Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close has many pages in it that have no words, but just a photograph instead. These photographs vary in subject, clarity and detail but all can be linked to deeper elements within the story.
The picture pages in the novel are imagery that connect to the central purpose of not being able to put what you feel into words. Oskar has a great difficulty in expressing how he really feels. So instead of describing his emotions with words, he uses the actual pictures. Also this helps the reader have a stronger connection with Oskar, and it allows the reader to step into his shoes and experience exactly what Oskar experienced. This could also be a potential central purpose, stepping into someone else's shoes.
On page 53 there is a photograph of hundreds of seemingly identical keys hung up on small hooks. The photograph is shot from such an angle that it seems the racks of keys stretch on forever, all the same and all unused. This is also a reference to the recurring theme of doorknobs, as no-one knows what door the keys might open or what might be behind the door that they do. Oskar himself is trying out multiple keys, attempting to unlock the door that will help him understand the questions he asks.
All I can think is that each picture means something for the book. The keys and doorknobs have to do with finding new things about himself or about his father, there are random pictures that Oskar has collected in his scrapbook, that I don't think have anything to do with anything, and there is a backwards sequence on the last few pages of the book of a man falling from one of the twin towers. The fact that the man is falling up in the order of the pages implies that Oskar isn't focusing so much anymore on the horrific and tragic death of his father, but is going back in time, as it were. The man is falling up, back into the tower, back to his life, back as if nothing happened. Oskar has found all he needs.
Page 89 has a picture of something that looks like the underside of the bridge, and, judging by the text on the opposite page, is probably the Brooklyn Bridge.
On page 15 i thought it was interesting seeing how many keys you could choose from and thought of how important it was to Oskar that he find the right lock to the key that his father left
There are many pages completely devoted to pictures, but pages 60 and 61 in particular have a perspective picture of Manhattan on them, but the rectangle where central park is located is whited out. This could signify many different things. Perhaps a clean slate for Oskar, connecting to the fact that Oskar wears all white. Or could mean something completely different.
On page 95 there is a close up photograph of an elephant's eye, and on page 96 there is a signifacant quote (below). Oskar is talking to Abby Black, trying to figure out if she knows anything about his father and/or the mystery key/envelope.
Oskar says:"' [...] what's really fascinating is that she'd play the call of a dead elephant to its family members.' 'And?' 'They remembered.' 'What did they do?' 'They approached the speaker.' 'I wonder what they were feeling.' 'What do you mean?' 'When they heard the calls of their dead, was it with love that they approached the jeep? Or fear? Or anger?' 'I don't remember.' 'Did they charge?' 'I don't remember.' 'Did they cry?' 'Only humans can cry tears. Did you know that?' 'It looks like the elephant in that photograph is crying.'" (96)
I think this quote and picture are greatly significant to the novel. I find it very odd that Jonathan Safran Foer never shows Oskar crying, although it is obvious to the reader that Oskar is struggling with the death of his father. It's almost like Foer is saying that the elephant is more human-like towards their loss than Oskar is to his dad's death. This quote also has a lot of characterization, direct and indirect, of Oskar. It shows Oskar's random facts that he has stored in the back of his brain, and shows how his brain works. This also shows his love for animals, which can be directly related to his grandfather and his love of animals. Oskar feels the pain that the elephant goes through when the elephant hears the call of its dead elephan family members, because he too has heard his dead father through his recorded phone message from the day he died.
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I agree, the pictures in the book help add to the abnormality of the book and i think this kind of adds more to the mystery and the idea of what the heck is the author thinking when he wrote this, and whats the piont of this, and this is random. and i love that about this book becouse it never disapoints to be uninteresting or normal, and i believe that the pictures help to exentuate that idea. i also belie that the pictures in the book were a good idea becouse words can only say so much, but pictures are worth a million word. i truely believe this. like if someone was trying to explain somthing to me i believe it would be easier to draw it out, it just helps with the understanding of the strange point the author is trying to get across.
The pictures are used to illustrate what is happening in the book in a way different than using just words. For example, there are many pictures of different locks as Oskar searches for the one that fits his key. I too agree that the pictures better communicate thoughts, ideas, and emotions better than words sometimes could, and think they are what makes the book so interesting.
On page 281, he starts overlapping and cramping all the text together. Not quite a picture page, but an artistic touch. I thought this was really interesting, and tried to read it, but gave up after a couple lines. The way the author does this makes me think about how fast Oskar's mind is racing, so fast that he cannot quite keep up and the information is lost.
I thought it was very interesting in the last 15 pages how it shows someone rising back to the twin towers in reverse. I think this might symbolize Oskar wanting to reverse what happened to his father. I don't remember if he said exactly that his father jumped off the twin towers but he said that there were many stories on the news saying that people were jumping off the top. I think some people might have jumped off to feel alive for one last time. Which could possibly be a central purpose in this novel. Oskar probably thinks his father jumped off the building, so by showing the pictures at the end of someone rising back to twin towers could show his wanting his father back to life. And this could resemble a central purpose of wanting something you know can never happen.
I feel that the author inserts the various picture pages for one of two reasons. It could be simply a visual extension of Oskar's jittery thought processes, or it could be something more. Some of the pictures are inserted into pages of the book because sometimes, pictures can evoke emotions, feelings, and understandings in an instant, that no amount of text could convey. "Pictures are worth a thousand words" would be the cliché phrase to apply here, although to some of the pictures, a thousand words would not do them justice. Oskar verbalizes almost every single thing that he thinks, but for the things that he nor anyone could verbalize, the pictures that are inserted does the job of getting the idea across.
In many cases the book has Oskar talking to someone about things and a page later he has a picture of the same thing. This is very similiar to a childs book because Oskar may have trouble expressing his emotions into words, thus he puts in pictures. Also i noticed that when two or more people are talking the diolouge is difficult to follow. "Did you know Thomas Schell?""Excuse me?""Did you know Thomas Schell?""No""Are you sure?""Yes" pg:91 This may mena that Oakar has a differnt way of showing things.
Although they're not technically picture pages, P. 270 and 271 are interesting. They are just random numbers, some followed by exclamation points and some followed by question marks. They make you wonder what Oskar is trying to say with them.