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Pathos
Definition of Setting
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or it can be an imagined... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the city of New York, or... read full definition
Setting is where and when a story or scene takes place. The where can be a real place like the... read full definition
Setting
Explanation and Analysis:
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close unfolds across two primary settings: post-9/11 New York City and World War II-era Dresden. Both are defined by the aftermath of catastrophic loss. Oskar's present-day quest is rooted in the city's altered landscape: missing-persons posters taped to walls, the skyline forever changed, and a community bound by grief. His search for the lock that matches his father's key takes him through all five boroughs, where every encounter is colored by the collective trauma of "the worst day." New York becomes a map of his mourning.
The grandparents' narratives transport the reader to Dresden in 1945, during the Allied firebombing. In the train station, Grandpa loses Anna (his first love) and their unborn child, an event that leaves him with unshakable survivor's guilt and a lifetime of silence. The destruction of Dresden is rendered in images of total erasure, and its ruins mirror the wreckage of 9/11.
By weaving these two settings together, Foer situates grief within a broader, transhistorical framework of violence and recovery. Dresden's devastation functions as a historical counterpoint to Oskar's New York, underscoring that the experience of loss transcends place and time. Both scarred cities become spaces where memory and mourning are inescapable.
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