Mortality Quotes in Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Even though Oskar is super clever, his youthful naïveté shines through here. Just because coffee stunts his growth doesn't mean that it extends his lifespan. The way this exchange with Mr. Black is described, it's funny how matter-of-fact Oskar is in telling him this.

This is an excerpt from the gruesome interview with a Hiroshima survivor that Oskar plays for his class—the stark testimony from a woman watching her daughter die. While girls in his class were crying, Oskar goes on to describe the physics of how people are killed and charred in an atomic explosion. Another example of how shut-down he can be: he presents this hugely emotional testimony in class, but ignores the emotion.

Oskar's obviously angry at his therapist for asking the question, and perhaps rightfully so. Oskar might eventually look back on his experience to see what he learned from it, but that's not where he's at emotionally at that moment. Oskar admits he really doesn't holler at Dr. Fein. He just wanted to. We think Dr. Fein's timing is pretty bad.