"Trials are lessons that you failed to learn, presented once again. So, where you made a faulty choice before, you can now make a better one and escape all pain that you chose before has brought you" – A Course in Miracles. In our minds, all people construct "story of their lives" based on their life experiences, both moral and immoral. When they think about the meaning of their lives, they are thinking about the meaning of this story. When cancer enters, this story is transformed. A new chapter arises, and its meaning will stem partly from their life story up to that point and partly from how they respond to their illness. Whatever meaning their illness carries, it will have an effect on their emotions and behaviour. That being said, individuals are going to run into problems in their consideration. Everybody does. Problems come in all shapes and sizes. The main trick in dealing with obstacles is to adopt the right attitude. Difficulties are an integral and fundamental part of an individuals practice. They are not something to avoid. They are something to cope and work around with. They provide invaluable opportunities for learning. Thus, the reason people are all stuck in their life's mud because they constantly run from their problems and after their desires, but not everybody is like that. Furthermore, everybody has their own impediments and weaknesses but by some means they overcome it.
In Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Oskar says, "The meaning of my thoughts started to float away from me, like leaves that fall from a tree into a river, I was the tree, and the world was the river" (Foer 16). The simile depicted in the dialogue allows readers to have a clear understanding of how Oskar is feeling. Oskar's feeling also persuades readers to feel empathy for him, since he lost his father in the terrorist attacks. The death of Thomas Schell depicts the tremor feeling Oskar goes through once he finds out that his father is no longer with him.