55 pages • 1 hour read
Jonathan Safran FoerEverything Is Illuminated
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2002A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-15Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “The Dial, 1941-1804-1941”
Content Warning: The source material contains references to physical abuse and rape.
For the first time, Safran, Jonathan’s grandfather, is introduced into the novel. He is in his wedding suit, and an unidentified woman is putting her underwear in his pocket to remind him of her. He is about to take part in a prenuptial ritual at the Dial, a statue in the center of the town square.
The statue known as the Dial commemorates the Kolker, who had an accident at the flour mill when Brod, who was 15 at the time, was seven months pregnant. The narrative jumps back in time to show Brod and the Kolker’s relationship. Brod loves the way he takes care of her when she is depressed or has a nightmare, but she does not realize that when he does so, he takes on the burden of her emotions. Brod believes she knows the Kolker completely, but he is unhappy. He wants to be taken seriously by her and brings up the fact that they've had six conversations in three years.
Brod begs him not to work at the flour mill and sabotage his attendance at work constantly because the flour mill is a dangerous place to work, with many employees getting hurt or dying. The Kolker’s accident occurs two months after he starts working, and although a saw blade embeds in his skull, he does not die. The accident changes him, leaving him prone to uncontrollable eruptions of anger that escalate over the years into physical abuse. The doctors say that the only thing they can do to helps is remove the blade, which would kill him. The women of Trachimbrod like seeing Brod suffer and blame her for the abuse.
The Kolker hates what he has become and moves to another bedroom. Brod accepts the abuse because the Kolker is the saw blade’s victim as much as she is. During this passage, as an aside, it is revealed that Sofiowka raped her after the festival the day she found Yankel dead. Finally, Brod and the Kolker develop a system whereby he stays in his bedroom, and they communicate through a hole in the wall between them, and Brod provides meals through a slot in the door. This lasts for a year before the Kolker gets sick and dies. Before he passes, he tells Brod that Yankel is not her father. Brod is pregnant and in spite of this revelation, she names the child Yankel. The mill workers all donate money to have the Kolker cast and a bronze statue of him is put in the town square. As an unexpected benefit, the saw blade in the statue’s head keeps time as a sundial. In time, the Kolker statue, known as the Dial, becomes an attraction, with people rubbing the statue for luck. That is why Safran is visiting the statue this morning, on the way to his wedding.
In Alex’s letter to Jonathan, it is revealed that Jonathan is not sending commentary on Alex's story anymore. Alex still likes Jonathan’s story, although he admits he is more interested in Brod’s story. He tells Jonathan that he has to tell his grandmother about the trip, even if it makes her cry. He also tells Jonathan that he has never had sex and made up his girlfriends, partially because his father is always bringing it up. He also does it so that Little Igor respects him and is respected because of him. Alex asserts that he was born to be a writer, not Jonathan. He passes on a request from Grandfather, that Jonathan forgive him for the things he told him about the war. Alex asks him to not put that story in his book, for Grandfather’s sake.
Chapter 14 Summary: “Falling in Love”
Alex returns to the car, wakes Jonathan and Grandfather up, and tells them that they have found Trachimbrod and Augustine. She invites them in for lunch. Her house has two rooms: one is full of clothes, shoes, and pictures. The other has boxes with items like journals, watches, and candles. Grandfather seems happy, and combs his hair when Augustine is not looking. Jonathan pressures Alex to ask her about Safran, but Alex says to wait. The woman’s eyes are the same as the girl in the photo, and Alex and his grandfather tell her she is beautiful.
They tell her that Jonathan has searched for her and she starts to cry. Jonathan gives her money from his family to say thank you, and Grandfather asks her to come to Odessa and live with their family. He calls her Augustine, and she asks who Augustine is. They take out the photo and she identifies Jonathan’s grandfather, Safran, but says she doesn't know the other people in the photo, and she is not Augustine. Even so, they all persist in calling her Augustine.
The woman has a box marked REMAINS, full of photographs. She tells the story of the people in the photographs, the people of Trachimbrod. She completely focuses on Alex and ignores Jonathan and Grandfather. As she continues, Grandfather gets agitated and accuses her of lying. She tells them that everyone from Trachimbrod was killed, except a few who escaped, and that she is unlucky to have escaped. She tells them that Safran was the first boy she kissed. She speaks of Safran’s wife and the two babies he lost in the war. Grandfather is upset, and Jonathan is crying. She finds a photo of herself and Safran, then one of Safran and his wife, and tells them about his wedding. Then she tells them that Trachimbrod does not exist anymore. She asks to be alone with Grandfather, who is crying.
Alex and Jonathan go outside and shuck corn. Alex asks Jonathan to talk about his grandmother. Jonathan tells a story of sitting under her dress and seeing her varicose veins. He also says that when he visited her, she would lift him when he arrived and again when he left. He only realized later that she was weighing him. He also says that they used to scream Yiddish words together, but he never asked her what they meant. Alex replies that maybe she wanted him to ask. Alex reads Jonathan’s diary and understands that Jonathan is writing a story about Alex. He has mixed feelings about it. Grandfather and Augustine come outside, and she says that she will take them to Trachimbrod.
Chapter 15 Summary: “The Wedding Reception Was So Extraordinary! or It All Goes Downhill After the Wedding, 1941”
Safran proposes reluctantly to Zosha. Her family gets their house ready for the wedding. It is June 18, 1941. A wind blows through the house and destroys the decorations. Safran goes to the wine cellar to change, and Zosha's sister Maya is there. As it turns out, it is her underwear in his pocket.
Chapters 13-15 Analysis
The Dial statue in Trachimbrod’s town square works on several levels to reinforce concepts introduced in the text. Over time, the original meaning of the Dial has been lost, and it has turned into a symbol of luck. The people who believe in it are projecting whatever meaning they want onto it, and the man behind the statue, the Kolker, has been lost completely. This loss is not just figurative: The believers eventually rub the features off of the statue, and when they are rebronzed, they are not the same. They have shifted because the Kolker’s descendants are being used as a model. In this way, the past is shaped by our perception of it, by what we believe about it, and what we need from it. This idea is connected to Safran Foer’s exploration of memory and meaning throughout the book.
In another letter to Jonathan, Alex fully comes clean about his personal life. He explains why he feels the need to tell lies about girls and his social life. He says that it is partly to appease his father, who seems to want this type of life for him, and partly for Igor so that he will be respected. At this point, Alex has now come completely clean about the reality of his life and seems to gain new confidence. He also begins demanding the same sort of truthful behavior and writing from Jonathan. Interestingly, he tells Jonathan that he is not a writer but he, Alex, is a writer. This is an interesting development from a character who claimed earlier in the book to be born to be an accountant.
Alex also shows insight into Jonathan’s relationship with his grandmother. When Jonathan tells the story about shouting words with his grandmother, Alex tells Jonathan that maybe his grandmother was waiting for Jonathan to ask. Jonathan vehemently denies this, but Alex persists, saying further that maybe she needed him to ask so that she could tell him. The other story that Jonathan tells, of his grandmother lifting him, also shows the ripples that generational trauma can spread through a family. Even though Jonathan does not understand why his grandmother does this until he is much older, it is fundamental to his relationship with her, something that he always remembers. This incident shows how generational trauma exists even when there is silence around the trauma itself—it still affects the family and relationships for generations to come.
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