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Chapter 6
Themes
and Colors
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Everything Is Illuminated, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Storytelling and the Holocaust
Generational Trauma
Meaning and Self-Discovery
Love and Grief
Chance, Misfortune, and Luck
Summary
Analysis
In 1791, the shtetl (a small Jewish town in Eastern Europe) where Yankel lives doesn’t have a name. Officials in Lvov say they need a name to use on maps, and the Well-Regarded Rabbi decides to put it to a vote. The scribe Sofiowka takes it upon himself to look after the ballot box, and when the votes are counted, it seems as if he’s stuffed the ballot box because Sofiowka wins as the official name of the town. Afterward, though, the Well-Regarded Rabbi decides they need to hold another vote for what they’ll call the town among themselves. In that second vote, each proposed name receives exactly one vote. The Well-Regarded Rabbi decides to pull one of the votes out at random. Again, Yankel wins the lottery, and his proposed name of Trachimbrod becomes the name that people use to refer to the town.
This passage points to the differences between official records and the subjective truth of lived experiences. In this case, while the town is officially known as Sofiowka, this passage shows that the town got that name because Sofiowka tampered with the vote. In that way, the novel suggests, Sofiowka has also tampered with the official historical record of the town in a way that makes that record unreliable. The novel then suggests that the unofficial name of the town, Trachimbrod, may more accurately capture the subjective experience of people who actually live in the town, even if that name is not part of the official historical record.
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On September 23, 1997, Jonathan receives another letter from Alex. In the letter, Alex says that he is saving money to buy a plane ticket to visit the U.S. He adds that it was the birthday of his brother, Little Igor, the day before and that Alex’s Father bought Igor a new bicycle. Alex’s Grandfather was also at the party and asked if Jonathan could send another picture of a woman named Augustine that Jonathan had with him during his trip. Alex then thanks Jonathan for his comments about Alex’s last piece of writing (which is Chapter 5, “An Overture to Encountering the Hero, and Then Encountering the Hero” in the book).
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