One of my favourite aspects of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Safran Foer is the plethora of Beatles references. I think that they are far more significant than just name dropping for the sake of it. Actually, I would argue that they are strategically placed and that each song frames the stages of the narrators’ development over the course of the book.
At the outset of the novel, Oskar references Yellow Submarine, a catchy, happy go lucky tune, sung by one of Oskar’s idols; Ringo Starr- a fairly happy go lucky guy. I remember hearing Yellow Submarine for the first time on the radio in the car when I was young. It was one of the first Beatles tunes that I heard and I was captivated by its images in my youthful innocence and curiosity. I think that Oskar’s love for Ringo and “Yellow Submarine” represent his own innocence, or atleast an attempt to hold onto an innocent happiness that is sliding further and further out of reach.
Next, Foer sneaks in “Fixing A Hole” and “I want to tell you”, fitting precursors to the next big stage of Oskar’s journey. To the soundtrack of “Fixing A Hole”, Oskar journeys through “fixing a hole where the rain gets in” in his own life, seeking to patch up the hole in his understanding. To George Harrison’s “I Want to Tell You”, he struggles through the confusion of hiding emotions and what he knows from his mother, illustrated with perfection by the lyric “I want to tell you, man is full of things to say; but when I’m near you, all these words seem to slip away”. This emotional roller coaster of things untold is arguably an even bigger theme in the Grandpa and Grandma’s story.
Next up on the queue of Beatles tunes hits a very different note – I am the Walrus. I like to imagine the mind bending time that such a quizzical, science oriented child like Oskar would have had trying to make sense of such nonsensical Lennon mischief. What better song to illustrate the missed connections and confusion that litters the pages of each narrators’ story than a song that intentionally makes no sense at all? Oskar in particular comes to realize that there are things that no amount of intelligence can spell out, that sometimes things are just incredibly complicated. Likewise, the grandpa ponders if anyone has ever figured it out, or if people all make the same mistakes. I can hear “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together” playing in the background of their frustrations.
This leads to the emotional low point of the story for all the narrators, punctuated with ‘Eleanor Rigby”, looking at all the lonely people, and where do they all come from? Where do they all belong? What I found particularly intriguing was how the book did not necessarily have a happy ending, or solve the characters’ problems. But there is a shift of perspective. We get to what could be the point of the whole book – take a sad song and make it better. Anytime you feel the pain, [Hey Jude], refrain, don’t carry the world upon your shoulders. Let it out, and let it in. Remember to let [Mom, Grandma, Grandpa] into your heart, then you can start to make it better.
So, my blog-ending question is, in many ways, borrowed from Foer, who seems to have borrowed it from the Beatles, who I suppose borrowed it from life: all the lonely people, where do they all come from? And is the answer that we need to simply knock down walls, let love out and let love in? Or, is it just really, really complicated? Coo coo cachoo.
Works Cited
Yellow Submarine, Fixing a Hole, I Want to Tell You, I Am the Walrus, Eleanor Rigby, Hey Jude – The Beatles
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close – Jonathan Safran Foer