After watching a movie based on a book like Everything is Illuminated, one can’t help but point out the similarities and differences. The book was written by Jonathan Safran Foer and published in 2002. The movie, directed by Liev Schreiber, came out in 2005. The beginning of the movie was extremely similar to the book, but once we get to the middle, things take a turn.

One extremely different thing between the movie and the book is grandfather. In the book, grandfather betrayed his Jewish best friend to the Nazis while they are vandalizing his village, Kolki. In the movie, grandfather is a Jewish man who escaped the Nazis and stayed in Ukraine by pretending he wasn't Jewish. Grandfather didn’t say one word about how he was in Trachimbrod back in the day until the end of the novel when they are sitting at dinner. Here he tells the whole story. In the movie, there are flashbacks throughout their journey and there is no “story telling” from grandfather in the end. In fact, they didn’t even go to dinner, but went straight back to the hotel room.
In the film, when Sasha is walking up to her porch to ask about Trachimbrod, instead of shucking corn, Lista is hand washing a shirt. When everyone is inside her house, she shows them the valuables, such as the ring, from a box labeled Remains, just like in the book. Grandfather is calmer throughout the film than the manuscript. He doesn’t yell at Lista when she is telling Sasha and Jonathan about the war unlike in the book he continually tells her she is wrong and to stop lying. Foer made it that the old woman lets the others believe she is Augustine until they are about to leave her house. She then tells them what her real name is, Lista. Schreiber made the script so she informs them that she is not Augustine when they are inside her house going through the box of valuables. In both the movie and the book, Lista agrees to take them to Trachimbrod or at least what is left of it (which is nothing but land). She refuses to ride in the car because she is afraid since she has never been in one before. It is nighttime when they reach Trachimbrod, same as in the book. Lista remises out loud about when the Nazis came and killed everyone who lived there. When they all return to her house and are saying their goodbyes, Lista asks grandfather, “Is the war over?” (193) He tells her it is. In the book, grandfather kisses her on the lips while in the movie he kisses her on the hand.
Back at the hotel that night, the three do not eat dinner at the hotel like they do in the book. They do not go through the box labeled In Case that Lista gave Jonathan. Grandfather kills himself in the bathtub at the hotel; however in the book he does it once they return home.
A scene that isn’t written in the book is one from the conclusion of the film when Jonathan lands in America. As he is walking through the airport, he sees people from his past. He realizes that his past will always be there in his life, but he must let go of it. The letter that Sasha wrote to Jonathan is being read out loud. His letter said, "It is possible I will never know why Grandfather did this to himself. Perhaps he wished to bury his life along the side of his past. But I must tell you, Jonfen in this moment, he seemed, as if for the first time in his life contented to be where he was." In the book Grandfather is the one writing the letter right before he kills himself. He says, "I am complete with happiness, and it is what I must do, and I will do it.” (276) These quotes both talk about happiness and how grandfather was content with himself for the first time.
As one can see, the movie and the book had many similarities and differences. I found that there were more differences in the way things were portrayed and how the story unfolded. I thought the book was deeper and more emotional, while the movie was mainly their journey through Ukraine. Throughout the alterations, both works tell the story of a journey grandfather, Sasha, and Jonathan took through Ukraine in search of Trachimbrod.



















Works Cited
Foer, Jonathan S. Everything Is Illuminated. New York: Perennial, 2002. Print.
Everything Is Illuminated. Dir. Schreiber Live. Perf. Eugene Hutz, Elijah Wood.

Warned Independence Pictures, 2005. Film