Elene Chkhaidze – Character Analysis

Oskar Schell is the main character in Jonathan Safran’s book “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close”. Oskar seems to be just a normal kid with dreams and interests who had a great life before the 9.11.2001 accident. Before that day, his father was the most important person in Oskar’s life. He and his father always used to be so close to each other. They were often playing a game called “Search Missions”. His father used to give him clues and Oskar would search for the hidden item.

On 9.11.2001 there was a horrible accident that changed Oskar’s life. On that day his father was in one of those buildings that the suicide terrorists attacked. After that day Oskar completely changed. He gained new fears such as buildings, elevators, planes, strangers and smoke. He has become very lonely and sad since his dad died. After a few years, while Oskar was looking through his dad’s room he found a blue vase. The vase fell and broke. There was something inside that vase. It was an envelope. Oskar opened it and found a key. He knew that it was something important and decided to look for what that key was supposed to open. 

All of those things say a lot about Oskar. We can tell that he is not really good at communicating so that’s why he doesn’t really have friends to play with and people to rely on. In the book there’s mentioned that he invents stuff on his own and then collects items. He is creative and rather introverted. He is also scared of things such as planes and elevators. All of these traits can mean that he has ASD (Autism spectrum disorder). He is bad at communicating, only is close and attached to two people and has many interests such as inventing things and investigating. There’s also mention that he only wears white clothes. People with Autism want everything in their lives to be the same and perfect. They often are introverted, have anxiety and stress quickly about small things. People with autism either fear nothing or fear many things.

Based on those symptoms and signs of Autism we can deduce that Oskar is autistic.

Author: Elene Chkhaidze