This central purpose is seen multiple times throughout the book. Take, for example, pages 60 and 61. Central Park is blank. "All of which brings us to Central Park. Central Park didn't used to be where it is now....It used to rest squarely in the center of the Sixth Borough. It was the joy of the borough, its heart. But once it was clear that the Sixth Borough was receding for good, that it couldn't be saved or detained, it was decided, by New York City referendum, to salvage the park...Enormous hooks were driven through the easternmost grounds, and the park was pulled by the people of New York, like a rug across a floor, from the Sixth Borough into Manhattan." (221) "As all of the Sixth Borough's documents floated away with the Sixth Borough, we will never be able to prove that those names belonged to residents of the Sixth Borough...And what about the Sixth Borough?...What happened to it? Well, there's a gigantic hole in the middle of it where Central Park used to be. As the island moves across the planet, it acts like a frame, displaying what lies beneath it." (222) Oskar's grandmother tried her hardest to keep her husband from leaving, but he still left. She lost him and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Oskar lost his dad and his mother lost her husband. Another loss that couldn't be prevented. This idea keeps reappearing in the novel. On an even bigger scale, it's completely symbolic of 911. New York, thought of as a place of power and strength, lost so much. Buildings, lives, and spirits were taken away from them while they watched helplessly. It's definitely a central purpose that you cant control whether or not you lose things in life, all you can do is cope once they're gone.