Rens Hogeweg
J.P. Kavanagh
3 december 2018
Written Task
Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
Rationale
This written task is in accordance with part three of the English IB course. It has been
written on the book “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close”. A book about a nine-year-old boy,
Oskar, whose father became deceased during 9/11. A terrorist attack in which four planes
where hijacked and were flown into the twin towers and the pentagon. This nine year old
boy whom suffers from some sort of autism tries to do anything to make his “8 minutes”
longer. These 8 minutes resemble the time between his father dying and him knowing since
it takes 8 minutes for the light from the sun to travel to us and if it would go out we would
only realize that after 8 minutes. The written task is a “missing chapter” of the book in
which Oskar reaches out to his dad knowing that since he is dead he wont respond but feels
like writing it all down could bring him some closure as he just cannot forget and move on.
It is called “8 minutes” since this part repeat some times and is really important to the story
itself. The chapter would place itself at the end of the book where Oskar has already
experienced his journey and now wants to end this chapter of his life in a quest for a normal
life.
8 minutes
Seriously funny, repeating over and over in my head waiting for you to come up with a new
oxymoron knowing all to well it is not going to happen. Now that you are gone there is
nothing else that I can think about. My mind has been fully occupied with one and only one
thought. It is like the time that you told me all about the sixth borough and my thoughts
would wonder off imagining the beautiful place it would be. But now it's not a happy
thought. Memories passing by off all the things we did together, the puzzles, the games, the
scavenger hunts. All beautiful but very much hurting on the inside, making me pinch my
side to make the inner pain go away. I decided to write you a letter, to get the closure that I
desperately need and hope I can find this way. Now I am not crazy and I know that you
wont be able to respond but it gives me a feeling of hope and so I wont even send it but
hope you will know and watch over me from up there.
Dear dad,
Mom has told me you have gone to heaven but where is it? It is not a place that is on the
earth so are you in space? Is everyone who died there? Also are there animals or just
humans? In school I learned that only people who have lived a good life go to heaven so
where are the ones that lived badly? And who determines whether you are good or bad?
I hope you are at rest up there. I refer to heaven with up because everyone who has ever
spoken to me about heaven has also referred to it like that. Down on earth things feel like
they have settled down since the worst day. Although no one has clearly explained to me
what happened that day I know that it was some sort of attack by bad people who
hijacked a plane and flew it into the tower which you were in. I know this because I have
done some research. Ever since the worst day I have been hoping for a chance to extend
our 8 minutes. A year ago I found a blue vase one your shelf, I reached for it and while
doing so I broke the vase. Inside I found a little envelope with black on it and a key inside.
I thought this must have been meant to be and that you left this for me as one last
scavenger hunt. I made several maps, indexes and a plan to visit every person named
black in the five boroughs. During my search I came in contact with the renter. A man
who rented the room besides grandma’s. I thought he was a bit weird and he wouldn’t
say anything. As it turns out this was my grand father and your father. After I found out
he abandoned us again but I continued my hunt anyway cause of rule 7. “nothing comes
in the way of the search”. I met so much interesting people, all with their own story and
so many had lost someone. The search took way longer than I anticipated. After some
time a woman contacted me whom I remembered from before, it was Abby Black. She
told me that she didn’t know anything about the key but that her ex-husband might. As it
turned out William, her ex-husband had also lost his father and when he did he left him
the key but was accidentally handed over by means of the blue vase which William had
sold. I now realize how I thought this way up in my head but I couldn’t handle the
disappointment of not being able to stretch our 8 minutes. I decided to hand over the
key, turned him down the he asked me to come along but wished him good luck and went
home. Now it turned out my mom was watching the whole time and followed me in my
journey every step of the way. I still think of you every day, how we would have an
oxymoron battle or how we could just lie in bed talking and talking. I hope you are safe
and now that I will never stop missing you. No matter how heavy my shoes got I did not
stop looking.
I was folded the letter opened the envelope and licked on the stamp, but as you normally
would go and send it to the post office I went to my dads room. When I came in nothing was
the same any more as it was on the worst day except for the closet in which his tuxedo
hung. I reached for it and put the envelope in the pocket knowing this would be the closest
to him as I could get.