Extremely Loud 2

Anna Lacy

Trauma in Film and Literature

A Grandmother’s Conscious

            In one of Oskar’s Grandmother’s letters, she tells a story about when Oskar was young and she was watching him. The two were playing and she was pretending to be a monster and chase him. Oskar ended up running into a table and injuring himself, even though the event was obviously an accident Oskar’s Grandmother blamed herself to the point that she even advised Oskar’s father to not allow her to be around Oskar for fear that she may hurt him again. The Grandmother’s loss of confidence in her ability to care for Oskar is her lack of self-confidence and coping skills. When her sister died, years later, she married her sisters old boyfriend in an attempt to keep her memories of her dead sister alive. The man she married ended up leaving her because she was not her sister which continued to drive her self confidence even further down. Even though Oskar was hurt in her care both Oskar and his father continued to want him to be around her. Oskar valued her company and his father obviously wanted his son and his mother to have a good relationship.