Jonathan Safran's Film 'Everything Is Illumination'
643 Words3 Pages
A large part in the effectiveness of a story is the depth of emotional connection between the teller and the audience. Jonathan Safran’s story is told by his guide, Alex, in the movie, “Everything Is Illuminated.” There are enhancements and hindrances to having Jonathan’s story narrated by an outside person. Jonathan’s story is one of loss and despair. He is the collecting grandson of a Holocaust survivor, on a mission to find the woman who saved his grandfather’s life. During his search, Alex, the narrator, guides him. Alex, along with his grandfather, help to find the woman, named Augustina, and translates for Jonathan. Throughout the movie, we learn bits and pieces of both Jonathan, and Alex’s grandfathers past. This knowledge is made…show more content… We see that his grandmother is very ill and soon learn that his grandfather has passed away. Jonathan is given a stone that eventually leads him to go and search for Augustina. Up until this point, one would believe the movie to be told from Jonathan’s perspective. The ultimate enhancement from this perspective is the emotional connection presented from Jonathan. When a story is told from a survivor’s perspective, a sense of emotion is present. The face of the speaker tells the pain and the sense of despair that they experienced. In this case, we would see the bond between Jonathan and his grandfather and what motivates Jonathan to find Augustina. However, I see far more hindrances to the story than enhancements with this type of narration. On the other hand, having Jonathan narrate the story causes many problems. The first of which is that the story becomes heavily one-sided. Everything Is Illuminated is more about the histories that connect Jonatha, Grandfather, Alex, and Lista together, than about Jonathans search for Augustina. Those connections would be lost had Jonathan narrated the story, as we would not have had the experiences of the other three as references of