Research Paper

In this research paper I am going to talk about media violence, particularly the cultivation theory, and its connection to the actions and feelings of Oskar Schell. Throughout the novel Oskar talks about how he either wants to or how he does give himself bruises and how he is afraid of people from the Middle East even though he says he is not racist. I believe that the reason Oskar acts and feels this way is because of the way the media has portrayed the violent images from both the 09/11 attacks and the war in Iraq.

The Cultivation Theory believes that television is responsible for shaping or “cultivating” the viewer’s conceptions of reality. Television can either cultivate the viewers into believing something about society, such as fear of others due to the amount of violence shown, or it can cause viewers to be more aggressive towards one another or to themselves. Oskar shows this when he bruises himself or when he fights with his mother whenever he gets upset. A professor by the name of George Gerbner was the founder of the Cultivation Environment Movement in the mid 1960’s. Gerbner believed that there are three levels of television viewers; light, average and heavy. People who are “heavy viewers” watch four or more hours of television each day. Gerbner believed that heavy television viewers develop an exaggerated belief in a mean and scary world or what is known as the “mean world syndrome.” Even though the cultivation theory focused on television, I feel that all media can be grouped together in this theory.

The mean world syndrome is the mindset of general mistrust in others due to the great amount of violence that is shown on television. Oskar shows mistrust in people from the Middle East because of the 09/11 attacks. Even though Oskar stated that he was not racist, he still had a perception that all people from the Middle East are violent. In the mid 1960’s Gerbner found through research, that within a drama there were five violent acts per hour and within a children’s show there were twenty violent acts per hour. He calculated that the average television viewer had observed 13,000 violent deaths by the time they had graduated high school. He believed, along with other cultivation theorists, that television does indeed have long-term effects that can appear small at the time, but in the end can be devastating to an individual. The more Oskar looked at this picture of the falling man, the more he believed that it could be his father. The fact of not knowing what happened to his father ate away at Oskar and the image of the falling man caused Oskar to have many horrible thoughts and dreams.

The US Congress prompted a committee referred to as The Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee to research television violence and its effects. The research began in 1969 and contained content analysis, field experiments, laboratory experiments, observation studies and opinion surveys. There were forty scientists that were all experts in the behavioral sciences and mental disciplines selected to be in charge of the research. The results of the research were very shocking to say none the least.

The research found that eight out of ten dramatized programs contained violence and that in cartoons, the amount of violence increased. The average cartoon held close to six times the amount of violence than the average adult drama, which means that the greatest amount of violence was aired during the hours most likely for young children and teens to view. During the time that the experiment was held, the amount of violence shown on American television was greater than the amount shown by any of the other three nations. Oskar had complete access to Google, which he used often to learn about the 09/11 attacks and to get images from the 09/11 attacks. I believe that a half hour of web surfing shows way more violent images than a half hour of television does.

Also during the research, many children were both surveyed and observed. The surveys found that the greatest amount of television watched was during the sixth grade and after that it slowly declined due to other life activities becoming important; such as high school, college, work, marriage, and starting a family. The surveys also found that the average person watched three hours of television each day and that children who watched the least amount of television, were intellectually brighter than those that watched more. Observing the children, who were heavy television viewers, the scientist concluded that the children would most likely be aggressive to one another when given the opportunity to do so because of the amount of violence that they watched on television. Even though Jimmy Snyder taunted Oskar, Oskar had some disturbing daydreams of getting back at Jimmy like the one involving the play.

The Surgeon General’s Advisory Committee concluded from their research that television is greatly saturated with violent acts that may cause people to either be more violent towards one another or to view the world as a violent place to be. They also found that television did play a significant role in shaping the viewer’s beliefs about society in real life. Oskar beliefs of people from the Middle East was shaped from the 09/11 attacks even though he knew deep down not everyone from the Middle East wants to hurt others.

According to the research that the American Academy of Child and Adolescents Psychiatry has conducted, television can greatly influence children in developing values and shaping behavior. Their research has found that children can become “numb” to television violence, children can become excepting to violence being an option for solving problems, children enjoy imitating the violence they see on television, and children often identify with television characters; both the victims to violence and the violent offenders.

They also have found that children with emotional, behavioral, learning, or impulse control problems may be more easily influenced by television violence than those that don’t have these problems. Even if a child doesn’t have any violence shown to them in their family life, they can still become violent due to what they see on television. Oskar doesn’t appear to be the average young boy…could he possibly fit finding? The study found that it can take just one episode filled with violence to negatively affect a child to be more aggressive and the aggression can show up right away or can take years to come out. It only took one violent day such as 09/11 that caused Oskar’s aggression.

Watching violence on television can also cultivate people to have fear or anxiety. A recent survey that was given to parents that have children between the ages of two and seventeen showed that sixty-two percent of the parents had remembered a time when their child was scared over a violent act that they had seen on television and believed that it would also happen to them. Oskar was scared to go into high buildings or on boats because he was afraid that they would be under another attack. Another survey that was given to 2,000 children and teens showed that heavy television viewing of violence had caused them to experience anxiety, stress, and fear. The children believed that the violence that was committed on television does happen regularly in real life; not just on television shows.

In conclusion to my research, I have found that television and all media sources are full of violence that may cause people to be more aggressive to others or to themselves; especially with young children like Oskar. I have found that many children and adults have experienced fear or anxiety due to the high amount of violence that they have seen on television and in the media and that their perception of reality is cultivated due to the way television and the media portrays these incidents. I support the information that I have found and believe that society does need to open their eyes to what is being shown in the media.

Bibliography

1. Lowery, Shearon and De Fleur, Melvin. Milestones in Mass Communication Research: Surgeon General’s Scientific Advisory Committee on Television and Social Behavior. White Plains, NY: Longman Inc. 1988. Print.

2. American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry. Children and TV Violence. Aaca. Accessed March 1, 2010.

http://www.aacap.org/cs/root/facts_for_families/children_and_tv_violence

3. Wilson J. Barbara. The Future of Children. Journal Issue: Children and Electronic Media. Princeton. Accessed March 8, 2010.

http://www.princeton.edu/futureofchildren/publications/journals/article/index.xml?journalid=32&articleid=58&sectionid=268

Brandon Dooley
Eng-305
Paper 3
That September Day
One of the main themes exemplified in Foer’s work Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is how one particular family has been affected by major disastrous events, specifically the Dresden bombings and the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center towers. Lives precious to the family were lost, resulting in the mess of painful feelings Foer creatively expresses as a main factor of communication break-down and disconnection between the members. In an effort to cause the reader to understand these types of factors more in-depth, this paper will be dedicated to the 9/11 attacks and the resulting wave of effect that they had on not only individuals, but the nation and the world alike.
Outside the fact that 2,977 American people died in total due to the attacks (Glazier, 2008), one study found that nearly 50,000 rescue workers, office workers, and residents have reported numerous respiratory symptoms, including developments of asthma, loss of lung function, and sinus issues. The asthma was reported to appear during the first 16 months after the attacks. Other respiratory issues were found to be persistent among those affected; four times as many fire-fighters and twice as many EMS workers compared to those found to be affected within the first year after the attacks have been reported experiencing lower than normal lung function 6-7 years after the attacks. Other studies have found that sarcoidosis, acid reflex, and other gastro-esophageal reflex disorders have appeared in affected people. (Annual Report on 9/11 Health, 2010)
Beside physical health decline, many mental illnesses also developed in the aftermath. The most common of these, “identified by a positive screening using a standardized psychological assessment tool,” is post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Those screening positive for PTSD were either “(1) Caught in the dust cloud released by the buildings as they collapsed, (2) Injured as a result of the attacks, (3) Directly exposed to the events of 9/11, including proximity to the WTC site, witnessing horrific events, or knowing someone who was killed or injured in the attack, (and) (4) Among rescue and recovery workers, early arrival at the WTC site, working there for a long time, or doing tasks outside of their trained area of expertise.”(Annual Report on 9/11 Health, 2010). Luckily, two analyses of the New York City death records found that suicide rates had not increased in the first four years after the attacks. Other mental illness were suggested to exist, such as depression and anxiety, but no one had studied the existence of these as much as PTSD, so no data is available as to those.
Moving outside the effects on individuals, the United States changed its position on many factors, including national security. All someone has to do nowadays is go to an airport to fly somewhere and that person will experience the extent to which the government goes to make sure that its citizens are ‘protected’ (“shoes off, laptops open, no metallic objects, no coats”, ect). The problem that seems to arise is that everyone becomes suspect, for the terrorists hide among normal everyday individuals walking down the street and thus anyone could be a terrorist. This thought prompted an over 6,000 page document to be ratified October 26, 2001, forty-five days after the attacks, called the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act). This allowed law enforcement officials ease of access to any individual’s personal information, including but not limited to all communications, all medical, all financial, and all criminal/legal records; this power was and is still used in order to determine if any terrorist activity is occurring within the states. To this date, most of the provisions within the act have remained national law. Even some ‘sunshine laws,’ or temporarily enact portions of the act, remained in law years after the date they were to expire. The two main provisions that remained for an extended period of time were section 206, the roving wiretap provision, and section 215, which allowed access to business records under FISA (Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act). Through this law, America now became suspect of itself and anyone it had dealings with; America essentially became the watch-dogs of the world through its various financial dealings and through the War on Terrorism. This lead the U.S. into the war on Iraq because U.S. intelligence saw that Saddam was attempting to gain the ability to make warheads and biological weapons, which is something he was trying to do since the U.N. began to inspect Iraq continuously between 1991 and 1998, and was found planning to use such weapons against the United Kingdom and other places around the world. Iraq also was found to harbor and train terrorists at various camps, nearly 2,000 a year since 1999. (Frontpagemag, 2007; Iraq Watch, 2006).
Again, though, another problem arises. Many countries have began to argue as to whether or not the U.S. has the right to act as the “police of the world.” This is where part of the effects on the world come into play. The Pew Global Attitudes Project surveyed more than 90,000 people in 50 nations, including many Arab and Muslim countries, in 2002 and 2003, finding that people in these nations favored the United States less than all other countries out there. Those that were Anti-American were found to be frustrated at the United States policies, “such as the war in Iraq, the war on terrorism, and U.S. support for Israel, in addition to the general perception that the U.S. fails to consider the interests of countries in the region when it acts in the international arena.” (Kohut, 2005). In another study, support by Britain, France, and Germany seemed to waver tremendously between summer of 2002 and March of 2004, where at times the nations were highly favorable of the U.S., then a few months later they would generally dislike the U.S. and the war. Overall, though, “there is broad agreement in nearly all of the countries surveyed - the U.S. being a notable exception - that the war in Iraq hurt, rather than helped, the war on terrorism.” (Pew Research, 2004). Though much of the world disagrees with the U.S. methodology for taking care of the terrorist problem, the activities of terrorist groups and the information found about support for those activities has definitely caught the world’s attention.
Views in America on Islam and Muslims as a whole has changed dramatically as well. Many Americans were aware but not concerned with Islam before the 9/11 attacks; once the attacks occurred, Americans became interesting in Muslims, their beliefs, and their activities. A poll found that after the attacks 41% of Americans had a negative view of Islam. In 2006, it was found that the number increased to 47% of Americans. The reason for this increase: “Conservative and liberal experts said Americans' attitudes about Islam are fueled in part by political statements and media reports that focus almost solely on the actions of Muslim extremists.” (Deane & Fears, 2006). The media thus had to responded to the interest in Islam and had portrayed to the American public specific events only pertaining to a certain extremist sector, events that normally “sells,” that the masses are generally interested in (violence, sex, and the weather are the usual selling topics).
It was no surprised then when Muslims declared they wanted to build a Muslim mosque on the WTC site, a complete national uproar rose up against allowing it to be built. Arguments arose on both sides, one towards religious freedom and one towards the message. Most American’s (62%) do believe that Muslims should have the right to religious freedom, but as for building a mosque on the site itself, 51% support opposition to the building as compared to 34% (Pew Research, 2010). Those in opposition believe that building a mosque on the site indicates support for the radical portions of Islam many are against (even Muslims in radical-supporting countries are beginning to lose support for such tactics). Charles Krauthammer of the Washington Post had this to say:
“Radical Islam is not, by any means, a majority of Islam. But with its financiers, clerics, propagandists, trainers, leaders, operatives and sympathizers -- according to a conservative estimate, it commands the allegiance of 7 percent of Muslims, i.e., more than 80 million souls -- it is a very powerful strain within Islam. It has changed the course of nations and affected the lives of millions. It is the reason every airport in the West is an armed camp and every land is on constant alert.

Ground Zero is the site of the most lethal attack of that worldwide movement, which consists entirely of Muslims, acts in the name of Islam and is deeply embedded within the Islamic world. These are regrettable facts, but facts they are. And that is why putting up a monument to Islam in this place is not just insensitive but provocative.” (Capehart, 2010)

Others point out that the other 93% not part of Radical Islam should attest to the religion as a whole instead of the narrow views induced by that other 7% percent. As mentioned earlier, though, the media has portrayed Islam in a certain extremist way, and with 55% of the population found August 24, 2010 either did not knowing very much or did not know anything at all about Muslim, the media is where people turn to in order to find out such information; obviously problematic. (Pew Research, 2010) Nevertheless, this particular topic has lead to tea parties by Republicans and is predicted to lead Republican votes in the 2010 November elections. (Smith, 2010).
America and the world has been affected by the attack of 9/11. From medical and mental issues to beliefs about Islam to distrust of America to opening the eyes of the world of the problems with terrorism, changes have been and are continuing to be made. It has been 9 years since the attacks, but the effects will live with us for quite some time.

















Bibliography
Wikipedia.org.(2010, October 14th). USA PATRIOT ACT. Retrieved from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_PATRIOT_Act

National Institute of Standards and Technology: U.S. Department of Commerce (2008, November). Final Report on the Collapse of World Trade Center Building 7. Retrieved from: http://wtc.nist.gov/NCSTAR1/PDF/NCSTAR%201A.pdf

Glazier, Liz. (Issued: 2008, September 12th) Lost lives remembered during 9/11 ceremonies. Retrieved from: http://media.www.theonlinerocket.com/media/storage/paper601/news/2008/09 /12/News/Lost-Lives.Remembered.During.911.Ceremony-3427598.shtml

de Vries, Lloyd. (2003, June 5th) Clash Over Patriot Act. Retrieved from: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/06/05/attack/main557086.shtml

Iraqi National Congress. (Date: Unknown) Saddam’s Threat to the World. Retrieved from: http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/INC-Saddam-threat.htm

Mauro, Ryan. (2010, July 22nd) Vindicated for Removing Saddam. Retrieved from: http://frontpagemag.com/2010/07/22/victory-and-vindication/

Kohut, Andrew (2005, Nov. 10th) Arab and Muslim Perceptions of the United States. Retrieved from: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/6/arab-and-muslim-perceptions- of-the-united-states

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press. (2004, March 16th) A Year After Iraq War: Mistrust of America in Europe Ever Higher, Muslim Anger Persists. Retrieved from: http://people-press.org/report/206/a-year-after-iraq- war

Deane, Claudia; Darryl Fears. (2006, March 9th) Negative Perception of Islam Increasing: Poll Numbers in U.S. Higher Than in 2001. Retrieved from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/08/AR2006 030802221.html

Smith, Jack A. (2010, August 27th) The Muslim Mosque at Ground Zero and Freedom of Religion in America. Retrieved from: http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=20788

The Pew Research Center for the People & the Press.(2010, August 24th) Public Remains Conflicted Over Islam: NYC Mosque Opposed, Muslims’ Right to Build Mosque Favored. Retrieved from: http://people-press.org/report/647/
Capehart, Jonathan. (2010, August 20th). ‘Provocative”--and wrong-- argument against the ‘mosque.’ Retrieved from: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/postpartisan/2010/08/provocative_-- _and_wrong_--_ar.html

Nichole Brown
Book Review
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer can be perceived as a book that is 9/11 centered, a graphic novel, or an glimpse into the world of a highly functioning autistic child. While all of these are valid approaches to reading this novel and worth pursuing as a topic of discussion in their own right, Close is simply a novel about what it is to be human and live life.
Every single, solitary person can empathize with the human experience. Unless you are a highly trained animal (and if you are, thanks for reading!), you know what it is like to feel loss, happiness, sadness, elation, confusion, anxiety, insatiable and unexplainable desires, etc. The list could go on. Foer provides the reader with a multitude of rich, intriguing characters and a storyline that allows each reader to find one that resonates.
For example, our narrator Oskar is a young boy who lost his father in the 9/11 attacks. He is now on a quest to finish his father’s last riddle or game. Who hasn’t endured something that made them go a little crazy? I am not saying Oskar is crazy, but a nine year old boy who traipses around New York City virtually unattended knocking on strangers doors might seem a little strange unless you can relate. He is searching, missing his father, and uses this time to mourn. He manifests these feelings as this quest where he became an avid people watcher who “looked at everyone and wondered where they came from, and who they missed, and what they were sorry for”. Foer uses Oskar’s mourning process to reach out to any reader who has suffered loss, and it works.
If you are of an older generation, then you may bond with Oskar’s grandparents. Their loss is well worn with time and experience. One of the best lines Grandma writes is, “I wanted to run away from him, and I wanted to go to him”. If you have more life experience, it is easier to understand the subtle (and often not so subtle) nuances of a long term relationship. Any reader can relate on some level, whether you have survived your first crush or are celebrating fifty years of marriage.
Let us not forget the array of supporting characters that Foer introduces us to. While Oskar is on his healing journey of sorts, he comes into contact with a wide variety of people including a cab driver, a millionaire, a roller coaster aficionado, and a man who files every person he has met on a rolodex. You may need one to keep up with all of Oskar’s new friends unless you have an extremely good memory. As the dear Mr. Black would say, “Everyone gets boiled down to one word!”. What would your word be? What shared conscience do we all have? The one word that is apparent in this novel is human. Everyone has a story to tell, and everyone who is human can relate to one another in some form be it from a shared sense of loss, or a feeling of admiration for the plucky little man who knocks on your door and asks you a ton of questions, often inappropriate questions, as after all, he is only nine, with no reasoning or explanation whatsoever.
If you are a reader who enjoys blood, gore, fantasy, or science fiction than this is not for you. But if you desire a novel where you can open the pages, see familiar personality traits, and want to connect with someone, then I suggest you give it a go. Foer may be on the forefront of the graphic novel genre, as he devotes three pages to numbers, has a soliloquy blend into black smudged print, and multiple pictures instead of the typical literary descriptions, but this novel is at heart what all good literature is. A look at relatable characters with an interesting story to tell.

Not another 9/11 story....

9/11. We will always remember where we were and what we were doing on that tragic day. “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close” is not about 9/11. It is about loss, grief, and closure. It is about a young boy’s quest to put the death of his father behind, and once again find safety in his world. It is a story that exposes the raw layers of seemingly dysfunctional family. It will make you laugh, and make you cry.
The story centers around 9-year old Oskar Schell, who lost his father on 9/11. Oskar is a peculiar child. He only wears white, writes countless letters to famous people, plays the tambourine endlessly, gives himself bruises when he is sad, and for most of the book, wanders around New York City by himself. Oskar finds a key in a vase hidden in his father’s closet. The key is in an envelope marked “BLACK”. Oskar believes that the key can hold answers to the questions that he has about the death of his father. Systematically, Oskar goes on a quest to visit everyone in NYC with the last name of black. Along the way he meets some very interesting people, who are going through their own struggles. Foer weaves the story of Oskar’s quest with the story of Grandparents who were refugees from Germany, having been displaced after the bombing of Dresden.
The story of the Grandparents is a novel in itself. They meet in their youth, as the Grandfather is in love with Grandma’s sister. The sister is pregnant by Grandpa. Sadly, she is killed. This is devastating to both Grandpa and Grandma. They both come to America, where Grandpa loses his ability to speak. They marry, and start their lives together. They are both fragile and mentally tortured by the grief that they share. The grief is what binds them. Reading Foer’s account of their lives is like looking into an insane asylum! Grandpa finally leaves when Grandma gets pregnant with Oskar’s father. Grandpa’s life is a constant stream of letters that he did not send, and things that he did not say. Grandpa returns when he hears of his son’s death.
Foer does a brilliant job of building the characters, at least some of them. I found myself really hating Oskar’s mother for most of the book. Foer leads us to believe that she lets Oskar roam the city as he wants. This seemed like a contradiction, since she did not allow Oskar to watch television. What kind of mother would let her child wander NYC, but yet not allow him SpongeBob? Although it confused me, it did make me want to keep reading in order to find out more about the Mother. Foer poignantly tells of Oskar receiving the last messages from his father on the home answering machine. Oskar hides the machine in order to spare his mother the grief, and to keep those last words for himself. Very touching. The curious part is when Oskar goes out and buys and identical machine so his mother won’t know. What? The first of several things that I found unbelievable.
Foer leaves a lot of questions unresolved, or vaguely answered. For example, we never really get an explanation of why the Grandpa quit talking. Was he suffering post-traumatic stress? Maybe he was mentally ill? We got a vague explanation as to why Oskar would only wear white, but the reader was left to glean that out of a chapter dealing with Hiroshima. When Oskar is sad, he frequently says that he has “heavy boots”. Again we never really get an adequate explanation. Foer’s imagery is great, but leaves too much up to the reader. He leaves the mother’s character on the outskirts of the most of the story. At the end of the book, he reveals that the mother knew what Oskar was up to all along. Too little, too late.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book is Foer’s use of images. He uses pictures of 9/11, images of letters erratically written by Grandpa, and what seem to be random pictures of things in Oskar’s life. They make for a flashy presentation, but I feel they didn’t add a lot of substance to the book. I would have rather seen Foer take more effort with the storyline and the character development.
As for using the 9/11 backdrop, I am torn. I think that the story could have been written with any tragic loss as the backdrop. Oskar could have just as easily lost his father in a car accident. I know how tragic 9/11 was for Americans. I am sure that as a New Yorker Foer was deeply affected by it. I may be a bit cynical, but I can’t help but think that Foer was perhaps a bit opportunistic. Tragedy sells books. Even though Foer only uses the tragedy as a backdrop, he still uses it. I don’t feel that Foer is exploiting the victims of 9/11, but I do feel that he is teetering on the exploitation of his reader’s emotions.
At the end of the day, one must take this book for face value. It is a good read, but it could have been a great one.

Extremely Brilliant and Incredibly Awesome

Brandon Dooley
English 305-60
Review

Extremely Brilliant and Incredibly Awesome

When I began to read “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” by Jonathan Foer, I thought that this particular author was ‘Extremely ADHD & Incredibly Challenged.’ The first page alone goes from talking about teakettles with mouths to talking anuses to tiny microphones to synchronized menstrual periods. From traditional novels, one would expect that the first words would pertain to something along the lines of ‘Once upon a time’ or a scene that the writer just jumps into, followed by descriptions of who, what, when, where, and why or some random fact or other means we as readers grew up upon, so right from the get-go the author is seemingly just ranting about literally nothing pertaining to an actual story line. Normally, I would’ve put the book down right there, but out of academic curiosity I continued further into the book. This is when I began to understand the brilliant mind that is Jonathan Foer.
This story is about a boy named Oskar Schell who searches for the lock to the key left by his father around New York City (where he lives), searching for someone with the name of “Black.” Throughout the story, we learn that his father, Thomas Schell, had died in the 9/11 attacks, from which during the chaos the father had attempted to contact someone at the house and received no answer despite Oskar being there. We also learn that Grandpa isn’t there and the reasons behind why that is (though he comes back in the end), what happened during the time before, during, and after Grandpa had left, what effects that had on Grandma, and why Grandpa is unable to speak. Foer utilizes such major events as the Dresden bombings and Hiroshima in order to invoke strong, disaster-related emotions and to point out some of the effects that they had on this particular family’s life.
The complexities Foer utilizes causes the reader at times to not know who is talking or what is being talked about, but further through the book everything seemingly falls into place, along who is talking, and what they’re talking about becomes more and more clear. It causes readers to almost have to read the book again in order to begin to understand what he is talking about, for many thoughts, emotions, and actions are hinted at between the lines of which he writes, which, with the variety of pictures placed specifically throughout the novel, and the little tidbits of words or mesh pools of illegible writing, speaks to something else outside the words described previously in the chapter it exists in, and speaks to another concept within a different chapter beforehand. Essentially, the author causes you to pay attention to what you’re reading. An example of this is when Grandpa leaves, is at the train station, and Grandma rushes to him begging him not to leave her. The way Foer indicates this at first is through the messages Grandpa wrote down, each phrase on a particular page. This is what it looked like:
Pg. 136 “I want to buy a ticket to Dresden.”
Pg. 137 “What are you doing here?”
Pg. 138 “You have to go home. You should be in bed.”
Pg. 139 “Let me take you home.”
Pg. 140 “You’re being crazy. You’re going to catch a cold.”
Pg. 141 “You’re going to catch a colder.”
Further in the book, Foer goes into an in-depth explanation through Grandma’s view of what happened around that entire scenario;Grandma decided to spy on him for a while before actually going up to him (among other things).
Besides hinting to various important parts throughout the book, Foer has different writing styles to indicate who is talking and when. He doesn’t actually say who is talking in each of the chapters; us as readers kind of have to guess who it is. When Oskar is speaking, it is written almost like a journal through his perspective, but coherently and almost novel-like, despite the random “Squirrel!” moments that he has while writing (and if you’ve seen the movie UP!, you’d get that joke). When Grandpa is writing, there is no break in between paragraphs or thought processes; the sentences are punctuated at the end of most sentences, but even then a lot of his writing is a continuous run-on sentence. Grandma’s writing is almost poetic. She speaks in short, brief, and sometimes compelling statements. Here’s an example:
Pg. 314 “It was late, and we were tired.
We assumed there would be other nights.
Anna’s breathing started to slow, but I still wanted to talk. She rolled onto her side.
I said, I want to tell you something.
She said, You can tell me tomorrow.
I had never told her how much I loved her.”
(This particular scene was about the last time that Grandma had been with her sister before the Dresden bombings.) Foer utilizes all three perspectives to build upon the present through the past of Grandpa and Grandma, resulting in effects on the third, Oskar, even if slightly, and, through utilizing the writing techniques that he does to portray each individual, causes us as readers to re-evaluate and pay attention to details within the writing that we may not have noticed otherwise.
One final point pertains to the effects that he may have on future writers. Most writers I’ve read stick with one particular writing style throughout the entire novel. This was seemingly the traditional methods of showing individuality in a work of art. Foer breaks that apart with this various writing styles mentioned earlier, but also with the incorporation of pictures and mesh as I mentioned earlier. So what does this do to future writers? To me, it seems that people who are interested in writing can learn about the methodology Foer utilizes: the organization and placement of key events and explanations, the utilization of simple or complex words in various places, and the fact that one is able to do this in whatever way seems fit, but also in a way that has to make sense to the readers. Foer is the example of risk-taking necessary in writing to become successful, incorporating innovating methods to tell stories; I feel that future writers will benefit from his stories.
Overall, Foer is a brilliant writer who deserves credit for his work of art. Some writers, such as a man named Harry Seigal from the NewYork Press, think that Foer was trying to use such major events mentioned earlier, especially 9/11, simply to throw them in the novel- “(and) the kitchen sink”- to make a quick buck. I like to believe that Foer used that particular incident in order to evoke strong emotions on top of the strong emotions hinted in the wording just so that each type of emotion would be affected all at once. The event of 9/11 affected a nation rather than just a few individuals- though individuals were affected at the same time- and most people I’ve spoken with remember what they were doing on that day, so it’s quite a memorable (even with 9 years gone by) as with the emotions of watching fellow Americans suffering and dying right before their/our eyes; I don’t think something like a fatal car crash or suicide would be as effective to the American population. But as for being able to write or organizing thoughts or utilizing imagery, many of those critics can’t say much of anything other than ad hominem arguments or just simple dislike of how Foer goes about presenting his story. For this reason, I say that Foer is a genius of writing, but if you don’t believe, I say make up your own mind about the book; read it, see if you like it, get what you can from it.

"Mixed-Givings"

M A Miller
A review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2005

It is entirely natural while reading Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close fictional novel, to feel as if it should be tossed across the room in disgust--if only one could stop reading it long enough to do just that! Because human emotions of love and hate are closely linked by the same nervous circuits in the brain, (the “putamen” and the “insula”), it is possible to love and hate simultaneously. Journalists even created a portmanteau for the “love-hate” phenomenon called “frenemy"—“friend" combined with "enemy". But whatever the reason, Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, is undeniably a source of both angst and great emotional joy. It is a book that simply cannot be tossed aside—no matter how infuriating it may be.

There are many who have given Foer’s novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, high accolades, including Salman Rushdie, a famous author. Rushdie stated in the book’s “acclaim section”, “Jonathan Safran Foer’s second novel is everything that one hoped it would be--ambitious, pyrotechnic, riddling . . . An exceptional achievement.” Foer’s first novel, Everything is Illuminated (2002), reached the New York Times bestseller list, and earned him several awards. However, there are others who have criticized his choice of using the 9/11 tragedy as a disrespectful backdrop for his second novel, and regarded his use of gadgetry writing deceptive. One such critic who lashed out with caustic fervor is Harry Siegel. Siegel, in his New York Press review dated April 20, 2005, entitled his review, “Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False--Why the Author of Everything Is Illuminated is a Fraud and a Hack.” Siegel states about Foer, “Why wait to have ideas worth writing when you can grab a big theme, throw in the kitchen sink, and wear your flip-flops all the way to the bank?”

Foer's novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, uses New York as the setting. It is a story of nine-year-old Oskar Schell, in which Oskar’s father, Thomas Schell, dies during the 9/11 terrorist attack. Oskar is an eclectic-eccentric boy who attempts to cope with his grief of losing his father (or, as Oskar says, "heavy boots"[2]) by inventing things (like “bird-seed shirts” that help people fly [2]), playing a tambourine, giving keys out to strangers (so Oskar will get all his packages), and giving himself bruises. Distressed by messages left on the answering-machine from his trapped and dying father, Oskar explores his father’s closet one night and discovers a blue vase. The vase contains an envelope marked with the word “Black” on it and a key in inside. Oskar decides the key must belong to a lock that contains something important about his father. And so begins his journey visiting all people with the last name “Black” (in alphabetical order) to find the lock and solve the mystery to “get closer to dad” (52). Oskar says, “I would spend my Saturdays and Sundays finding all of the people named Black . . . In a year and a half I would know everything” (51).

Early in the story, however, it begins to feel as if as if the reader is revisiting the 1956 film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers, whereas the townspeople are being replaced by giant plant-like pod duplicates. Only in this case, it is Oskar being replaced by a grown-up Foer who has invaded Oskar’s body and mind. In fact, in a Bookbrowse.com interview, Foer describes himself, “Like most children, I had a number of collections. . . . I sent my share of fan letters, suffered numerous failed attempts to kiss women my mother's age, and did work in the family jewelry business for a summer.” It feels as if grown-up Foer is masquerading as nine-year-old Oskar and as a result, Oskar quickly becomes an unbelievable character--a “frenemy" to the reader. What young boy converts his father’s last voice message into Morse code using different colored beads to make jewelry? What nine-year-old boy’s mother tucks him in at night and asks, “Do you want me to read something to you? We could go through the New York Times for mistakes” (168). But the reader cannot toss the book aside; he/she is entrapped in the web of emotions brought on by this faux-boy searching for the meaning of his father’s death. Who doesn’t yearn to make meaning out of senseless death—especially when it involves a current tragedy? The reader desperately wants Oskar Schell to find solace to this question. For this reason alone, Foer knows he has the reader hooked.

The book is bursting with photographs of doorknobs, birds flying, a person falling, blank pages, black pages, and other such ruses and curiosities. One is reminded of the “Three Wise Monkeys’” proverb, "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” when realizing Oskar’s grandma’s sight is poor; Mr. Black who lives upstairs is deaf; and Oskar’s grandfather is mute. Foer leaves “no ‘literary and visual gimmick’ stone unturned”. The book even concludes with a flipbook of a person falling “upward”. The distracted reader shrugs with frustration and says to him/herself “don’t bombard me with meaningless rubbish -- just tell me the truth about death!”

Despite the obvious manipulation of the reader, Foer atones for his misdeeds with the quirky characters of grandma and grandpa. Intertwining like threads in a tapestry within Oskar’s story is the story of his grandparents who are survivors of the WWII Dresden bombings, and how they came together. Their story is one of hope, despair, and love. The chapters entitled "My Feelings" are letters written to Oskar by his grandmother describing her life as a child and as an adult. Just as Oskar is seeking for the truth about the death of his father, grandma is searching for the truth about her own life, “When I was a girl, my life was music that was always getting louder . . . Every day I felt less. Is that growing old?” (180). And though Foer’s characters seem surreal, their sadness and regret for things lost, and their ability to love resonates with each reader. For this reason alone-- Foer has cast off his “frenemy” status and successfully written a book about the 9/11 tragedy in which “love conquers all.” This book needs to be read.

A Review of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

A Review of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close:
By Jonathan Safran Foer

The second novel by the celebrated young author of “Everything is Illuminated”, hits the ground running, and pulls the reader along a twisting, enigmatic path from its first to final page. The novel is set in the aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy in New York and follows the quest of a little boy who lost his father on that infamous day. While this subject could gimmicky or sensational, Foer uses the event for setting and as launching point rather than a crutch to prop-up the story line. Instead, this novel is driven by captivating characters and an irresistible mystery.
Immediately, Foer introduces us to his young hero, Oskar Schell. We become chaperones for the precocious nine year old as we follow him on his surreal journey through the city’s boroughs to find the origin of a strange key he discovers in his dead father’s closet in an envelope simply titled “Black.” From the beginning we are intrigued by Oskar’s complex personality and the ambiguities developing around him and his family. With Oskar’s outlandish claims such as, “My most impressive song that I can play on my tambourine is ‘The flight of the Bumblebee.’” we’re not sure if we can even believe him. Foer’s character is at once unreliable, annoying, curious, yet vulnerable and endearing. He quickly captivates the audience and by the end of the chapter when Oskar recalls hearing the recording of his father’s desperate cell phone calls on the morning of the attack, we are hooked. We willingly to suspend our disbelief and surrender the keys to Oskar, letting him take the wheel on Foer’s multimedia ride.
The novel is well crafted holds the reader’s attention to spite it’s, at times, disorienting jigsaw construction. Each chapter seems to give us a new puzzle piece to the unfolding story and we are compelled to keep reading to see how it all fits together. The novel’s plot is strengthened by its unique characters, such as Oskar and his grandparents. They vacillate between unbelievably eccentric and transcendently real. I often found I missed them when I put the book down. Foer weaves a surprising amount of intricate detail into the plot of the book. Like Hansel and Gretel, he continuously drops the reader clues, like pebbles, to lead them along a storyline that is mysterious, heartbreaking and magical.
The most notable aspect of the novel is the visual imagery that proliferates the pages. The vivid graphics, allow the reader to interact with the text in a way I’ve never experience before in a novel. They begin even before the story itself with images of a door lock, birds in flight, and an apartment building which tantalize the reader upon opening the book. Extremely Loud’s visuals are a scrapbook for the novels characters. They allow the reader to enter their world and experience what they see, or what they want us to see, first-hand; like a portfolio. While it has been said that Foer’s use of visual images are indicative of lazy narration or a ploy, I think they speak to a new generation of readers. As Foer wrote this book, the world was experiencing a digital revolution. Life is now shaped multimedia experiences. Children are using computers before they read, adults and teens are downloading and uploading everything from photos, to videos, to news, and music, while grandparents are “skype-ing” their grandkids on the weekends. A novel which integrates images into its textual plot is simply speaking the language of its audience.
Yet, Foer’s novel isn’t just for the Blackberry generation. This is a book is cross- generational. I would recommend it as readily to my high school English students, as to my own parents. It has elements of both a coming of age novel and a narrative for the greatest generation. Foer explores many universal themes in Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close: the devastation of war, loss of innocence and love, the complexities of family and relationships. These ideas connect with readers of all ages and engage them in the experiences of the characters. While many of the characters could be described as lost misfits, Foer is still able to create an intimacy with them which allows us to identify with them and feel their love, their hurt, and their longing.
“I watched the bags go around the carousel, each held a person’s
belongings, I saw babies going around and around, possible lives
I followed the arrows for those with nothing to declare, and that
Made me want to laugh, but I was silent. One of the guards asked
me to come to the side, ‘That’s a lot of suitcases for someone with
nothing to declare,’ he said, I nodded, knowing that people with
nothing to declare carry the most.”
Through Oskar and his family, we achieve a catharsis. We learn that no one gets out of this life without pain, and the way we live with it is what make us who we are. Regardless of his youth, Foer is able to create these moments of human truth which elevate his novel from merely entertaining to enlightened and worth at least one read, if not two.

Book Review-Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Foer

The novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathon Foer is intriguing and well written. Some argue that it is Foer’s greatest work to date. Jonathon Foer was born in 1977 and has one other well known novel named "Everything Is Illuminated." I personally believe that Foer is a very talented writer who has a unique style to his work. I have not had the opportunity until now, to read a novel written in this style of writing before and don’t think that I will see many in the future with as much creativity as this piece possesses.

The novel is about a nine-year-old boy named Oskar who lost his father during the September 11th attacks. After two years have passed since his father’s death, Oskar is still having a hard time accepting it and letting his father go. One of the things making Oskar’s father’s death so hard to accept is that Oskar was the only one to listen to the five heart wrenching voicemails left by his father the day of the September 11th attacks. One of the voicemails states, “I’m OK. Everything. Is. Fine. When you get this, give Grandma a call. Let her know that I’m OK. I’ll call again in a few minutes. Hopefully the fireman will be. Up here by then. I’ll call.” Oskar could tell by the messages that something was terribly wrong and that his father was trying to be calm only for him.

Oskar has a grandmother that lives across the street from him who he is tremendously close to. His grandfather left his grandmother forty years ago when he found out that Oskar’s grandmother was pregnant with his father. Before Oskar’s grandfather married his grandmother, he was in love with his grandmother’s sister who was pregnant with his child when she died in the bombings of Dresden. When Oskar’s grandfather found out about his wife being pregnant with Oskar’s father, he forced himself to leave because he was scared to loose another person that he loved.

One night while Oskar is looking through his father’s things he drops a vase, which shatters and reveals an envelope labeled with the name Black on it holding a mysterious key inside. Oskar is determined to find what the key opens and why his father had it hidden in a vase. Oskar comes up with the idea to meet everyone by the name of Black to hopefully find someone with the answer. Oskar allows his imagination to take him on an unforgettable adventure allowing him to find acceptance of his father’s death.

Along the way, Oskar meets many amazing people; some of whom he learns from and others that learn from him. One of the Blacks turns out to be his neighbor and becomes a close friend to Oskar. Oskar’s neighbor assists him until Oskar’s grandfather reappears as his grandmother’s renter. Oskar then becomes friends with the man that he does not know is his grandfather to finish the journey together. Both Oskar and his grandfather find a way to accept the death of Oskar’s father and are able to live life a little happier.

Foer leaves many unanswered questions at the end of the novel, which I think that he did on purpose. I believe that he wanted the audience to have the ability to have their own interpretation and ending to the story. Many readers may not care for the puzzling ending while others may praise Foer for it. I honestly think that it all depends on the reader’s personal preference and how creative they are.

The novel does have a small amount of content not appropriate for teens and children however; I recommend this novel to every adult. This novel offers so many lessons and reminds those that need to be reminded about what really matters in life. Grandmother leaves a letter for Oskar explaining her point of everything and tells him “it is always necessary.” Therefore, the greatest lesson that I got out of the novel is that you should never wait to say “I love you” or let someone know how much you care about them because you never know when they will be taken from you; not allowing you to tell them what you wanted to.

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, a book review by Márcio Padilha

In a very captivating way, Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close tells the story of Oskar Schell, a nine-year-old boy who lost his father in the New York City 9/11 attacks. In this novel, Foer gives the narration a multiplicity of voices, allowing different characters to have interesting and different perspectives. Oskar, nonetheless, is the main narrator who, after having accidentally found a mysterious key that belonged to his father, sets out on the mission of finding the lock it opens. The only clue he has is the word “Black”, written in red on the envelope the key was in. Assuming it was a last name, Oskar is determined to contact all of the Blacks who live in the city and, in doing so, he realizes that “life is scarier than death” and wanders in “heavy boots” around New York City’s five boroughs in search of an answer.


Like any other, the Schells are a family who have their myriad of secrets, idiosyncrasies and weaknesses. Grandma and grandpa, who are German immigrants who survived the World War II Dresden Bombing, interestingly explore life in rather absolute terms of oblivion and awareness. Their parental involvement with Thomas, Oskar’s father, is existent to one and not to the other. Thomas’ paternal relationship with Oskar, on the other hand, was full, fun and loving whereas Oskar’s current relationship with his mom is difficult, yet one of love. Grandma’s relationship with her daughter-in-law is amicable, respectful and supportive. Everyone’s relationship with the renter is one which will captivate the reader’s mind wondering for some time.


The success of Foer’s previous work Everything is Illuminated created high expectations, which were not let down, for Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. In this novel, Foer effectively addresses deep existential issues, sometimes unsettling and sometimes funny, by drawing parallels between the commonality of the other characters’ experiences and those of Oskar’s in light of tragedies of historical magnitude. His writing style is very engaging and thought-provoking in that it will cause the reader to wonder constantly as to where the fine line between denotation and connotation actually is.


In Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, Oskar Schell’s wild ADHD-like imagination will keep the reader’s interest and attention throughout the book. Despite maybe not being the most suitable choice for the weak at heart, reading this novel by Foer is a must.

Heavy Boots

Oskar Schell, the nine year old narrator of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, pulls a reader deep into an exploration of love, loss, and ways to cope with both. Thomas Schell, Oskar’s father, died in the tragedy of 9/11, leaving his wife, his mother, and his son Oskar, to cope with their grief in their own ways. Oskar finds a key in his dad’s closet, and spends the rest of the novel combing New York and questioning its inhabitants to see if they can help him discover the meaning behind the key. He refers to his grief as “heavy boots.” Grandma finds a “renter” to live with her, and increases the protection of her relationship with Oskar. Oskar’s mom finds a friend named Ron who also lost someone. Grandpa, a continent away in Dresden, returns to New York to reconnect with his wife, and find solace after losing a son he never had. To pile more grief and loss into the story, Grandma and Grandpa lost someone in the Dresden fire-bombings of WWII – Anna. Anna was pregnant with Grandpa’s baby, and was Grandma’s sister. Through the narratives we are given we see how these three very different people cope with their losses, and still continue to love the people they have left.

The novel is written by Jonathan Safran-Foer, an emerging writer who also wrote Everything is Illuminated, which was made into a major motion picture. His foray into the 9/11 tragedy with his most recent book received a variety of responses, some critical, some applauding, of his work. His style is unorthodox to say the least. Rather than straightforward text, Safran-Foer uses pictures, a flip book, letters, editorial red pen, blank pages, numbers, and text that blurs together until unreadable to make his point. I think these tactics are compelling. Foer presents readers with a new challenge, a different type of novel. Instead of being given what we, as readers, expect; we are given something wholly novel and illuminating. We are taken on a journey with Foer’s work, and not just a literary one. We have visuals at our disposal, we have confusion on the page and in the text, and we even have numbers to decipher into words if we can. Foer appears to be introducing readers to a new experience. In an interview with Powell’s Bookstore he said that “People seem to have two reactions to books. Either they describe what they’re about or they describe how the book made them feel. I’d much rather write the kind of book that inspires someone to describe the way it made them feel. When you’re talking about the book, you’re not referring to an object; you’re referring to an experience.” He wants his books to be remembered for how they make a reader feel, and how they create a specific experience.

This story is brilliantly told. Foer navigates sensitive issues that all people deal with surely and bares the emotions of all the characters for the readers to see. At every chapter I was connecting new dots, and questioning motivations of characters. Is Grandpa the “renter?” Does Mom really not care what Oskar is doing on the streets of New York every day? Why does Grandma keep saying she has “crummy eyes?” I would formulate answers to these questions and many others, only to receive new information, or make a new connection in the next section of reading and reformulate all over again. I loved this. Foer created real suspense this way I think. I appreciated the new way he told an old story of grief by including photos, drawings, letters, numbers, red pen marks, etc. I think these visuals fleshed out the novel, and gave us more information to use in our understanding, and to add to our book experience.

I would recommend this book to almost anyone. It was a great read, and worthy of the acclaim it received from many critics. There is sensitive material addressed, but I think this was necessary in order to fully appreciate the grief underwent by the Schell family, and other families after 9/11. If nothing else, read the book to gain some insight into love. As Grandma’s last sentiment reminds us – “Here is the point of everything I have been trying to tell you, Oskar. It’s always necessary [to say I love you to someone you love].” Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close is a great story, told by a great author. Read, and enjoy!

Audience Analysis

Audience Analysis: The Stranger


When I took my first look at the novel, Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, I immediately read the reviews. I figure that these must be the most positive, insightful sentiments about the book or they wouldn’t have been selected by the publisher. There on the inside front, against a background of cinnabar with a black silhouette of a hand, were the comments of an old friend from Seattle, The Stranger. The review states, “Funny and extremely tender, and incredibly brave…Maybe this is a novel for young people. By that I mean people who think of the future as exciting…I read it in a daze of happiness.” I decided to visit the website www.thestranger.com seattle / /Content?oid=21080 and read the review, “Everything is Obliterated” by Christopher Frizzelle, in its entirety. What I realized, as I looked at the content of the site and thought about the readers of this publication, was that the audiences of The Stranger are the Oskar Schells of the world.
The Stranger’s readers are an eclectic mix of edgy, left wing, counter culture devotees and misfits. Think Harvey Milk’s activists, the cast from 90’s movies like Singles, and the students in the liberal arts schools of the University of Washington. Oskar’s vegan, white wearing, no public transportation, pacifist, atheist ideas would be very much in line with the pathos of the readership. The Stranger is not “in the closet,” if you pardon the expression, about their politics and point of view. You are immediately bombarded by ads for tattoo and piercing parlors, personal ads of every color and combination, promotions for cutting edge concerts, art exhibitions, and Indy films. The top story on the home page is “Tax the Filthy Rich!” accompanied by a picture of the nation’s capitol. Another lead story relays the fallout of a police officer killing a homeless, deaf, mentally ill man who was brandishing a knife. There is an obvious liberal bias to the articles, and that is to be expected. Someone easily offended by extreme liberal thought or alternative lifestyles would not be a likely reader, except to present the paper as evidence of the downfall of society.
Frizzelle’s review of Foer’s novel stays true to the message of the publication. Frizzelle is writing to a literate and receptive audience. Rather than looking critically at the novel, this review attacks Foer’s critics, as did some of the other reviews available to us. Fizzelle takes particular offense to comments made by Michiko Kakutani of The New York Times. He finds her comments pretentious and off base, especially those regarding Foer’s experimental style and the believability of Oskar as a character. The New York Times, being the gold standard for national newspapers is definitely aimed at wider audience. While Frizzelle’s audience tends to be educated, and culturally aware, his demographic has a lower income and is younger than that of The New York Times. Frizzelle is writing for people who know about the reputation of “Grey Lady” of news, and may even read it, but rebel against the establishment and see it as old fashioned. It’s as if Frizzelle’s readers are hipsters, laughing along with Foer at a joke the old school just doesn’t get. Frizzelle takes objection to the criticisms of famed author and reviewer, John Updike. Frizzelle aptly points out that this novel is written for a new generation of visually savvy readers who have been raised with T.V., the internet, and now I-Pods etc. “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close is set (and was written) in a time period of absolutely no silence whatsoever, a time period in which people, especially children, confront millions of messages and graphic apparatus everywhere.”
Frizzelle’s review, in contrast to the brief reviews provided by other booksellers, is lengthy (two pages) and very detailed regarding the plot of the book. My initial opinion is that Frizzelle is a frustrated novelist who wishes that he had penned this engaging story. The introduction reads like a 9/11 novel itself, and Frizzelle summarizes the book in such detail that the article is nearly a spoiler. I’m glad that I finished the majority of the book before reading the review or it wouldn’t have been nearly as exciting. Frizzelle doesn’t really get into critiquing the novel until well into the second page. His review gives away too much and gets a little academic. It reads like a paper for an English class rather than a quick down and dirty explanation of the novel, whether it was good, and if it’s worth reading. True to The Stranger’s target alternative audience, Frizzelle comments that, “Foer is clearly a paper fetishist.” Much like his characters, Foer, according to Frizzelle, obsessively collects letters and documents. Frizzelle appreciates Foer’s use of visuals and the purpose they serve in the novel. He praises Foer for his “naturalistic and modernist,” disorientation in the delivery of the plot and how there ended up being a surprising amount of, “narrative logic.”
Out of all the articles I read about Foer and Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close I enjoyed Frizzelle’s and the Powell’s pieces the most. Both articles originate in very progressive Northwest cities, Frizzelle’s from Seattle and the Powell’s article from Portland, and both articles appear to have a similar target audiences. Foer, like a grown-up Oskar, is the target audience for these publications. He is relatively young, intelligent and hip. He doesn’t want to read, or write, like authors of previous decades. We are in a new millennium. I also identify with the audience of both pieces. I’m a previous resident of Oregon and Seattle, a side-line fan of the counter culture, and a child of technology and information. While the novel appeals to many ages and demographics, I feel a connection with Foer and am glad I can still share Frizzelle’s “daze of happiness,” experiencing this novel.

Audience analysis

I’m not big on reading book reviews. I’m one of those people who will pick a book up off of the shelf, read the back cover and decide if it is something that I would like. As I was looking at the reviews for this assignment, I was bored. That is until I read the one written by Nina McLaughlin for the Boston Phoenix. This one sparked my interest. It is more of a review of a review. I found it very interesting and funny.
I think I should point out that I am not so fresh and young anymore. That being said, it does not necessarily mean that I can’t appreciate a writing style that fresh and young. The Boston Phoenix seems to be a fresh, young, and edgy publication. It is aimed at the under thirty, educated, open minded crowd. If you look at the different blogs on the website, you see blogs on politics, Laser orgy (for video gamers), outside the frame (about foreign films) and something called phlog (which is entertainment related. I have to admit, there were many things on those blogs that I had no clue about. Perusing the website before reading the review would have made me choose another review. Fortunately, I did not judge “the book by its cover”. Yes, the slideshow about the Boston Tattoo Convention may have made me think twice!
But wait a minute! I have tattoos, could I really be that different from their audience? Maybe not so much. McLaughlin starts the review with a disclosure about not going to hear a reading by John Updike at a Unitarian Church. She talks about how she doesn’t really like him, but her friend does and she respects her opinion. She refers to him as being old. He was born in 1932, so I guess that would be old, even by my standards.
McLaughlin refers to her dislike being in part because she is not a 53 old divorcee from Concord. I took that to mean that she felt that Updike only appealed to that demographic. This furthered my opinion that she was young, and this was meant to be read by young readers. She refers to Updike’s story “A&P”. I found this interesting since I first read this last semester in Literature class. (Okay, I know, I am a non-traditional student. McLaughlin probably read in frosh lit class as well .) She rather liked “A&P” and the subtle sexual overtone. (She did however, say that it reminded her of her parents, and thought it was an old man reimagining his high school lustings.) For this reason she could not understand why Updike trashed Foer. She said his review was self serving and outdated because Updike felt that a 9 year old was not sexually mature enough to be a protagonist in a novel. That points to a generational difference in morality, and McLaughlin acknowledges this. Apparently the maturity level of kids is viewed differently these days, and her targeted audience would know this without saying!
The words and writing style point to the more casual style that would appeal to a younger audience. She uses some phrases that I found entertaining, such as referring to Foer as “Saffy-fo". She writes in a style that is meant to edgy, and she succeeds. She is an intelligent writer, who uses decisive language.
I am fairly certain that the target audience would not contain many Republicans, or members of the religious right wing. The slideshow “Boston League of Women Wrestlers” gave me my first clue! I am sure that there are folks that may find some of the content of the websites offensive. I guess if that is the case, they should probably go to a different website.
I can admit that there are many things that “kids” are into that I just don’t understand. I am of a different generation. I have kids older than some of the students in my classes! Though I may not understand it all, that does not mean my mind is not open. I think that if one takes the time to read between the lines, and look beyond the cover we can find things that we can really enjoy.

audience analysis paper

Cloying and false. Fraud and hack. These are emotionally charged words used by Harry Siegel in his review of Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close. Siegel’s New York Press [NYP] review dated April 20, 2005, is entitled “Extremely Cloying & Incredibly False--why the author of Everything Is Illuminated is a fraud and a hack.” One look at NYP’s “about us” section in the website http://www.nypress.com/, confirmed the identity of Siegel’s audience immediately. (.Com shows commercial intent.) NYP’s subscribers are an average age of 39.7 with an average income of $130,000. They are intelligent, hardworking, and well-read people wanting quality journalism about New York’s cultural issues--controversial “edgy topics.”
But make no mistake--Harry Siegel is not a flashy and trendy writer grabbing at a glimpse of fame. He is an experienced and well-known lifelong Brooklynite writer who has spent most of his life writing about and working in politics. His experiences include editing positions for several important newspapers, and he also worked for political consultant Hank Sheinkopf and New York state gubernatorial candidate Tom Suozzi. Add to this list of impressive accomplishments a book he co-authored with his father Fred Siegel, The Prince of the City: Giuliani, New York and the Genius of American Life, many well-known TV appearances, and numerous published articles.
With that said, an important point must be raised; Harry Siegel wrote this review with the NYP’s “paying” subscribers in mind. The words cloying, false, fraud, and hack in the title of Siegel’s review certainly cater to the subscribers’ expectation for controversy. But for audiences outside of the NYP readership, his review may appear quite hostile. Foer’s book never had a chance of a glowing review by Seigel! What is interesting to note, however, is both Siegel and Foer were born in 1977, both Jewish (though Seigel refers to Foer in the article as a Jewish atheist), and both currently live in Brooklyn, New York. Wouldn’t it be ironic if they were actually friends laughing all the way to the bank together? Or as Siegel refers to Foer in his review “...wear your flip-flops all the way to the bank.”
But it isn’t just Siegel’s review that caters to the needs of the NYP subscribers--it is also the website itself. The purpose of this website is multifaceted: to entertain, to inform, to give an opinion, to give personal confirmation to the NYP subscriber, and most importantly to sell subscriptions! The advertising, the design, the photos and pictures, and the tone all send the discerning NYP subscriber a subtle message. That message is the feeling they “belong” to a group of people who have the same virtuous standards and ideas about life. It is a ploy at getting the reader to buy into the image of what a NYP subscriber should and can be-- educated, hip, well-off financially, cultured, and special.
Supporting the target audience age of 39.7, at the very top of the website, is the advertisement “Eldersexual—over 25% of people ages 57 to 85 still have sex--and are at still at risk for HIV.” Though demure in appearance the words send a racy message. Next to this ad is the Forex Club ad letting the reader know they can have financial freedom because Ben Franklin says so, and below that William Shatner suddenly pops up letting the reader know it is his “full-time job to shop around for inexpensive priceline.com” flights for them. All ads are geared toward both male and female NYP subscribers who have “disposable income to enjoy the city and all it has to offer.” The rest of the site looks like a typical newspaper website with its name in large letters at the top left side by the logo and all the different columns directly underneath-- just like the sections of a paper newspaper.
This was also not a review written about some obscure author whose book no one recognized. It is the type of book that the typical NYP subscriber would know about—written by one of their own local starlets and more importantly about their neighborhood tragedy of 9/11. As Siegel states in his review, “… he snatches 9/11 to invest his conceit with gravitas, thus crossing the line that separates the risible from the villainous... which Foer tosses in just to make sure we understand what a big and important book we're dealing with.”
Who reads the book isn’t necessarily important to NYP, but who reads the review is important. Siegel doesn’t necessarily want people to stop buying Foer’s book; he just wants to keep the number of NYP’s subscriptions increasing. For those readers who have not read the book, Siegel provides supportive information, though biased as it may seem. He knows his audience is very literate and able to connect to other authors’ works. For instance, he alludes to Foer’s borrowing of other authors’ ideas and techniques by referencing them to the reader, “Foer is indeed a sampler, throwing in … Calvino (a tale about the sixth borough that floated off, ripped off wholesale from Cosmicomics), …Night of the Hunter (the grandfather has Yes and No tattooed on his hands) and damn near every other author, technique, reference and symbol he can lay his hands on, as though referencing were the same as meaning.”
Siegel’s tone and diction used in the review also incorporates NYP’s philosophy of a commitment “to the cause of narrative journalism at its best.” Because of the readers’ higher level of education they expect the use of words such as: admixture, gravitas, paean, precocious, banal, epistolary saga, and syllogisms. Siegel even creates words to keep his readers satisfied such as: Oprah-etic, writerliness, brain-gurble, and nafs. He sets the tone of the review by using negative descriptive words such as “ hater” in his introduction , “Call me a hater, then” in reference to Foer’s own words “Why do people wonder what's "OK" to make art about…Too many people hate art.”
In conclusion, it is difficult to take this entertaining review seriously once realizing Siegel wrote it for NYP’s subscribing audience. Siegel’s comment at the very onset of his review “Foer isn't just a bad author, he's a vile one,” immediately notifies the reader of suspicious dramatic pomp. In fact, Siegel becomes what he admonishes Foer for being, “Foer, squeezing his brass ring…threw in 9/11 to make things important, to get paid…How could someone so willfully young be so unambitious?” Doesn’t it sound as if Siegel is talking about himself?

Analysis of a Blog on a Review of a Novel ...

WordUp (found at http://thephoenix.com/blogs/wordup/) is a blog written by various contributors to Phoenix Network, which is an “alternative newsweekly.” The blog is typically written by Deirdre Fulton, a staff writer from the Portland Phoenix. Fulton writes on everything from politics to books to food. Her typical fodder in WordUp involves literary critiques or interviews with authors. Occasionally Fulton has guest bloggers create postings. One such posting came from Nina MacLaughlin, the assistant web editor for the Boston Phoenix. MacLaughlin has her own blog; Word Riot is subtitled “good writing. no remorse.” MacLaughlin’s posting was a retort to Updike’s review of Jonathan Safran-Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Fulton and MacLaughlin both aim their writings toward a moderately literate audience. Despite the tendency toward complex sentences, most concepts are still kept simple and to the point. The diction is familiar and the vocabulary is main-stream, but a few references are made in MacLaughlin’s piece specifically about Updike’s literary contributions. For example the readers are given the first sentence of Updike's A&P as if they are already familiar with it. These references imply that the blogger assumes they are common knowledge and need not be further explained to her readers. There is a link within MacLaughlin’s post to Updike’s review of Safran-Foer, so curious and computer-savvy readers can at least be aware of the review that MacLaughlin is commenting on. There are also allusions made to a woman named Sharon. We, as readers, are given no relational context for who this woman may be. I assumed it was a friend of MacLaughlin, but the casual mention of her implies she is a regular character in MacLaughlin’s postings, and does not need to be explained because her subscribers would be familiar with her already.

The website itself is fairly straightforward and without much outside advertising. There is one large ad on the top of the page next to The Boston Phoenix logo, and two smaller ads on the about halfway down the page, one on either side of the posting. There is also a large ad the entire width of the screen which reads: Student Survival Guide. This is placed directly above the image and title of the blog WordUp, and suggests a reader population of students. The image that WordUp uses for its title is a young woman (guesstimated 25-35 years of age) leaning back against a black leather chair reading a book. The words WordUp are written in block text above the woman’s feet. WordUp does have slideshow links on the right side of the main feature, as well as links to other Phoenix blogs and other stories by MacLaughlin on the left below the advertisement.

Based on the three slideshows to the left hand side of the main blog I would propose that the intended audience has a liberal background. The three slideshows are titled: (1) Boston League of Women Wrestlers, (2) Mellow Bravo at Middle East Downstairs, and (3) Boston Tattoo Convention. Women wrestling leagues are less than main-stream as an American sport. Mellow Bravo is a young roadhouse rock ‘n’ roll band from Boston who played at the Middle East Downstairs – a typical joint for the alternative indie-rock music scene. The Boston Tattoo Convention Slideshow link takes you to a series of photos taken at the convention at the Sheraton Hotel. Tattoos are not normally connected with the conservative-minded.

It also seems that the education level of readers is college-level. This hypothesis is based on the topical matter addressed in the blog. A usual blog topic for Fulton is some facet of literary culture. Fulton and MacLaughlin both assume their readers possess some familiarity with literary culture when blogging. However, the blog by MacLaughlin also describes her dislike for Updike being related to the fact that she is not a “53 year old divorcee.” Updike is old, and MacLaughlin is implying that older generations are Updike followers. The reference to a generational gap implies that MacLaughlin’s audience is younger than 53 at least. This, along with the WordUp main image on the top of the blog sets the target demographic between 20 and 35 in my mind.

While Nina MacLaughlin does not seem concerned about the opinions of others, she does focus on making an argument. It doesn’t appear that she expects hostility from her readers, but she does make an effort to make a point and support it rather than just observing events around her. Fulton, the main blogger behind WordUp, seems to have the same avenue of approach. An argument or strong opinion is essential to her writing as well, but most of her posts are her musings on items of the literary world; a new book, an emerging author, a controversial review or an update on a book tour. MacLaughlin’s post fits into Fulton’s series because it deals with Updike’s review on Jonathan Safran-Foer. Debate and discussion regarding any postings on the blog is not actively encouraged or discouraged. There is a comment section on the main page of WordUp titled Latest Comments, but it is located far left midway down the page and is not prominently highlighted.

Considering the overall site layout and content, not only MacLaughlin’s posting on Updike and Foer, it seems that the target audience for WordUp would be literate, college-educated, liberal people. Her audience has knowledge about the literary world, and is somewhat familiar with authors, novels, pieces, and literary criticisms. WordUp is written in familiar diction and resists a professional, condescending tone. Often the blogs sound like reports on events with an opinion on the happening highlighted by the blogger. The blog offers opinions, but does not force them down people’s throats with adamant, exclusive language. For an audience interested in upcoming literary events, and authors, WordUp is an informative and interesting website.

Audience Analysis

Lisa Nagrone

09/12/2010

Assignment #1 Audience Analysis- http://wetasphalt.com

After reading the review on the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Tom Bissel, I thought long and hard about the target audience and what emotions the author was trying to create with his audience. I found the review to be quite interesting and found that it inspired me to want to read the novel by Jonathon Foer even more than I had before.

I found advertisements on the site that I went to from both Google and Amazon. There were two Google advertisements, one on how to make money writing and one on how to get published. There were also two Amazon advertisements, one to purchase the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathon Foer and one to purchase The Father of All things, by Tom Bissel. I think that it is funny that the author of the review was advertising his book on the same website. However, I have to say that the advertizing was kept at a minimum not like other websites that have pop ups popping out from all over the place.

I believe that the author’s level of diction is moderate. It was easy to understand the review however; there were a few phrases and words that seemed out of place compared to the rest of the writing. In the writing the author stated, “Everything Is Illuminated was one of the most mature and fully realized books ever published by someone comparably young, which places Foer among the ranks of Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, Martin Amis, and John Updike.” The author of the review did not talk about the other authors that he compared Foer to and just expected the audience to know all of them; I personally had never heard of any of them before.

In my opinion, the author wrote as though he expected the audience to have a low level of familiarity with the novel. The writer lightly explained what the novel was about to the audience and what style of writing Foer used in the novel. The author did not give the ending of the novel, which I was thankful for since I haven’t finished reading yet. The author was very informative in his review and gave both credit and criticism to Foer for his writing style. For Example, the author stated in his review “This is a good novel. It is not nearly good enough.”

I don’t believe that the author expected a hostile audience or that he tried to create a hostile audience. I feel that the author was trying to be nothing but informative in his review and that he did not try to convince the audience to think one way or the other. To me, the goal of the author was to put the information out there allowing the audience to interpret the information anyway they chose. The background that I believe the writer expected the audience to share is a strong sadness for those that lost loved ones or were affected in some way by the 9/11 attacks. The author of the review understood that many people would have mixed emotions about the novel and that many people would be interested in it enough to read it.

Looking at the review, I believe the target audience to be open-minded, college level people or just simply open-minded adults. The audience would have to have an understanding of literature and maybe even knowledge of the different authors that Bissel expected the audience to know about; such as the ones I listed earlier. This audience would not be the typical audience that you see at www.seventeen.com or www.nationalenquire.com but maybe the same audience that you would see at www.nytimes.com. The web site does allow for comments that show up on the bottom right column. I read through a few of them and found that the topics off comments were way of course from the review topic. All in all, I was pleased with the site.

I would recommend this review to anyone that is going to read “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close,” by Jonathon Foer to get a better understanding about what the novel is about and then actually read the novel to determine what they agree and disagree with Bissel about. From my own experience, you should never let a review turn you away from a novel that you are interested in, just go for it!