Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything is Illuminated
Directions: After reading the lecture, answer one of the main questions, which will appear in bold. This question is due no later than Thursday, May 11. Following that will be other questions which you should read and think about--they may help you answer the main question. However, you are not required to answer these questions in writing.
Your responses to other students' answers are due by midnight on Sunday, May 14. In order to get the full 20 points, you MUST respond to at least 2 other people's postings.
This set of discussion questions is worth a possible 20 points. Remember: late answers receive 0 points, so post early :)
We will be using the ETUDES Discussion Board for this class. Click on the link below to get to the ETUDES portal, sign in, and then click on the tab for this class. You will find the "Discussion and Private Messages" link on the left side of the screen:
Jonathan Safran Foer: Everything is Illuminated
WARNING! These discussion questions will reveal plot points. If you don't want to know what happens, wait until you have finished the novel to read them.
NOTE: In this novel, one of the characters is named Jonathan Safran Foer; this is also the author's name. But since this a work of fiction, the character and the author are not the same. So in the following questions, when I am referring to the author, I will call him "Foer." When I am referring to the character in the novel, I will call him "Jonathan."
1. Does this novel seem to be "postmodern," or does it follow the newer trend of arguing that life might hold meaning and the possibility of redemption?
2. What is the significance of the title, Everything is Illuminated?
3. In this novel, what role does the past play in the present?
4. Jonathan says, "I used to think that humor was the only way to appreciate how wonderful and terrible the world is, to celebrate how big life is...But now I think it's the opposite. Humor is a way of shrinking from that wonderful and terrible world" (158) How is that conflict reflected in the novel?
1. Why does Foer choose to begin the novel with the narrative by Alexander? Why not have Jonathan speak first?
2. Why is it significant that Alexander was born in 1977, the same year as Jonathan?
3. How does your impression of Alex's grandfather change as the novel progresses? Does he change, or is it your perception of him that changes?
4. Why does Alex's grandfather say he is blind after his wife dies?
5. How is it ironic that the grandfather is assigned to be Jonathan's guide?
6. Why didn't Alex's grandfather want the job of being Jonathan's guide?
7. How did Trachim B die? Is it certain that it was Trachim B who died? What is certain about the event? (pp. 8-13)
8. How is Trachim's baby related to the narrator, Jonathan? (p. 16) Why does he intersperse her story with the contemporary story?
9. Between which two synagogues are the shtetl's people divided? How did this division happen?
10. Why did the women of the town come to hate the baby? (p. 20) How was Yankel chosen to be her father? (p. 22)
11. Alex points out that Jonathan has invented, for the people of the shtetl, many names which are not accurate Ukrainian names (p. 25). Why does the author draw attention to the names of the shtetl's people?
12. Why has Grandfather become even more blind since returning from Lutsk? (p. 25)
13. Alex wants to leave the Ukraine and go to America. His father doesn't want him to leave. How does their conflict represent the larger themes of the novel? (pp. 28-29)
14. Alex recalls a time when the border guards stole from his father. He says, "It is so queer to think of someone injuring Father. I more usually think of the roles as unmovable" (33). How do the roles in Alex's family change during the course of the novel?
15. Jonathan says his mother was afraid of dogs, so he is too--he can't help it (35). What does this reveal about Jonathan's attitude toward tradition? Does he feel the same way about tradition as Alex?
16. "It is most important that we remember," says Didl S. "...It is the act of remembering, the process of remembering, the recognition of our past...Memories are small prayers to God..." (36) How does this passage relate to the themes of the novel?
17. Why do the Slouchers record their dreams? How are memories and dreams related? (pp. 37-41)
18. Why can't Yankel lose the note his wife wrote to him? (pp. 45-46)
19. What was Yankel's crime? Why did he change his name from "Safran" to "Yankel"? (p. 47)
20. In what ways does the theme of rebirth appear in the novel?
21. How did the shtetl get its official name of "Sofiowka"? How did it get its unofficial name of "Trachimbrod"? What is the significance of the shtetl being unnamed for so long, and then having two names? (pp. 50-51)
22. Alex quotes Jonathan as saying that "humorous is the only truthful way to tell a sad story" (53). Explain what Jonathan means.
23. Alex says, "When I look in the reflection, what I view is not Father, but the negative of Father" (54). What does he mean?
24. What purpose does Sammy Davis Junior, Junior, serve in the novel?
25. Why did the Jonathan come to the Ukraine? Who is Augustine? (pp. 59 ff.)
26. Where is Jonathan's grandmother from? How did she escape being killed in the war?
27. Jonathan says to Alex that the Ukrainians were almost as bad to the Jews as the Nazis were, and Alex is insulted. Jonathan says, "It's got nothing to do with you. We're talking about fifty years ago" (62). Is Jonathan right that what happened durng World War II has nothing to do with him and Alex?
28. Why does Alex laugh when he hears his little brother crying? (pp. 68-69) He says it's the "laugh that had the same darkness as Grandfather's laugh and the hero's laugh" (69). What does he mean?
29. It is conventional to write dialogue exchanges in a series of paragraphs, with a new paragraph beginning each time a new character speaks. Foer chooses not to do that. See, for example, the dialgue between Jonathan and Alex in the restaurant in Lutsk on pp. 69-72. Why doesn't Foer split the dialogue into paragraphs, so that it's clearer which character is speaking?
30. Why doesn't Brod have any friends as a child? What is the shtetl's opinion of her? (pp. 75-77)
31. Why is Brod obsessed with sadness? What is she sad about?
32. Jonathan says that Brod and and Yankel hardly knew each other, "like my grandmother and me" (82). What does he mean?
33. Why does Yankel write his memories on his bedroom ceiling?
34. Jonathan says, "...Brod keeps her own life a secret from herself" (87). Explain what he means.
35. Why does Brod see the future when she looks out the window? (see pp. 88-89)
36. Several times, Foer mentions Pinchas T, who "...argued that it would be possible, in theory, for life and art to be reversed" (see pp. 11, 90, 212). Why does he draw attention to this?
37. How do the past and present merge on the night when Yankel dies? (pp. 97-99)
38. What happened to Safran (Jonathan's grandfather) on his wedding day? (pp. 119 ff.)
39. Why does Brod cry when the Kolker gives her his gift? (p. 131)
40. During the last year of their marriage, Brod and the Kolker communicate through a hole in the wall, just as Brod could only be seen by the women through a hole in the wall in the synagogue. How is the hole symbolic? How are the circumstances similar in both cases, and how do they relate to love?
41. "Life was a small negative space cut out of the eternal solidity..." (135) What does this mean? Relate it to the "negative bird" and Alex's "negative Father" references.
42. Why does Brod rename the Kolker when he is dying? (p. 136)
43. Why does Brod tell the Kolker she loves him after he tells her Yankel wasn't her real father? (p. 139)
44. "The hole is no void; the void exists around it" (139). Explain.
45. Alex says, "With our writing we are reminding each other of things. We are making one story, yes?" (144) In what ways does this statement reflect the major themes of the novel?
46. What does Alex wish for his little brother Igor? (145) Why does he want Jonathan to alter the truth as he writes the grandfather's story?
47. What does Augustine have in her house? Why does she keep all of this?
48. Is the woman they meet really Augustine?
49. Why does the grandfather get so angry when Augustine talks about all the people she remembers? (pp. 152 ff.)
50. See p. 179: what issues are being raised with this passage about the purpose of art? How does this passage affect the novel's credibility?
51. What story does Augustine tell them about the Nazis' raid on Trachimbrod? (see pp. 184 ff.) Why is it significant that this episode takes place in the dark?
52. Is the "sister" actually Augustine? What does Augustine mean when she says that keeping all the people's things and living there is her punishment for surviving? (p. 189)
53. When Jonathan and Alex are lying in the grass near the Trachimbrod monument, why does Alex say it is as if they were "under a dress"? (p. 190)
54. Why don't the survivors want to talk much? (p. 191)
55. Augustine says, "The ring does not exist for you. You exist for the ring. The ring is not in case of you. You are in case of the ring" (192). What does she mean?
56. What do the passages from The Book of Antecedents contribute to the novel? (see pp. 196-213)
57. Why is it significant that all of the novels written by the citizens of Trachimbrod are about love? (p. 202)
58. What comments does the novel seem to be making about words and language?
59. When Alex writes to Jonathan, "We are talking now, Jonathan, together, and not apart. We are with each other, working on the same story..." (214), what does he mean?
60. Why does Alex's grandfather want to borrow money from Alex? Why does Alex say he won't take Jonathan's money? He says, "This is about choosing" (218). What does he mean?
61. Why does Alex say he doesn't want to be funny anymore? (p. 219)
62. What is inside the box marked "In Case"? (see pp. 221 ff.)
63. What is the significance of the photo they find in the "In Case" box? Why is it significant that the young man in the photo looks exactly like Alex?
64. What does Alex's grandfather mean when he says, "I am not a bad person. I am a good person who has lived in a bad time"? (227) Do you agree with him?
65. How is Alex's grandfather, Safran, connected to Lista? (p. 237)
66. Why is Alex so angry with Jonathan when he refuses to write a happy ending for Safran and the Gypsy? (p. 240) If Safran's story had ended differently, would the grandfather's story have ended differently?
67. Why is the chapter about Herschel called "Illumination"?
68. Why does Foer choose to end the novel with the grandfather's letter?
69. In his letter, the grandfather says, "They must cut all of the strings, yes?" (275). Explain what he means. How does this relate to other characters in the novel? What does this imply about tradition? Is it possible to really "cut all of the strings"?
70. Why does Foer name the character Jonathan after himself?
71. Alex's misuse of language is funny, but what other purpose does it serve in the novel?