All The Light We Cannot See Analysis

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All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a dynamic novel that follows the lives of young Werner Pfennig and Marie-Laure LeBlanc before, during, and after World War Two. Werner is a German orphan living with his little sister in a small, secluded mining town. Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, lives with her father in Paris. Both children are under the influence of war, but see or do not see it in different ways. The irony of the fact is, although Marie-Laure is the blind one, Werner is blind to the effects of war on himself and those around him.
Marie-Laure may be blind, but she can sense the signs of war happening in France. “From a certain angle, the spring seems so calm: warm, tender, each night redolent and composed. Yet everything radiates tension, as if the city has been built upon the skin of a balloon and someone is inflating toward the breaking point” (Doerr 70). She sees right through the calm before the storm, or in this metaphor, war. She is always thinking about how the …show more content…
Tell-Tale signs of the horrors of Nazi Germany present to him, yet he is still oblivious. When Werner is ten, two older boys in the Children's house join the Hitler Youth. “Their salutes are comical; their outfits on the verge of ridiculous” (Doerr 42) He sees the boys and does not see the connection to them and the upcoming war, even when the boys say “Our flag represents the new era,” and “Our flag leads us to eternity” (Doerr 42). For having such a brilliant mind, Werner is sent to ‘one of the top universities in the world’ to learn. Instead he is to be trained to join the the Nazi Army, There, he is told, “But minds are not to be trusted. Minds are always drifting toward ambiguity, toward questions, when what you really need is certainty. Purpose, clarity, Do not trust your minds” (Doerr 264). Werner never uses his mind to question why and how he is being used as a tool, and it ultimately leads to his
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