Everything Is Illuminated

Content Warning: The source material contains references to rape.

Yankel fears that he will die in bed. He covers all the clocks in the house with black cloth. He also reads Brod’s diary while she is bathing. Brod has a vision that seems to involve her moving into the future. In the vision, she enters a house where a wrinkled woman is washing dishes. Past the woman is a bureau filled with books, papers, and pictures. One photograph shows a girl holding her mother's hand. Brod imagines the woman in the picture as her own mother. She goes upstairs and finds a bedroom with a made bed. A scrap of paper on the bed references Augustine and is dated 1943. Brod goes into the attic and sees a boy reading a story to a girl. The story is called, “The First Rape of Brod D.” It tells the story of the 13th Trachimday festival, on March 18, 1804. Brod is walking home after riding on the float dressed as a mermaid and is approached by Sofiowka. But the boy falls asleep before he tells more of the story.