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 19-21Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 19 Summary: “Falling in Love, 1934-1941”
Content Warning: The source material contains references to suicide, rape, and murder. In addition, the source material uses outdated, offensive terms for Romani people throughout, which is replicated in this guide only in direct quotes of the source material.
Because Safran is paid by the Slouchers to visit the widows, he saves up enough money to start thinking about a family of his own. Beyond having sex with the widows, he is also having sex with virgins, in each of the sexual positions outlined on a pack of playing cards loaned by a friend. He is good at school but finds it boring. At school, they learn the history of Trachimbrod from The Book of Antecedents, written by the town’s citizens. When they began writing the book, it only documented major events, but over time it has become a play-by-play history of the town and all its inhabitants, recording daily—even hourly—activities.
Several of the book’s entries are reproduced in the novel, entries that Jonathan feels Safran may have looked up in his time. Among these entries is another account of Brod’s rape. This time, more of the story is revealed, including details about the rape by Sofiowka, the Kolker at her window, and Brod asking the Kolker to do something for her. The next morning, it is recorded, Sofiowka was found dead, hanged from the bridge, his hands severed and tied to his feet. There are several more entries in the chapter, which finally devolve into repeating “we are writing.”
In a letter to Jonathan, Alex proposes that they continue to trade work but not comment on each other's stories. He says that one night, he told his father he was going to a nightclub but instead went to the beach. He admits that this is what he usually does because he is saving money for the trip to America. At the beach, Grandfather finds him and asks to borrow his money. Alex says yes immediately but then asks why. Grandfather tells Alex he is going to continue to look for Augustine. Alex wants to go with him, but Grandfather says no and asks him to keep it a secret. Alex says he is going to give Grandfather the money even though he knows he will never be able to pay it back. That will be the end of his plan to get to America. Here, he anticipates that Jonathan will offer him the money to come to America, and he preemptively refuses.
Chapter 20 Summary: “An Overture to Illumination”
Alex, Jonathan, and Grandfather return to the hotel after meeting Augustine. The server in the restaurant calls Jonathan a Jew, and Grandfather forces her to apologize. They drink vodka and talk about what will happen the next day. Jonathan is due to leave the following evening, and Grandfather wants to continue the search up until his train departs. Grandfather then argues to Alex that they could continue the search without Jonathan. The three of them decide to open the box labeled IN CASE that Augustine gave to Jonathan. They take turns choosing items from the box. Alex chooses a map, which Jonathan tells him to keep. Jonathan chooses The Book of Past Occurrences next. Finally, Grandfather chooses a photograph, and Jonathan notices that the man in the picture looks exactly like Alex. Grandfather confesses that the woman in the photograph is Alex’s grandmother, holding Alex’s father as a baby. The man who looks like Alex is Grandfather, and the other man in the photo is Grandfather’s best friend, Herschel. Grandfather tells them that Herschel was a Jew and that Grandfather murdered him.
Chapter 21 Summary: “Falling in Love, 1934-1941”
In Jonathan’s story, Safran is still seeing the Romani girl quite seriously. She is the only woman he returns to willingly and thinks that maybe it is love. They are together for seven years, in secret even though she wants it to be different. He tells her his parents have arranged his marriage to Zosha, to take place in seven months, and that is the last time they speak for seven months; they see but ignore each other. Then he finds her coming out of his house one day and goes to visit one of the widows, Lista, for comfort. She tells him she doesn't love him. He gives her his copy of Hamlet.
In a letter to Jonathan, Alex writes that he is angry at Jonathan for not giving the Romani girl the love that she deserved. He is disappointed in Jonathan and calls him a coward. He also returns the money Jonathan sent and tells him that he did not give Grandfather the money, though not for the reasons Jonathan said he shouldn't. Alex did not give Grandfather the money because he knew that Augustine isn't what his grandfather was looking for, and if he found her it would kill him. He finally reveals that Grandfather has died by suicide, and Alex found him.
Chapters 19-21 Analysis
With The Book of Antecedents, Safran Foer again probes the idea of memory and inaction. Although the book starts as a historical record of the town’s events, it devolves into a recording of all the daily activities of the town’s inhabitants. At a certain point, the recording subsumes the activities themselves, and their only activity is writing, recording the act of their writing. The act becomes circular and devoid of meaning. This theme of memories and the way that they can immobilize a person is central to this novel.
We discover that the woman in the house, Lista, is a woman from Safran’s past. She says herself that Safran was her first kiss, and we learn from Jonathan’s history that she was the young, virgin widow with whom he had an affair. Jonathan’s and Alex’s stories are beginning to draw together, a fact Alex recognizes when he states that their work has become one thing. Alex also continues his exploration of the concept of truth, saying that Jonathan should not have to represent “the actual” in his story, but he should be “faithful.” Here, Alex draws his clearest distinction yet between the facts and the truth, seeming to recognize that fiction can sometimes represent the truth more faithfully than facts can.
In the aftermath of hearing Lista’s testimony, we begin to see the effects of truth telling. After hearing such a brutal example of antisemitism, it becomes intolerable for the trio to hear in the present; whereas Alex obfuscated a waitress’s antisemitic comment in earlier chapters, he reprimands her here. It becomes clear that forgetting is not a solution to problems, and with Grandfather’s increasing melancholy and eventual death by suicide, we see that he was carrying his own trauma, though we don’t know exactly why yet. Safran Foer has led the readers to the cusp of hearing Grandfather’s story, and the tension he has created foreshadows its terrible nature. Along with being an effective dramatic device, this tension represents the reluctance of Alex, Jonathan, and the author alike to tell the story. It is difficult for all of them to tell, and it is put off as long as possible.
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By Jonathan Safran Foer
