Analysis Of Johnathan Safran Foer's Everything Is Illumination

Lao Tzu describes the emotion of love perfectly by saying, “Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.” Johnathan Safran Foer’s book, Everything is Illuminated, is a story that recalls stories from the past about a destroyed town called Trachimbrod. Our author creates fictional stories about his past generations, and he creates a fictional family. That family would be Alex, his younger brother, Grandpa, and his father. Alex, Johnathan, and Alex’s grandpa set out on an adventure to find a woman named Augustine who saved Johnathan’s grandfather from the Nazis. Along the way on their adventure, we hear stories about the creation and destruction about Trachimbrod. All these stories seem to have

No one knew how she came to life. The only thing the towns people knew was that she existed and this begun the lineage to Johnathan. Brod later became the adopted daughter of Yankel D. Yankel’s love for Brod was immense. Yankel lost his wife because she decided to leave him. She left a note saying “I left you because I needed too.” Yankel lost the love of his wife, but Brod filled that void. She became everything Yankel ever needed. He protected her and wanted her to have the happiest life possible. He decided to keep the secret that Brod was not his real daughter from her. He knew that knowing that she could lose her sense of identity. Brod would want to know her past, but that would never be able to be discovered. Brod felt the same for Yankel those two were each others worlds. They were there for one another at every moment, but I think the biggest moment in which their love is exemplified is when Yankel is about to pass away. Brod, after a full day of being harassed and bullied, comes home to Yankel. She calls out to him telling him that she is home, and they can watch the dancing from the roof. She receives no response from him. She continues to call his name out and again no response. She finally finds him in the library laying on the ground with a balled up paper in his hand. Yankel had not called out to her because he was embarrassed about his legs passing out on him. Yankel always wanted weiner to be that strong person

Other love stories can begin in darkness but illuminate the darkness away. That story is the one about Eli, Alex’s grandfather and Herschel. Eli and Herschel were life long friends. Herschel would even look after Eli’s kid. Eli even allowed Hershel to kiss his own wife. They loved each other. They seemed to be brothers. One night, however, this all changed. There were rumors going around in the town that the Nazis were coming, but one thought it would happen. They thought wrong. They came and made everyone line up out in the field. The Nazis made people confess who was Jewish. The point came to Eli and he knew that Herschel was Jewish. Herschel gave the eye signal to Eli telling him basically please don’t let them kill me and don’t tell them I am Jewish. “Yet the tears that flow in Alex’s report when his grandfather at last reveals the truth about the massacre is a reminder of free will, of the place of free will in historical reality (Callado-Rodriguez, 64). Eli had to make a choice whether or not it was the right one he had to make it. I think love is what guided him. He chose one love over the other. His love for Herschel was a vast and never ending, but his love for his family and son was more important. He told the Nazis that Herschel was Jewish. In the end he protected and kept his family alive. Looking back at the quote again, “.. While loving someone deeply gives you courage.” He directly