Illumination

I would never compare the suicide of the grandfather character in Everything is Illuminated and the pointless suicide of the main protagonists in Toga Party. I've already established my feelings over Toga in my last blog, so I'll explain more of my feelings toward the grandfather's timely end. As we all seen in the movie, we find out who the grandfather is and his importance to the story (as a man who is actually from the village that our protagonist Stephen has been looking for, his horrible experience in the slaughter of his friends and family, and so on.) One of the main parts of how it is explained why he eventually offs himself is the part where the grandfather survives the firing squad and throws down his coat that has the Star of David stitched on it. I personally believe that it represented him giving up his faith and burying all the pain and memories of his home town. Then after meeting up with the old woman and sole survivor, (former love?) I believe he finally makes peace with it all. After his long life and experiences I can only guess that he wanted to end his life on his own terms.