Chapter 17

     This is the last chapter in the novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer.  This chapter is narrated by Oskar and there are two major events that happen during the final chapter.  The first is that he and his mother begin to open up to each other.  Oskar finds out that his mom is part of a group of people who have lost a family member and that is how she met her friend Ron.  Oskar gets a chance to ask Ron about the family members he has lost, starting a bonding process between them that could potentially grow into a more meaningful relationship.  Oskar also gets assured by him mother that he will not be hospitalized (for giving himself bruises) and that his dad would be proud of him for how hard he has tried over the past two year span of this novel.
     The second major event is the digging up of Oskar's father's empty coffin in order to receive some closure about his death.  He goes over a span of two nights with "the renter" and the second night, Thomas Sr. brings all of the letters that he was never able to send to his son and filled the coffin with those, finally able to give the letters to his son.  Oskar eventually realizes that "the renter" is his grandfather but the details are not fully explained in the novel. 
     Some meaningful quotes to leave you with:

     "I don't think I figured out that he was my grandpa, not even in the deep parts of my brain.  I definitely didn't make the connection between the letters in his suitcases and the envelopes in Grandma's dresser, even it I should have.
      But I must have understood something, I must have, because why else would I have opened my left hand?" (page 322)

"I told him, 'We'll fill it, obviously'" (page 321).

"Finally, I found the pictures of the falling body.
Was it Dad?
Maybe.
Whoever it was, it was somebody.
I ripped the pages out of the book.
I reversed the order, so the last one was first, and the first was last.
When I flipped through them, it looked like the man was floating up through the sky" (page 325).

"I don't believe in God, but I believe that things are extremely complicated, and her looking over me was as complicated as anything ever could be.  But it was also incredibly simple.  In my only life, she was my mom, and I was her son" (page 324).