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
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