Adapting "Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close"

Adapting Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer would be very difficult to do. I haven’t seen the movie yet because I haven’t finished the book but my sister said it was very sad. I don’t understand how it’d me sad because the book is perverted and confusing, not sad like at all.

One scene in the book that would be essential to keep in the movie would be the scene when Oskar, the main character, went into his parents’ bedroom and found a vase. He dropped it and it shattered. Inside was an envelope when the world “Black” written in red ink. Inside of the envelope was a key. He travels to a locksmith and finds out that the key belongs to “some kind of lockbox,” (Foer 39). This scene begins the journey that Oskar travels throughout the whole book. If the director left out this scene, movie wouldn’t match the book at all.

Another scene in the book that would need to be kept in the movie is the scene where Oskar gets home from school and listens to voicemails on the home phone. He hears his father leaving messages to let the family know that he’s okay. This scene is important because you experience the death of his father. This is also essential for the movie to mimic the book because if this scene was left out then Oskar would have never found the key.

The last part of the book that shouldn’t be left out of the movie isn’t really a scene just a detail of the book. Oskar only wears the color white. This was left out of the movie, obviously. It’s never explained why he only wears white but throughout the whole book, anytime he receives clothes that aren’t white he says something like “too bad it’s not white”. Foer makes the point that Oskar only wears white so many times in the book which means the author obviously believes it’s important or he had a reason for it.

One scene in the book that wasn’t important or essential for the movie is the scene where Oskar’s mom is laughing and talking to Ron. It’s not important because they’re not dating and it’s never really mentioned again after that scene at the beginning.

Another scene that’s not necessary for the movie is when Oskar’s grandma’s and grandpa’s stories explain that his grandpa dated the grandma’s sister. It’s not important because I don’t think that its relevant at all because it didn’t change or help the story line.  

Book 1 Project

In the book I read, Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult, There’s a game that Peter Houghton creates in order to “practice” the school shooting he’s planning. Peter is the one guy in the whole school that every single person hates. Everyone in the “in” crowd calls him names and makes fun of him for having a crush on Josie. It really isn’t his fault because Peter and Josie were best friends until she became part of the “in” crowd in seventh grade. Now, their senior year, he still likes her but she’s dating the most popular guy, Matt. Okay so in the game you are a teenage boy with freckles and glasses. First, you have to pick your weapon. Then you run around the school and shoot the people that have made fun of peter. Actually creating the game would give readers a way to better understand the process Peter went through to kill ten people and shoot nineteen. 

The way Picoult writes is very different. She writes out of order so one chapter could be about the shooting and then the next is about what happened three years ago. This game is mentioned in the middle of the book but Peter creates it about a week before he actually takes the two hand guns and two sawed off shot guns to school to shoot twenty-nine people. This game mimics Peter running in through the front door, down the hall to the bathroom, around the corner to the cafeteria, then through the gym to the locker room. This is the pathway the computer game takes you to shoot other students and teachers. Peter was forced to use the stalls in the restroom because other guys would call him “homo”. Matt Royston pulled down Peter’s pants (and underwear) in front of the entire cafeteria. In gym he always picked last. In the locker room, the guys called him “homo” and broke his glasses in half. These events caused Peter to target those specific areas of the school to shoot.

This game could help broaden the audience by showing people who get bullied or computer game addicts that Jodi Picoult doesn’t just write “chick flicks”. Typically, Picoult writes stories that interest teenage girls because they’re about teenage girls and their problems. Yes this book revolves around Josie Cormier’s love triangle but Peter is the main character.  This could help encourage readers to stay connected with the book because, no judging, I was on Peter’s side. When he was being interviewed by the detective, Patrick Ducharme, Patrick asked why he did it and Peter said, “They started it” (Picoult). At first Peter is the antagonist because Josie is shown as the main character but as you keep reading you realize Peter only did it because Josie, Matt, Emma, Courtney, Drew, and Maddie provoked him. This game could help readers understand what Peter’s process was when running through the school and shooting.