Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: Coming of Age

          Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Johnathan Safran Foer portrays a nine year old boy named Oskar going through life finding out where his father is. Oskar and his father, Thomas Schell, use to to play these games (i.g. Reconnaissance Expedition, which Thomas gives inklings to Oskar and Oskar has to try to find the thing his father is looking for.) One day, all that happiness is taken away from Oskar when he finds out that his dad died from the attack on 9/11. As a nine year old boy, I can only imagine how hard this is for Oskar to handle and deal with. He's just a kid; these things shouldn't happen.
            Oskar as a child has a lot to learn and adapt to. He does realize that his father died from the 9/11 accident, but he still feels like his father is alive. For example he finds a key inside this vase in his Dad's closet and he believes that finding the lock to the key will lead him to his dad. Oskar goes crazy and has this whole analogy about locks and how he needs to find this special lock. I want to scream at Oskar and just say "STOP." In reality, Thomas is already dead. I know it might not come across as a simple thing to Oskar, but his father is dead and there is simply no way that Oskar can make his dad alive again. Those are the things that you just can't control. Oskar thinks that if he keeps looking for the special lock that he will find his father. It makes me cringe a little. When little Oskar finds out that there is no light at the end of the tunnel, I can already predict that his heart will shatter into pieces cause he won't see his dad at the end of the tunnel.
          Another thing that makes Oskar grow is when he goes on this adventure to all these houses. Why is he traveling to all these houses you say? Well, this special key that he found was placed in an envelope with the word "Black" on the envelope flap. Oskar jumps to the conclusion that his father knew someone with the last name Black. So from these, Oskar goes the distance to find every person with the last name Black. I think this adventure of finding all these people with the last name Black really does change Oskar. It might not be a noticeable change, but he's putting himself out there and as he goes through this process, he hears many stories from these people. He learns and develops as a character and as a child. 
             I can only hope that Oskar finds what he is looking for and when he does, I hope he's happy. I sound like such a debbie-downer, but he is so fragile for his age and children like him get hurt easily.