A Response to 9/11 by Jonathan Safran Foer

Question 15 • ALT ENG 11 S2 Common Core ELA 11 2014 - ELA3011 B-CR

Which line from Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close reveals a melancholy tone?

Answer

As for the bracelet Mom wore to the funeral, what I did was I converted Dad’s last voice message into Morse code, and I used sky-blue beads for silence, maroon beads for breaks between letters . . .

She said it was the best gift she’d ever received. I asked her if it was better than the Edible Tsunami, from when I was interested in edible meteorological events. She said, “Different.”

I wanted to tell her she shouldn’t be playing Scrabble yet. Or looking in the mirror. Or turning the stereo any louder than what you needed just to hear it. It wasn’t fair to Dad, and it wasn’t fair to me.

I made her other Morse code jewelry with Dad’s messages—a necklace, an anklet, some dangly earrings, a tiara—but the bracelet was definitely the most beautiful, probably because it was the last, which made it the most precious.

Explanation

Choice C conveys melancholy through the speaker’s sadness and sense of loss after Dad’s death. The speaker feels that the mother’s ordinary actions—playing Scrabble, looking in the mirror, and turning up the stereo—are unfair to Dad and to the speaker, revealing grief and hurt. Choice B is more playful, while A and D describe the bracelet and jewelry more matter-of-factly.

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