any other body part. The hand represents the coming together of the Grandparents, the relationship with Ron and Mom, and Oskar’s hand reaching out to every single one of them, and touching not just one other character, but to everyone he has affected through his journey.
The hand on the cover also represented something far deeper in a religious perspective. The symbol of the hand on the cover is the religious sign of Jainism, a religious practic in India. This religion is branched from Brahminism and Buddhism, and it started from the Jinas or "those who overcame". The practice of Jainism originated during the pre -Christian times where religious tension was high between people. Jainism is still practiced in India with roughly 4 million people. The beliefs of Jainism are that they must live in absolute harmony with nature. Many Jainists will not eat meat because they believe that all nature has the same importance level as humans posess. They treat nature meticulously and gently, and they do not hurt or kill nature. These Jainists believe that souls of humans are inside the animals, and they must not harm the creatures around them. The way Oskar helps everyone around him is a symbol towards Jainism, and he seems like a harmless, innocent, and caring person, like a Jainist.Oskar also doesn't believe in an afterlife, or that his father rests in heaven. He believe his father is a bunch of cells scattered everywhere. No,this isn't a coincidence, it is truly that Oskar is posessing Jainist beliefs.

In Extremely Loud And Incredibly Close one can truly find the power of the art of healing. In this novel through tear shed and touch, hearts have been bounded or impacted by the power of love that one small boy has for his family and community. Readers also can embellish on a religious journey with Oskar and trace his odd un Christian beliefs to his own practice: Jainism. Oskar, in his search for truth, found life- long lessons of love, and how he can find true love, even if not through passion or desire, but through friendship.

“ God does not comfort us to make us comfortable, but to make us comforters.” John Henry Jowett