Jonathan Safran Foer

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer, explores the themes of loss, communication, and change throughout the entire novel. Each character has experienced some sort of loss, whether it is Oskar’s loss of his father or Mr. Black’s loss of his wife. Many characters also have issues with communication, such as Thomas’s inability to talk and Oskar’s communication issues. The story of the Sixth Borough, which Oskar’s father tells to him for a bedtime story, is inserted seemingly at random into the middle of the novel. However, at a closer look, many of the themes in the story connect back to ideas seen earlier in the book. The story is Oskar’s father’s way of trying to teach Oskar about these ideas. It also serves as a microcosm
for the whole novel, and for the problems that each character deals with. Foer illustrates these themes of loss, communication, and change, as well as Oskar’s connection to them through the story of the Sixth Borough. The first theme addressed in the Sixth Borough is that of communication. At many points throughout his father’s telling of the story, Oskar interrupts to ask questions and make comments even though his father told him not to. This connects back to all of the problems Oskar has with communication. He does not really know how to communicate with people, when the right time to say something is and when it is the right time to be quiet. This is seen in his interaction with people in his school, the limo driver, and his therapist. In the story itself, the people of the Sixth Borough lose communication with the rest of the world; as they grow more distant, their phone lines and electrical lines snap. A lack of communication is also seen in the part about the boy and girl with the tin can phones. As the Sixth Borough drifts away from New York, the boy and girl slowly grow farther and farther apart and it becomes harder and harder for them to communicate. The girl says to the boy, “It’s getting almost impossible to hear you.” This is similar to Thomas and how it got more and more difficult for him to speak to people. Furthermore, it connects to Mr. Black and his hearing problems. Maybe Thomas recognizes that Oskar has trouble communicating, and wants to teach him about what a loss of communication can lead to. In the story of the Sixth Borough, Foer also looks at the theme of loss, which has been very prevalent throughout the novel so far. Oskar, his mother, and his grandmother have to deal with the loss of his father, and Thomas deals with the loss of Anna. In the story, once the New Yorkers realize that there is no saving the Sixth Borough because no matter what they do it will continue to drift away, they decide that they have to at least save Central Park. The loss of Central Park, one of the prides of their town makes them feel empty, since it “There’s a gigantic hole where Central Park used to be.” Oskar’s father says that “it acts like a frame, displaying what lies beneath it.” This was also seen earlier on in the picture of New York with a big blank rectangle where the park should be. The loss of Central Park is the perfect metaphor for how people feel after the loss of someone or something important to them. There are also elements of loss in the tin can story. The boy loses the girl, and keeps the can of “I love you” on a shelf so he will always have something to remember her. Loss happens to everybody at some point in their lives, and this story is a perfect way for Oskar’s father to teach Oskar about loss. Many of Foer’s characters have to deal with changes in their lives, and the story of the Sixth Borough connects to that theme as well.
When they try to resist those changes, they often end up getting stuck in the past while everyone else has moved on. The people of the Sixth Borough end up “frozen” in time at the end of the story. They have to revert to old technologies to do everyday tasks when they no longer have electricity. Finally, in the end they are forgotten; many people no longer believe that the sixth borough even used to exist. Additionally, the people of the Sixth Borough are reluctant to accept their fate. “Why should we?” they ask, “It’s the rest of the world that’s moving. Our borough is fixed.” They are too stubborn to see that they are the ones who have a problem, saying “there was no question of refusing to accept the obvious” and that “they liked their lives and didn’t want to change.” There are many parallels here with characters in the book. Oskar, for example, is upset with his mother who is already moving on from his dad to Ron. Thomas cannot get over the death of Anna and because of that, he cannot have a good relationship with Oskar’s grandmother. Oskar’s father also mentions that many people refuse to believe the story of the Sixth Borough. Oskar replies that he is “an optimist” and he does believe in it, which is ironic considering he really does not have an optimistic outlook on many things. Foer uses the story of the sixth Borough to demonstrate the themes of loss, communication, and resistance to change, which are seen many times throughout the novel. The form of a bedtime story, however, is a strange form to use to display all of these themes. Foer chooses this form because it is Oskar’s father’s way of teaching Oskar about these important ideas before he passes away. He teaches him how to communicate better, deal with loss, and accept changes in his
life.