For centuries, people have existed. But have they lived? Have they loved? Have they seen the beauty in the world around them? Are these even valuable goals for humankind? Through his historical fiction novel All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr identifies the tenacity of humankind, their commitment to living, and the intimate dependency they have upon optimism, framing his exploration of these questions in a world that is full of amazement, humility, and gratuity, at scales surpassing and underlying the mediocrity of life- scales, Doerr argues, that should evoke awareness, humility, and compassion in their pursuit of life, love, and beauty- thereby justifying these pursuits. Innate to Doerr’s argument is the belief that the world is profoundly beautiful. But Doerr’s central protagonist is blind. How does one see beauty without eyes? For Marie-Laure, color goes beyond that of a physical sense, evoking more complex webs of sound and touch and tone and smell than she ever knew. And she quickly learns that “[t]o really touch something [...] is to love it,” for in the “forest of spikes and caves and textures” of a single shell, Marie-Laure observes endless life at levels she cannot physically see; this fascination at minute scales nurtures Marie-Laure’s awareness of the world, allowing her to glimpse “the limitless span of millennia behind her: “millions of years, tens of millions” (Doerr 30, 60). Like so many characters who lose their eyes, Marie-Laure develops an acute perception of the world that supasses those who only see at a superficial level. This is the true birth of Doerr’s protagonist- her adaption to losing sight- and through it, the author reminds his readers that the world is a beautiful place, full of wonder. Central to Marie-Laure’s ability to cope with blindness is the love and support she receives from her father, from the patience with which he carves a model town for her, from the comfort of his presence beside her bed at night, from the excitement and satisfaction of birthday puzzles and chocolates, from the constant encouragement to explore and imagine through books such as Around the World in 80 Days. As Doerr admits, “[s]cience and stories are two ways to interrogate the world,”
Planet of the Blind is brilliantly written by Stephen Kuusisto; he delves into his life story and gives readers exceptionally realistic descriptions of his experiences. Beginning the memoir, it is clear that Kuusisto is undergoing an obvious struggle between himself and his blindness. Born with retinopathy of prematurity, Kuusisto’s parents do their best to avoid his impairment. Due to this, Kuusisto describes himself as developing a sixth sense of giving off the perception that he could see significantly better than what he actually could. Throughout the memoir, Kuusisto chronologically tells of significant events during his childhood, teenage years, and adulthood and how he came to accept his disability and be confident in himself. During the course of these significant events, Kuusisto uses poetry to convey his emotions while also using the rhetoric of emancipation.
The realistic fiction novel, “Tangerine”, featured a boy named Paul that had always seen the world from a pair of glasses. Paul moved to Tangerine, Florida and faced many unusual things. The story introduced motif which is a repeated element throughout a story. Tangerine repeated the motif of sight which played a huge role in the story altering how people lived their lives. Through the motif of sight, paul, the main character in the novel, has a growing understanding of his friends, family and himself.
Daniel continuously uses gloomy and depressing tone to make the reader feel as if all light has been sucked from the universe. He thinks “The world has enough degradation, humiliation, and disappointment for everybody to try some” (Daniel). By describing a world in which not a single shred of happiness still exists, a parade begins to seem like a glimmering light at the end of a long tunnel. This world
The excerpt from All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr tells the story of a little girl who is blind. Doerr’s story is all about how this little blind girl, Marie-Laure. While the plot is the fact that the girl is blind and how she lives her life, the central idea is the fact that blind people can “see” just not the same as everyone else. Marie-Laure has the unique ability to “see” the world in her own special way. She describes the many places in the museum by the way they smell. The fact that she can recognize that “paleontology smells like rock dust” and how all the other places smell is her little way of getting around and “seeing” where she is (Line 4).
(27)What this quote is trying to convey is that being blind completely changes the way of your life and shows how inaccurate you become. It creates a picture of how losing her sight will bring challenges in everyday life and reinforces the disconnection of her body to objects. I will be explaining in this chapter how imagery is used in the chapter. In this quote Anthony Doerr states “Maire-Laure crosses six evenly spaced friction strips on the kitchen tiles to reach the table; she follows a strand of twine he has threaded from the table to the toilet.”(30 )
The fear of uncertainty can do unspeakable things to one's mind. This can be demonstrated by small situations such as which meal to choose in an unfamiliar restaurant, or can apply to much larger problems such as not knowing how to get home in one of the largest cities in the world. In the book, “All the Light We Cannot See,” written by Anthony Doerr, Marie-Laure goes through drastic changes in her life that modify her development as an adult. Marie-Laure's father, World War II, and Mauries loss of sight have all influenced her decisions and morals. It is human nature to find someone to lean on and go to for reassurance.
“The Beauty-Happiness Connection” published in The Atlantic on August 15, 2014 by Cody C. Delistraty (1) is an insightful piece into the world, and how the beauty around us has a direct correlation between people’s happiness. Mr. Delistrsty has an understanding that humans associate beauty with happiness which has a calming affect and quite possible evokes hope as well. He supports this by referencing Alexander Nehamas a Princeton Philosopher who states “Beauty manifests a hope that life would be better if the object of beauty were part of it.”
One might be led to believe that this society is a perfect place to live, since all the inhabitants are eternally happy. There are no wars, pain, or suffering, all definite pluses, yet readers must not judge too quickly.
“But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don’t you do the same?” Anthony Doerr’s book, All the Light We Cannot See, is based in Saint-Malo during World War I. When Marie and Werner unexpectedly cross paths, they must work together to stop the stealing of a precious jewel, the Sea of Flames.
In “Cathedral” by Raymond Carter, the narrator has his vision, but he does not truly see the world. The blind man lacks sight, but sees deeper meanings to life.
The story “Cathedral” demonstrates that lack of sight does not necessarily prevent one from perceiving things as they are, or live their life to the fullest. In the story, a middle-age blind man, who is a friend to the narrator’s wife, and used to be her boss at one point, visits the narrator and his wife. The narrator has never interacted with blind people before, and all he knew about blind people was what he had seen on television. Blind people are stereotypically portrayed on television as slow moving, dull people, who never laugh. Based on this perception, the narrator was reluctant to meet the blind man and doubted whether they were going to connect. This is evident when the narrator states, “I wasn’t enthusiastic about his visit. He was no one I knew. And his being blind bothered me” (Carver 1).
Although many people come up with countless reasons why the world is not perfect, others find reasons for optimism. What makes an optimist believe that all things work toward the greater good? It may be easy to say that all is happening for the greater good until things go wrong. Does something good come from a child dying or when people in less-developed countries suffer from starvation? Why would God leave this world with so many problems? Did he do this, or was it humans? In Voltaire’s Candide, Candide comes across a utopia, a perfect world, called Eldorado. Showing the extreme contrast between Eldorado and Candide’s home in Europe suggests that only in an unreal world can man truly be content and optimistic.
The act of looking is related to physical vision while the act of seeing involves an enhanced understanding of what it means to truly exist. In the short story “Cathedral”, the narrator is blind to appreciating the human experience until he meets a blind man who ironically becomes the one who teaches him how to see in a way he never knew how. The author Raymond Carver uses symbolism within this story to reinforce the theme of blindness, and the difference between looking and seeing.
The Story “Cathedral” by Raymond Carver is about true blindness and the effects of emotional contact. Peterson studies the use of determiners, a and the, that refer to the blind man in the story and its effects to establish the atmosphere of the story. He states that the change in determiner seems subtle, but these subtle changes are significant because the changes show how narrator feel about Robert throughout the story. Nesset studies the sexual polices and the love lives in several Carver’s stories. He discusses how Carver wrote his stories based on less of love and more of love withdrawal. Also Facknitz addresses rediscovery of human worth and the effects of emotional touch by discussing three short stories written by Carver. He analyses each narration of the narrator and comments based on psychological manner. The story “Cathedral” suggests the meaning of true blindness does not only refer to physical disability; it refers to those people who cannot see the world from other’s perspectives and it can be overcome through emotional contact.
Carver is well known for his short stories and poetries. Among his works, “Cathedral” is considered one of the best, favorite, and most optimistic and the most developed. Carver’s story revolves around the theme of seeing and looking. Most people believed they could not live without cathedrals which brought them closer to their God. Similarly, people place so much importance to the physical eyesight and tend to think they can hardly live without it. Robert, a blind man, is invited to the narrator’s home and the narrator is shown troubled by Roberts’s disability. Later on, the narrator is amazed to see the blind smoking despite having even thought of helping him with his drink earlier on (Carver 516- 524). The latter brought to attention that as much as natural looking is essential, more essential is the ability to see or to visualize things. The writer explains that it might be tougher to be without eyesight; however, it is possible to live without it and make the best of what else one has, more so the brain. Visualizing brings out a better view of the significance of life and things surrounding us.