Bryce Bartlett
05/04/13
Perspectives on Happiness in Everything Is Illuminated In the letter from Alex’s Grandfather that makes up the final chapter of Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Everything is Illuminated, Grandfather writes the character Jonathan to tell him about the event that established his grandson Alex as the primary caretaker of his mother and younger brother. Grandfather claims that of all things that he could wish for his grandsons, he would give everything to ensure that their lives are peaceful; he places peace above money and even love. This is an insightful perspective on happiness, as it suggests that happiness is both subjective and yet relatively objective, a theme that recurs throughout the novel. Happiness is subjective in that it is experienced differently by each person according to their experiences, and yet objective in that there are certain environments where it cannot occur. For Grandfather and presumably the author Foer, those who are oppressed by violence are robbed of their right to the pursuit of happiness. Throughout the novel, Foer portrays people struggling to be happy in a variety of circumstances: Yankel as a social exile and father to Brod, Brod as the strange and lonely miracle child and wife to the saw-blade damaged Kolker, younger Alex as he strives to create a life for himself and his brother Igor, and Jonathan Safran Foer in his search for his past, as well as many other characters. With each character, Foer explores what it is to love and be loved, putting the concept through many tests by applying it in unusual and trying situations. These narratives question and test the generally accepted notions of what love is. For example, the character Brod’s relationship with the Kolker is extremely unconventional. At first their relationship seems unequal; Brod, intelligent and well-read, is obviously smarter than the Kolker and yet is also more prone to depression and bouts of anxiety or fear. And yet she doesn’t want anything more from him, despite his wish to be her intellectual equal and for their conversations to have some kind of lasting meaning. In the early years of their marriage, the Kolker says to Brod that: “We talk about nothing. Cucumbers, butterflies, bruises. It’s all nothing.” to which she replies “What’s something, then?” It is clear that Brod is happy here, despite the simplicity of her relationship with the Kolker. In fact, it is this simplicity that Brod seems to love: “She wanted nothing more than someone to miss, to touch, with whom to speak like a child, with whom to be a child. He was very good for that. And she was in love.” While her relationship with the Kolker may appear unsatisfactory to a reader, Foer makes it plain that because of her troubled and bizarre upbringing she finds comfort in her simple life with the Kolker. Their relationship grows even more unstable after the Kolker suffers a freak accident where a saw mill embeds itself into his skull, splitting the two hemispheres. He manages to survive, but he is forever plagued with mood swings that become increasingly violent. Soon after receiving the odd injury, he begins beating Brod. It began with harsh and angry words about small things, then escalating till he would hurt and bruise her in his fits of mental illness, often times in the presence of their children. And yet Brod still loved him. Throughout all of the confusion of his sickness, their love is still able to grow in ways that were previously unexpected, though they experience hardship due to his violent outbreaks. In one scene, Brod finally breaks down and appears unable to love him anymore, unable to bear the burden of his violence. However, they are able to make peace and Brod even cares for him, demonstrating the extent of her love. Eventually his condition becomes so bad that they must be physically separated to the point that they can only communicate through a hole Brod carved in the wall between their two rooms; and yet, it is under these circumstances that the couple experiences a love that appears deeper than any love that the two had known before. “They had never known the deepest intimacy, that closeness attainable only with distance.” His condition, despite the physical, emotional, and mental strain it put on their relationship, is eventually overcome when his violence towards her is controlled. They find a way to deal with the violent spontaneity of his new nature and both are able to experience a full love that makes them happy despite the obstacles that face them. While the novel is filled with portrayals of the kind of flexible perspective on happiness that Brod and the Kolker shared, the penultimate chapter is tragic. The final part of this chapter is an entry in the Book of Recurrent Dreams called “The dream of the end of the world.” The entry describes the destruction of the shtetl and most of its inhabitants as they drown in the river or are killed by the bombs that are dropped on them. This is a picture of the objective power of death and violence that leaves no room for happiness. While love may be expressed in such an environment, a fulfilling sense of happiness cannot be experienced. Violent environments inspire fear and fear destroys happiness. Therefore, while Everything is Illuminated may promote and encourage and explore love as the primary experience that gives human life meaning and happiness, it does so with the realistic and somewhat bleak understanding that a person cannot experience happiness if their physical well-being is threatened by hateful violence.