Extra Credit Blog Post

Narrative Strategies in Beloved and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close 

One aspect of the twentieth century American novel that we have studied in this class is the use of many authors of multiple narrators. Particularly in Toni Morrison’s Beloved and Jonathan Safran Foer’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close use multiple narrators; these narrations all focus on the effects of tragedy on a variety of people. Using these multiple narrators also adds an element in which the readers know more or less than the various narrators. This model mirrors that of the actual tragedies themselves; multiple people know varying amounts of information before, during, and after tragedies occur. Beloved, modeling that of middle passage and slavery in America, and Extremely Loud and Incredibly close mirroring that of the bombing of Dresden and 9/11.

            In the second half of Beloved, the novel plays on the information known between characters and the reader. Particularly what happened to Sethe’s “crawling already?” daughter. The struggle between who knows what comes out particularly when Stamp Paid makes the choice to tell Paul D about the events even though Sethe has not told him, “He had made up his mind to show him.” (Morrison 183). Stamp tells Paul D by showing him the newspaper clipping, however there is still initial confusion and denial as Paul D repeats the phrase “that ain’t her mouth” (181). This  confusion mirrors the confusion of the middle passage. Some members, the transporters know what is going on, however, the passengers often did not speak the langue, have any idea where they were going, or know what was happening. The novel uses these multiple narrators to show the confusion and trauma of middle passage and slavery.

            In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close the narration shows the initial confusion and confusion after 9/11 and subsequent struggle to make sense of that confusion. Oskar coming home, not really understanding what is happening. When he explains to the man what has happened with the keys, he says, “They let us out of school, we didn’t understand what was happening yet” (Foer). He is initially confused and then shocked when he listens to the voicemails from his father, and then his father asking if he is there. This mirrors the initial confusion and shock that occurs in any tragedy, as well as specifically 9/11 and the bombing referenced in the novel. How initially, people are confused about what is happening and then the initial confusion wears off, but there is still emotional damage left over.

            Both novels use their narrative strategies to mirror the trauma of actual tragedy. By doing this the novels can use their narratives to provide their strategies of how to deal with these events after they have occurred.