Everything is Illuminated, Lesson 1

Everything is Illuminated

Lesson 1

1. Looking at Alex’s character

1. Foer attempts to create humour through Alex’s use of the English language. This happens when Alex chooses a word that may be the correct definition but not commonly used (resulting in a humourous sense of formality), when Alex almost has a colloquial expression but not quite, and when he ironically understates something through his choice of words. Find examples of these areas.

Formal word choices

· Dubs

· Disseminating

· Miniature

· Pygmy allowance

· Sired

· Tally

Almost there, but not quite

· Fluid in English

· “I knew that he was pissing off, pissing everywhere” (30)

· “I wore my peerless blue jeans to oppress the hero” (31).

Idiomatic Expressions

• “my instructor was having shit between his brains” (2)
• “made shit of a brick” (28)

Ironic understatements

• “mismanagement with a brick wall” (1)
• “home for forgetful dogs” (5)
• “my face gave a high-five to the front window” (30)

2. Describe Alex’s character. What are his interests? Where does he reveal that certain things in the persona that he creates are not true? How does he characterize Jonathan? What kind of advice does Jonathan give Alex about writing?

a. Alex’s character and interests:

b. Self-consciousness in his storytelling

“This is where the story begins” (3)

“I will describe my eyes and then begin the story” (4).

Desire to have some things excluded from the final draft, usually in parenthetical remarks: it appears that we are reading the first draft

“Jonathan, this part about grandfather must remain amid you and me, yes?” (5)

“At the same time when he said this, it seemed a reasonable thing to say. But now how does this make you feel, Jonathan, in the luminescence of everything that occurred” (6).

Alex creates a certain persona in his writing. At times, he either reveals parts of this persona that are false by making overblown comments that we know are false. At other times, though, Alex has great insight into situations and into Jonathan’s writing

• On 69 position:

“It was invented in 1969. My friend Gregory knows a friend of the nephew of the inventor” (3)

• On his height:

“And thank you, I feel indebted to utter, for not mentioning the not-truth about how tall I am. I thought it might appear superior if I was tall” (24).

• On how fast he can run:

“the car is so much shit that it would not travel any faster than as fast as I could run, which is sixty kilometers per the hour” (29).

• On the history of Lvov:

“Lvov is a city like New York City in America. New York City, in truth, was designed on the model of Lvov” (30).

Alex’s characterization of Jonathan

• Alex calls Jonathan “the hero” of the story? What is a hero? Is Jonathan a hero?
• See description of Jonathan on page 31-32

What kind of advice does Jonathan give Alex?

• Use of thesaurus p 23

• His reaction to advice that Jonathan gives:

“I apologize for the last line, about how you are a very spoiled Jew. It has been changed, and is now written, “I do not want to drive ten hours to an ugly city to attend to a spoiled Jew” (24).

• Why does Foer choose to open the book with Alex, instead of with the persona of the himself? How does this affect the authority of the author?

2. Looking at the history of Trachimbrod

1. What kinds of divisions where created in the Jewish community in Trachimbrod?

• Creation of the division between Upright Synagogue and Slouching Syagogue pg.17-18
• Need for proclamation pg. 13

2. Jonathan is engaged in telling a history attempts to be more poetic and magical than strictly historical. Where do you see examples of this “poetic” type of history, or of recounting things that do not seem like they would be in a traditional historical account of a town? What parts of his text suggest to us that history can be told from a number of perspectives, and that being strictly “accurate” is impossible?

• Poeticizing of history: travel of stench pg 22
• Many possible versions of what happened with Trachim p 15

3. When Alex reads the section of history that Jonathan has written entitled “The Beginning of the World Comes Often,” he comments “I have one small query about this section, which is do you know many of the names you exploit are not truthful names for Ukraine? …. Are you being a humourous writer here, or an uninformed one?” (25). What is your opinion about this question? Why would Foer be a purposely “uninformed” writer?