Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close discussion

please can somebody tell what is about it

Oskar's dad used to go through the New York Times with red pen, circling the mistakes that he found within. The red ink through the letter written by Oskar's grandfather not only recalls this idea, but also shows a link between these two men who, in life, never knew each other, and yet were similar, at least in this respect.

I had actually thought that Oskar's father did finally have the opportunity to read that letter, and wrote his corrections over it as he's known to do. Although on second thought, I suppose it was mentioned that Oskar's grandfather never got the letters to his son, which is why they buried them with him instead. So I guess the grandfather made the corrections? For some reason I just assumed it was a way of showing that Oskar's father did in fact read it at some point.

Perhaps to create the effect of Oskar's father reading it, and not himself. After all, the other letters are read by Oskar. Also, it's quite characterizing for his father, that he is smart, and that he is always finding mistakes in the small things, therefore, it gives an interesting idea of Thomas Schell.

ıt is said in the book. grandpa actually send one letter, which is the letter with red ink, and after oskar's father tried to reach his father and found him. but he did not reveal himself but he introduced himself as a journalist.

shortcut, it is the only letter oskar's grandfather send to his son. the red ink indicates that oskar's father has read it.

I think that the red ink also indicates the intensity that Oskar's dad paid the only letter that he received from his father. Although we never know how Oskar's dad felt about being abandoned by his father, the red (sign of passion) ink marks the page like the abandonment may have marked his personality and therefor his close relationship with his son.

I agree, Alana, and I wondered, as I read the book, how Oskar's dad felt about being abandoned.

ooh, the copy I read didn't have the red ink. I feel cheated now!!

Also, guys, the story is about the Dresden bombing and War and Death. The red ink visually symbolizes the blood spilled---then the next passage is about Japan being bombed---relating both to the tragedy of 9/11; which is a/our (most recent) American tragedy.

Also, if you notice, as the letter goes on, there is more and more red. As the emotion and story pick up, the red gets intense too. And eventually it's not just grammatical and punctuation errors being circled, it's key phrases and such as well.