The key that drives the plot of the novel is the one that Oskar finds inside the envelope labeled “Black” in the blue vase in Dad’s closet. This key forms the basis for Oskar’s expedition around New York. As Oskar travels around the city, meeting every person with the last name “Black” in alphabetical order by first name, he must overcome several of his fears—traveling across bridges, riding the subway—and learns about others’ lives by pursuing his own quest. Ultimately, what’s behind the lock that the key unlocks isn’t the point; rather, the main function of the key is the personal growth it allows Oskar to achieve, since it gives Oskar a sense of purposefulness in the face of events that seem chaotic and uncontrollable. Other keys also open and close both literal and metaphorical doors in the novel. Grandma has kept Grandpa’s key to the apartment for forty years. She gives it to him when he returns, but Grandpa eventually buries the key in Dad’s coffin, along with all letters to his unborn son. Oskar wears the key from the vase over his heart, tied to his apartment key: his Dad is always the driving force of the quest, but the quest ultimately leads him back to his family. Like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, Oskar has had the power to return home all along.
Keys Quotes in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close quotes below all refer to the symbol of Keys. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 9
Quotes
I adjusted the string so the keys—one to the apartment, one to I-didn’t-know-what—rested against my heart, which was nice, except the only thing was that it felt too cold sometimes, so I put a Band-Aid on that part of my chest, and the keys rested on that.
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Keys Symbol Timeline in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
The timeline below shows where the symbol Keys appears in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1, “What The?”
Mom asks Oskar why Oskar has given a spare set of keys to the mailwoman; though Oskar is afraid that Mom doesn’t love him anymore, she reassures...
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Chapter 3, “Googolplex”
...When he starts to clean up, he finds a little envelope with a fat, short key inside the vase that Oskar’s never seen. He tries all the locks in the apartment,...
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...lie he has to tell, he reports—and goes to the locksmith to ask about the key. The locksmith says that it looks like it’s for a lockbox, probably a safe-deposit box.
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Oskar retrieves the envelope that the key had been in and sees the word “Black” written on the back. His Dad’s handwriting...
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...free to go around the city and ask all the people named Black about the key, which, he calculates, will take him eight months.
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...Me binder, and Jonathan Safran Foer includes the pictures in the chapter: a wall of keys, Stephen Hawking, Hamlet, a blueprint of a paper airplane, two turtles making love, a box...
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Oskar puts the key from the vase on the string around his neck, next to his apartment key, and...
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Chapter 5, “The Only Animal”
...Dad is dead. The man says that if Oskar comes up, he’ll look at the key, but since he’s hooked up to several machines, he can’t come down. Oskar is scared...
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...knew his Dad, Thomas Schell, and again, she says no. When he shows her the key, she also says that she doesn’t know anything about that.
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Chapter 7, Heavier Boots
...tells Oskar that he has made Gail uncomfortable with his compliments. Oskar shows her the key, but she hasn’t seen it before. He gives her his card and she pays for...
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Oskar goes to the bathroom and surreptitiously tries the key on several keyholes in the apartment, but none work. Mr. Black has an amazing bed...
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Oskar’s key is reaching toward the bed: there are so many nails that they are exerting a...
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Chapter 9, “Happiness, Happiness”
They meet Albert Black and Alice Black, but neither one of them knows about the key. Oskar asks Alice if he can kiss her. Oskar receives a letter from Gary Franklin,...
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...from Jane Goodall. Oskar puts a Band-Aid on the part of his chest that the keys rest against, because sometimes the keys get cold against his heart.
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Chapter 13, “Alive and Alone”
After six and a half months of searching for the key together, Mr. Black tells Oskar that he is finished, which makes Oskar feel incredibly lonely....
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Chapter 14, “Why I’m Not Where You Are (9/11/03)”
...window is open and the apple goes into the apartment. The doorman gives Grandpa a key, but the door is open when he goes up. Grandma tells him that he can...
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...but she says no; however, she shows him how he can see Oskar through the keyhole in the coat closet.
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...gotten off the phone with Oskar’s mother and wonders why Grandpa doesn’t know about the key.
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Chapter 15, “A Simple Solution to an Impossible Problem”
...he hears Abby Black, saying that she might be able to help Oskar with the key. The message had been waiting for Oskar for eight months, but Oskar hasn’t heard it,...
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Abby says that her husband knows about the key, but on the day when Oskar had visited eight months ago, she couldn’t tell Oskar...
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...up, and she told her the whole story: about Oskar coming to visit, about the key, about Oskar’s mission. All of a sudden, everything makes sense. That’s why Mom never seemed...
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Oskar shows William the key. William asks Oskar if he found it in a blue vase. William says that he’s...
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...letter. At the end of the letter, William’s father wrote that he left him a key in a blue vase to his safe-deposit box, but by that point, William had already...
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...anyone about the phone call, and William says that he does. Oskar gives him the key.
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...than actually carrying them out. Oskar tells Grandpa that he found the lock to the key. Oskar says that he wishes he hadn’t found the lock because now he can’t look...
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Chapter 16, “My Feelings”
...Oskar dug up Dad’s grave, and Grandpa buried the letters he wrote, along with the key to Grandma’s apartment, in the grave.
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