Everything is Illuminated Lesson Plan

Alex is surprised by Jonathan's appearance when he first meets him. What do you believe informed Alex's ideas about what an American and what a Jewish person looks like?

Alex expects Americans to be blonde and muscular. He acknowledges that the Americans he has seen are all in magazines. This implies that Alex's views/expectations of Americans is based on the models and celebrities that generally occupy the pages of newspapers and magazines in the Untied States. Alex has a similarly limited view of what Jewish people look like. He refers to Jews as people with no hair and prominent bones. He mentions seeing this in history books. This implies that the only Jewish...