57 pages • 1 hour read
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
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Chapters 10-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 10 Summary: “Why I’m Not Where You Are 4/12/78”
In a letter to Oskar’s father, Oskar’s grandfather details the last day he saw Anna—the day of the Dresden bombing during World War II. Before the attacks began, Anna had told him she was pregnant, and Thomas felt a great sense of joy and hope for the future. That night, Thomas recalls going to a shelter as the planes began to pass overhead and bombs dropped for half an hour, which felt like forever. Afterward, he left his parents (who begged him to stay) to go find Anna, and another raid began. Thomas ran from shelter to shelter to escape the blasts and smoke, all along the way seeing bodies in all sorts of horrific conditions. He ran through the zoo and was asked to shoot the carnivores, but shot every animal he could find instead. He was eventually found and taken to a hospital, given several operations, and evacuated to a refugee camp. He never saw Anna or his parents again. When he met Oskar’s grandmother in America, he was unable to speak after burying “too much too deeply” (216), and never told her of his experiences or what he had lost. Because of his inability to open up to her and his fear of loving again, their relationship failed, and he left it.
Chapter 11 Summary: “The Sixth Borough”
Oskar remembers the story of the Sixth Borough that his father told him the night before he died. The Sixth Borough was an island next to Manhattan, separated by such a thin river that one man was able to jump across it. Each year, he would leap across as the people of New York celebrated the moment with fireworks, cheers, and fireflies in jars. One year, the leaper’s toe touched the water, and he realized that the Sixth Borough was moving. Each year after that, it got further and further away, until he was no longer able to make the jump. The stubborn people of the Sixth Borough insisted on staying there as it floated away into the sea. Central Park was originally located in the Sixth Borough, and it was agreed upon by everyone from both boroughs that it would be saved even if the Sixth Borough could not be. The park was excavated and taken to Manhattan “like a rug across a floor” (221) and placed in its center. Children from the Sixth Borough lay down on the park as it was pulled and were dragged “into Manhattan and adulthood” (221).
Oskar tells his father that he knows the story is a fantasy, but Oskar’s father urges him to question that assumption. He mentions that the fossils found in Central Park are strange, along with the pH of the soil and a tree with the names of two lovers whose names were not in the Manhattan records. Thomas explains that Central Park is in many ways a living connection to the past, and leaves Oskar with the possibility that the story could be true.
Chapter 12 Summary: “My Feelings”
In a letter to Oskar, Oskar’s grandmother writes her account of September 11, 2001. She was sitting in her apartment, knitting a scarf for Oskar and watching the news, when suddenly it changed to flashes of “planes going into buildings. Bodies falling. People waving shirts out of high windows” (230). These scenes replayed over and over, as though they were caught in an endless loop. Oskar’s grandmother thought of Oskar first, and when she heard that he was home from school, she was relieved and went to see him. In that same moment, she also learned that Thomas was in one of the buildings during the attacks, and that nobody had heard from him (Oskar kept the voicemails a secret). She instantly knew that her son was gone, and it seemed that Oskar’s mother did, too. When Oskar’s grandmother reached Oskar’s apartment, she couldn’t find him anywhere, but eventually she spotted him under the bed. She squeezed herself in beside him, and they lay in silence as it felt like a great weight was pressing down on them. It was clear that Oskar knew what was going on, and that his father was gone, but neither he nor his grandmother talked about it. Instead, they spent the day distracting themselves with games while Oskar’s mother put up flyers around the city. Oskar’s grandmother loved Oskar more than anything and believed that all the pains of her life happened so that he could happen. At Thomas’s funeral, Oskar “let out a noise like an animal” (232). Arriving back home, the doorman had a letter for Oskar’s grandmother with two words written on it: “I’m sorry” (233). After 40 years, Oskar’s grandfather had something to say.
Chapters 10-12 Analysis
As the novel’s rising action progresses and Oskar reaches the end of his mission, his remaining memories of his father taken on heightened importance. He learns that he can carry these memories with him as a piece of his father, and one of the fondest of these memories is his father’s story of the Sixth Borough of New York. Oskar’s father told him this story the night before he died, and it thus become Oskar’s last memory of his father. The story represents the power of possibility, The Influence of the Past on the Present, and the great struggle that comes with growing from childhood into adulthood. The Sixth Borough itself is a place outside the harsh realities of the world, and one which the children must leave as it slowly slips away. As Central Park is pulled “like a rug across a floor” (221), the children are pulled with it. Previously, a photograph of a city with a blank space where Central Park used to be foreshadowed the existence of this story. Although Oskar’s father did not know he was going to die, he told Oskar this story to keep the childlike sense of wonder and imagination alive in his son: “It’s hard for anyone, even the most pessimistic of pessimists, to spend more than a few minutes in Central Park without feeling that he or she is experiencing some tense in addition to the present, right? … Maybe we’re just missing things we’ve lost, or hoping for what we want to come. Or maybe it’s the residue of the dreams from that night the park was moved. Maybe we miss what those children had lost, and hope for what they hoped for” (222). After his father’s death, Oskar was forced to grow up quickly, and in many ways lost the sense of hope and wonder he had before. Remembering this story helps him remember that lost hope. This story takes on great significance for Oskar after his father’s death, demonstrating of The Importance of Little Things.
The next series of letters from Oskar’s grandparents focus on their experiences of war and terror. Thomas Sr. describes the day of the Dresden bombing, as he searched in vain for Anna while witnessing unimaginable extremes suffering and loss. The trauma of that day has made it impossible for Thomas Sr. to live his life in the present. Like Mr. Black, he is trapped in the past, living in a state halfway between life and death—or, as he and his wife say, between “something and nothing.” His struggle is an example of Fear of Death and Loss as an Obstacle to Living. The letters from Thomas Sr. and his wife begin to alternate, so that the differences in perspectives and writing styles become more and more evident. Thomas Sr. writes his letters as dramatically extended sentences, while his wife writes hers in short lines, almost like a poem. His grandmother’s account of her experiences during 9/11 and with her husband are key to a full understanding of The Complex Nature of Relationships, because Oskar’s grandmother believes that all the painful experiences of her life happened so that Oskar could be born: “When I looked at you, my life made sense. Even the bad things made sense. They were necessary to make you possible” (232). Here, she articulates one of the book’s key ideas—that love redeems suffering. Love is what makes life painful, since we lose the ones we love, but it’s also what makes all that pain worthwhile.
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