Everything Is Illuminated by the American Writer Jonathan Safran Foer - Movie Review Example

What Jonathon is referring to is his past. He feels that by discovering about his history, he will understand himself more. Jonathon’s interest in collecting things stems from when his grandmother was on her deathbed. She gave Jonathon a photo of her dead husband, Jonathon’s grandfather, who is standing with a random woman. Just simply receiving this photo alone would not spark Jonathon’s interest; it was the story that his grandmother told about how the woman in the photo helped his grandfather to escape the Nazis. However, she dies before she is able to tell Jonathon about this woman who was so vital to Jonathon even existing. Jonathon makes the journey to Ukraine to try and find the mystery woman who helped his grandfather during his time of need. Another meaning from the statement that Jonathon gives is that he wants to discover his own background. Something that Jonathon maybe think is about is the fact that he would not exist without this woman helping his grandfather. If there is a chance that she is still alive, then Jonathon wants to meet her and possibly thank her. Jews by nature are very religious people who have had a long and turbulent history. It is this history that helps them to keep going. Modern day Jews wants the story of the Holocaust to be taught because they do not want the wrongs of the past to be repeated in the future. Jonathon feels like his history is an important part of who he is today, so he should do everything possible to learn from his ancestors. While Jonathon may not be finding information key to the Jewish religion, he appreciates the fact that he is Jewish and wants to learn more about his history. 2. Alex’s grandfather initially had a negative attitude towards Jews; he keeps referring to Jonathon as “Yid,” which can sometimes be used as a derogatory term for Jewish people. There are some Jews who call themselves this term, so there is still some debate as to whether Yid puts down Jews or not. Alex’s grandfather’s attitude towards Jews does change over the course of the film, but this is largely due to the journey that everyone takes. This change is unusual in a way because Alex’s grandfather has always had a negative view of Jews, probably because of the area of Ukraine that he was brought up in. Another reason could be that he has dealt with so many Jews looking to travel to Ukraine that he has grown accustomed to Jews as customers rather than friends. Also, the fact that he is an old man makes it all the more unlikely that he changed his view of Jews after traveling with one through the Ukrainian countryside. But, after seeing Jonathon make a journey to pursue some of his history, and the fact that everyone got along well, Alex’s grandfather begins to understand that his previous view of Jews was in fact wrong. 3. The Christian religion is shown in a both a positive and negative light, depending on the characters involved. The positive representation of Christianity is shown when the Jesuits go into the forest and help the native people by teaching them to read, building schools and churches, and offering them a way out of their primitive state. Along the way, the Jesuits even manage to convince a mercenary, Mendoza, to join them. They had no reason to do this except to pick someone up at their lowest point. The negative representation of Christianity is shown by the Jesuit Order in Europe and the Catholic Church, which pursue an aggressive strategy of eliminating the new converts from their land simply due to border and land disputes. The scenes showing church leaders in Europe give the impression that the Christian church wants to conquer the world with no respect for the native people they come across. The message given about Christianity is a balanced one; missionaries such as Father Gabriel choose not to fight because it goes against what he believes while Mendoza believes that Christians should have the right to protect themselves. The film does not offer an opinion on which belief is the greater one; it only presents a situation that forces the viewer to think for themselves about what they would do in the same situation. While some viewers might have a negative view of Christianity after watching this film, there are other who would be impacted by the choices that the missionaries made (this could be either the position taken by Father Gabriel or Mendoza). 4. I learned a great deal about how Buddhists live their lives, especially monks in the temple. Buddhist people believe in reincarnation, which is something that I did not understand fully before watching this movie. I did not know that Hinduism played such an important part in Buddhism because they seemed to be two separate religions for me, but I now realize that one came out of the other (that is, Buddhism came out of Hinduism). Because of this, many of the beliefs and practices of Hinduism are present in Buddhism. I have to say that I learned more from watching this movie that I would from studying a book. There are many complex concepts involved in Buddhism, so to see a cast act them out helped me to understand why Buddhists believe what they do and how they affect their daily lives. The religious element of the film did not really appeal to me because I do not consider myself to be religious (although I do appreciate the concept of religion and the hope that it brings to many people), but I was surprised to learn that the beliefs in Buddhism are very similar to what I believe. If I was more of a religious person, then I am sure that I would have appreciated the film more and been able to apply concepts that I picked up from the film. I now have knowledge about how Buddhists live and why they believe the things that they do. Read More