Everything Is Illuminated

Water is a recurrent motif throughout Everything is Illuminated. Its ongoing, ever-changing nature represents a connection to the past, the thread that runs through generations. A passage in The Book of Recurrent Dreams recounts a dream about water: “In the water I saw my father’s face, and that face saw the face of its father, and so on, and so on, reflecting backward to the beginning of time, to the face of God, in whose image we were created” (48). This connection to the past echoes the eternal nature of water. It is an unstoppable force, and one that is essential to our lives. Water shapes the landscape as the past—and our ancestors—shape our daily lives.

Water can also represent something central and essential that defines one’s life, as the Brod defines Trachimbrod. The river Brod is the town’s defining feature, and fundamental to its inhabitants' daily lives. It is also host to the most famous event in the shtetl’s history—the overturning of Trachim’s cart and the birth of Brod. Brod’s birth, rising from the river alone, is mysterious, seemingly miraculous, and marks a new era or rebirth of the town. At the other end of the