Book Review Of All The Light We Cannot See By Anthony Doerr

Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer prize-winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See, is a beautifully written story capturing the lives of two ordinary children growing up in the midst of World War II. Doerr’s novel is told by a young French girl, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, living with her father, a master museum locksmith, in Paris. By the time Marie-Laure is 6 years old, she is fully blind. To help her learn to navigate around the city, her father creates a miniature version of Paris. He carves intricate houses so her fingers can trace along the streets.

In Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See , a blind girl named Marie-Laure LeBlanc lives with her father, Daniel LeBlanc, in Paris. When Marie-Laure was a little girl, she went on a children’s tour of the museum where her father worked. On the tour, the tour guide talks about this stone called the Sea of Flames and it was said that the keeper of the stone would live forever, but as long as he kept it, all the people that he loved would face many problems. When she is twelve years old, the Nazis occupy Paris, so Marie-Laure and her father flee the city, with the Sea of Flames, to go live with her great uncle and aunt, Etienne LeBlanc and Madame Manec in Saint-Malo. A forty-one year old man named Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel, is very

In the article, “The Boys Who Fought the Nazis” by Kristen Lewis, three teenage boys named Karl, Helmuth, and Rudi risked everything to fight the Nazis with the power of writing because they knew that Hitler was cruel and wrong. In July of 1941, Helmuth found an illegal short-wave radio that picked up foreign channels that would speak about Hitler and his terrible actions. Listening to the stations were “forbidden, and the penalties were severe” for anyone who did so in Germany (8). Karl, Helmuth, and Rudi would get together to listen to the Britain station that told what no one else in the country had the courage to say. Hitler was lying and putting his soldiers into battles that couldn’t be won. Although the boys now knew the truth about

All the light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, chronicles the lives and relationship between Marie and Werner, two children who grew up in France and Germany. The society around them forces discriminatory ideals that cloud their perception of the world, but they find its meaning through their own self-definition. In this, they are both guided by a single radio and the message and legacy that it contains. Throughout the book, the author isolated the two characters, but also created subtle connections between the two. The most important of which would be the radio. It created a bond between the two where they learned from each other’s experiences and struggles. All the Light We Cannot See recreates a new picture of the world by contrasting the two separate journeys taken by Marie- Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfennig to gain that image, which is guided by the power of a radio and the message it contains, ultimately leading to the meeting of the two characters that officially forms an image of the world where one’s actions are valued more than one’s physical features.

A time of decency and aspiration soon appeared as a time of brutality and outrage. The 1960s were a period of social revolution and turmoil. Through changes in politics, equality and war, many Americans acted as a catalyst for change. John F. Kennedy took office as the first Catholic President of the United States who radiated a symbol of hope. While Martin Luther King Jr. preached notions of change during the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. The racial divide of blacks and whites were heightened in society. Protests appeared to demand equal rights for women and to end the war in Vietnam. In Rosemary L. Bray’s memoir, Unafraid of the Dark, Bray openly reflected on the life she had growing up in a low class family in Chicago. Bray describes the hardships

Sometimes, it seems that the best representation of fiction is reality, not the other way

“In August 1944 the historic walled city of Saint Malo, the brightest jewel of the Emerald Coast of Brittany, France, was almost totally destroyed by fire.” ( “Burning of Saint Malo”, para. 1) The book, All The Light We Cannot See, follows two main characters, Marie-Laure and Werner.

The radio that is presented from the book “All the Light We Cannot See” is a metaphor for the hope and the many untold stories in World War II. The characters Marie-Laure and Werner were trapped in a seemingly hopeless situation during the German occupation in Normandy during World War II. The radio that was found, and restored, by Werner gave them a sense of hope when they would listen to stories and lessons from voices around the world. Although the children could not do anything about the war that was raging outside and their possible inevitable fate, the radio gave them a brief mental break from their troubles. The radio is important in the story because the radio admits soundwaves that we cannot see in the same way we cannot see light.

After World War I, tensions between countries around the world remained high causing many people to struggle with the stress and worries of a post war society. In fact, according to author Kimberly Elliot, “[t]he unprecedented carnage and destruction of the war stripped this generation of their illusions about democracy, peace, and prosperity, and many expressed doubt and cynicism in their artistic endeavors”. Music became a coping mechanism and distraction during this difficult period of time. For many musicians and entertainers, “...the desire for escapism and the introduction in 1915 of leave for the troops at the Front encouraged ever more elaborate entertainment, a phenomenon which continued in the immediate postwar era…” (Hewitt). Although the war brought pain to many people, it also served as inspiration for what would become some of the most popular music of the 1920’s. People sought after music not only because it helped them to cope, but because it allowed them heal: “...[T]he healing power of the blues is not so

The music that was present in World War II was extremely versatile and happy, which helped keep spirits high among everybody. Styles such as swing, blues, and jazz were popular music styles at the time. By the end of 1941, 96.2% of Americans owned radios. This granted greater access to music and information on the war. This is in contrast to World War I, where most citizens of the world were not as connected to the war through radio. In a way, the mass distribution of music was unifying for the American citizens and troops. However, many African-American musical artists used music to highlight the hypocrisy of the Americans fighting for freedom at that time because there was still a lot of segregation and discrimination in the United States and in it’s military.

I chose my book, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, because I recognized that it was in the time period of world war two. The novel didn’t touch on the topic of the holocaust and Hitler was only mentioned in certain parts which was what I was hoping it would, but I ended up really enjoying it anyways. When I began, I realized that their stories were told separately, following the pattern of every other chapter. This is was drove me in the beginning, trying to see if their stories ever connected and even when it was with something so little it was so satisfying to read. As I read, I began to like the book even more, though; sometimes it would go forward in time and suddenly go backwards, leaving me on a cliffhanger and having me wanting

Put aside your stance on homosexuality, and put yourself into the shoes of someone who is a homosexual. Imagine how you would feel if the world did not accept who you are as a person because you are different. Only because you didn’t find the opposite sex attractive to you. In Jonathan Safran Foer’s book Everything is illuminated we find out that Alex confesses his love for Jonathan near the end of the book as he becomes more comfortable with Jonathan. Why does Alex not tell Jonathan from the beginning? Is he uncomfortable being open that he is a homosexual?

Do you want to change your life, but you’re are not sure where to start? This remarkable book will not only support you, but offer you a behind behind-the the-scenes look into your own biology. Throughout these pages, you can discover specific tools to unleash your hidden abilities for creating the life you want.

“Everything is Illuminated” has a mastery of literary standards, especially on syntax, figurative language and plot structure. For instance, Foer uses Alex fearlessly as a way to improve the book’s greatness, making him live the contradiction of having an English-related job, and yet he is unable to speak it and communicate correctly. Alex’s speeches and use of idioms are innocently funny. Furthermore, the story has a collection of letters exchanged by Alex and Jonathan (the Hero), which also helps to build the book’s theme. It is possible to affirm that such technique used by Foer might confuse the reader in the beginning, but once the plot develops, a deeper meaning is revealed – without the letters, all the moments, feelings, messages and

In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger, an English art critic, argues that images are important for the present-day by saying, “No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer literature” (10). John Berger allowed others to see the true meaning behind certain art pieces in “Ways of Seeing”. Images and art show what people experienced in the past allowing others to see for themselves rather than be told how an event occurred. There are two images that represent the above claim, Arnold Eagle and David Robbins’ photo of a little boy in New York City, and Dorothea Lange’s image of a migratory family from Texas; both were taken during the Great Depression.