Family Quotes in Everything Is Illuminated

As anyone who watches daytime television can confirm, families can be the source of tragedy. Yankel's children both died, one of illness and the other of the flour mill curse (see The Dial in our Symbols section), and then his wife left. But Yankel is lucky: when he finds Brod, he gets to build a new family all over again, even if it is just a father/daughter duo.

Are you going to grow up to be just like your parents, or are you going to be as different from them as possible? (Those are definitely your only two choices.) Alex belongs to the latter group, and, since being the opposite of Father means not wanting to be an abusive jerk, we think that's a good decision.

This is a classic getting-to-know-you conversation starter: Who's your favorite band? Where did you grow up? What's your grandmother like? You know, the classics. This is one of the first personal questions Alex asks Jonathan when they are at Not-Augustine's house. Maybe he's thinking about his own grandmother—or maybe he comes from a culture that focuses more on family than ours does.