The most important themes in literature are sometimes developed in scenes in which a death or deaths take place. Show how a specific death scene helps to illuminate the meaning of All The Light We Cannot See as a whole.
The Good the Bad, and the Ugly: The Effects of Having Morals in Wartime
In All the Light of We Cannot See, a major theme is standing up for one’s beliefs. During wartime, people wither express their thoughts openly (rebels) or conserve their thoughts to stay safe (civilians). Werner Pfennig expresses his disagreement with Nazi ideas. This begins as being a good thing, then it turns bad, and ultimately leads to an ugly death.
Werner initially expresses his contempt for the Nazis’ views early in the novel. He discusses these disagreements with Frederick and discreetly with Jutta. This starts as a good thing. He has a strong free will and supports what he thinks is morally just. He also refuses to live by society’s definition of “normal” and wants to live by his morals.
This expression of a lack of loyalty to the Nazis’ leads to him being forced to join the military early after expressing his beliefs to his professor. Being so intelligent, Werner is forced to use his technical mind to track down and kill members of the rebellion. He also ends up accidentally getting innocent people killed. After this, Werner goes through a significant moral struggle and ultimately gets some of his comrades killed.
The ugly side of the expression of ideas that go against one’s country is evident at the climax of the novel. Werner decides not to kill Marie-Laure and instead, save her. After betraying his country once again, Werner gets captured by the American army. When Werner decides to return home, he steps on a German land mine and dies a brutal death. Germany gets the last laugh and indirectly kills Werner for treason.
The death of Werner illuminates the meaning of All the Light We Cannot See by demonstrating what expressing beliefs could entail. It is not completely bad. Even though it can cause people to make decisions that involve life and death, and makes any solution a bad one; some good can come out of it. People who express opinions against one’s country have a strong will and firm beliefs in their ideas. However, if people are not careful, they can meet an ugly end.
The Good the Bad, and the Ugly: The Effects of Having Morals in Wartime
In All the Light of We Cannot See, a major theme is standing up for one’s beliefs. During wartime, people wither express their thoughts openly (rebels) or conserve their thoughts to stay safe (civilians). Werner Pfennig expresses his disagreement with Nazi ideas. This begins as being a good thing, then it turns bad, and ultimately leads to an ugly death.
Werner initially expresses his contempt for the Nazis’ views early in the novel. He discusses these disagreements with Frederick and discreetly with Jutta. This starts as a good thing. He has a strong free will and supports what he thinks is morally just. He also refuses to live by society’s definition of “normal” and wants to live by his morals.
This expression of a lack of loyalty to the Nazis’ leads to him being forced to join the military early after expressing his beliefs to his professor. Being so intelligent, Werner is forced to use his technical mind to track down and kill members of the rebellion. He also ends up accidentally getting innocent people killed. After this, Werner goes through a significant moral struggle and ultimately gets some of his comrades killed.
The ugly side of the expression of ideas that go against one’s country is evident at the climax of the novel. Werner decides not to kill Marie-Laure and instead, save her. After betraying his country once again, Werner gets captured by the American army. When Werner decides to return home, he steps on a German land mine and dies a brutal death. Germany gets the last laugh and indirectly kills Werner for treason.
The death of Werner illuminates the meaning of All the Light We Cannot See by demonstrating what expressing beliefs could entail. It is not completely bad. Even though it can cause people to make decisions that involve life and death, and makes any solution a bad one; some good can come out of it. People who express opinions against one’s country have a strong will and firm beliefs in their ideas. However, if people are not careful, they can meet an ugly end.
The most important themes in literature are sometimes developed in scenes in which a death or deaths take place. Show how a specific death scene helps to illuminate the meaning of All The Light We Cannot See as a whole.
The Insignificance of Life in a War
Most novels set in the WWII time period have a very broad overarching and historic view on the events of the time. The novel All the Light We Cannot See By Anthony Doerr has a more magnified look at the war in order to help readers understand the effect on a more personal level. He looks closely at the lives of his two protagonists Werner and Marie- Laure. These characters seem at first glance to have drastically different lives but they are connected through there shared experiences. Doerr's novel shows how as the war progressed death became a normal aspect of life, insisting the reader with a feeling of the tragic normality of the war.
WWII is estimated to have been the cause of 85 million deaths, in Doerr’s novel this tragic, while never directly stated is implied through the thoughts and experiences of his two protagonists. At the beginning of the book, Werner is sent to a Nazi training school where he improves his education but also his military skills. During his time at the school, Werner faces many hardships the worst of which is the loneliness that he feels and the thought that he may never return home. By focusing in on Werner's experiences the reader feels as though they understand other characters in the novel as well. The empathy that readers create for Werner causes the conclusion that whatever Werner’s situation, he only represents a minuscule percentage of the suffering that the war has caused.
Near the end of the novel, Werner is at a hospital fighting an illness that he will never overcome. He walks out of the medic tent in a feverish daze, at this moment Doerr’s writing style changes from subjective to objective. As Wener wanders about his movements are described as if they were in slow motion or in a dream, including many unimportant details of that night. Werner reflects on his time in the was an all of the tragedy and death that he has witnessed. As Werner reflects over his life he loses all hope and accepts/ welcomes death. Just a few moments after this realization, he steps on a landmine that explodes and ends his life. Werner died just as he feared alone, away from his family, and home, without anyone knowing or caring about his death.
Werner's death while tragic is relatively unimportant to the novel. His death represents the tragic normality of the war. Werner is one of the millions of people who were killed in the war. Dorre acknowledges that every life is important but also brings across the point that there life and death have had no actual impact on the world or history in a war of this magnitude. One of Dorre’s overall messages is that while one moment may represent a life-changing even to one person, it has absolutely no significance of effect on another person.
The Insignificance of Life in a War
Most novels set in the WWII time period have a very broad overarching and historic view on the events of the time. The novel All the Light We Cannot See By Anthony Doerr has a more magnified look at the war in order to help readers understand the effect on a more personal level. He looks closely at the lives of his two protagonists Werner and Marie- Laure. These characters seem at first glance to have drastically different lives but they are connected through there shared experiences. Doerr's novel shows how as the war progressed death became a normal aspect of life, insisting the reader with a feeling of the tragic normality of the war.
WWII is estimated to have been the cause of 85 million deaths, in Doerr’s novel this tragic, while never directly stated is implied through the thoughts and experiences of his two protagonists. At the beginning of the book, Werner is sent to a Nazi training school where he improves his education but also his military skills. During his time at the school, Werner faces many hardships the worst of which is the loneliness that he feels and the thought that he may never return home. By focusing in on Werner's experiences the reader feels as though they understand other characters in the novel as well. The empathy that readers create for Werner causes the conclusion that whatever Werner’s situation, he only represents a minuscule percentage of the suffering that the war has caused.
Near the end of the novel, Werner is at a hospital fighting an illness that he will never overcome. He walks out of the medic tent in a feverish daze, at this moment Doerr’s writing style changes from subjective to objective. As Wener wanders about his movements are described as if they were in slow motion or in a dream, including many unimportant details of that night. Werner reflects on his time in the was an all of the tragedy and death that he has witnessed. As Werner reflects over his life he loses all hope and accepts/ welcomes death. Just a few moments after this realization, he steps on a landmine that explodes and ends his life. Werner died just as he feared alone, away from his family, and home, without anyone knowing or caring about his death.
Werner's death while tragic is relatively unimportant to the novel. His death represents the tragic normality of the war. Werner is one of the millions of people who were killed in the war. Dorre acknowledges that every life is important but also brings across the point that there life and death have had no actual impact on the world or history in a war of this magnitude. One of Dorre’s overall messages is that while one moment may represent a life-changing even to one person, it has absolutely no significance of effect on another person.
In The Writing of Fiction, novelist Edith Wharton states the following: “At every stage in the progress of his tale the novelist must rely on what may be called the illuminating incident to reveal and emphasize the inner meaning of each situation. Illuminating incidents are the magic casements of fiction, its vistas on infinity.” Consider All the Light We Cannot See, and write a well-organized essay in which you describe an “illuminating” episode or moment and explain how it functions as a “casement,” a window that opens onto the meaning of the work as a whole.
The Death Of The German Boy;
The Role Death Plays in Theme Expression
Anthony Doerr's book, All The Light We Cannot See, is centred around World War II. The book, though it switches between the perspective of many people, mostly follows two storylines. One of a German boy, who ended up becoming a Nazi, and the other a blind French girl caught up in the war. Towards the end of the book the German boy, Werner, dies. His death signifies a few significant themes in the book; the insignificance of a single human life, the importance of experiencing life, and the destruction of war.
Nearing the last sections of the book the reader finds Werner a prisoner of war in American custody. He is seriously ill, and has spent the last few days in a medical tent. One night, fevered and delusional, Werner walks out of the tent and onto a field of landmines. This is how he dies, quickly, unheroic, and in the grand scheme of the war unnoticed. By having Werner die this way Doerr emphasizes the theme that individuals lives are insignificant, and what matters is the greater cause. Werner died, but the technology he developed would live on, and his army, though a bad one, would continue for sometime after him.
In the beginning of the book the readers finds Werner and his sister listening to a radio cast in Werner's room of the children's home. In the broadcast a Frenchman is talking about the properties of light, and other scientific wonders that capture Werner's attention. At the end of the broadcast the Frenchman tells the children that they must experience life before they are no longer able. This message sticks with Werner and is again emphasized when he dies. Werner was able to get out of his nowhere town. He was able study the sciences and invent. Even when he had to go fight in the war, he was able to see lots of Europe, and the ocean, and other natural marvels. Though in the end Werner regretted fighting on the side of the Nazis, he was able to experience life. When he died, at least he had truly lived.
After Werner steps on the landmine Doerr informs the reader that the mine was planted by Werner's army. This dark ironicy shows how destructive war is. There are thousands of pointless deaths, and countries get so caught up in killing each other, they they end up killing their own men. This theme is shown when Werener dies, after everything his own company was what killed him.
When Werner died, Doerr shows a few major themes to the reader. One, that the greater cause is what lives on, and individual life is often insignificant. Two, that you must experience life while you have a chance; and three, that war causes ridiculous amount of destruction.
In some works of literature, childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror. Focusing on All The Light We Cannot See, explain how its representation of childhood or adolescence shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.
Happiness in a sad world: A story of innocence taken from children
In All The Lights We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr uses times of adolescence and depicts happiness and wonder. However, he also uses the period of war, conflict and hardship to put an unorthodox spin on his novel, which ultimately enhanced and shaped the novel.
In the novel, one of the main protagonists Marie-Laure is introduced as a happy French girl who lives with her caring father who is a locksmith. Within the first few chapter Marie-Laure goes blind, resulting in a disability which would be the first of many unfortunate and terrible occurences to happen to Marie. These times of tribulation only worsen for Marie as she and her father are forced to flee their home due to the coming conflict. Marie-Laure and her father move in with a relative, Etienne, and his maid, Madame Manec, though the happiness does not last as Marie’s father has had to leave, and he happens to be imprisoned in Germany, far from his daughter. At this point in the novel Marie has lost nearly all sense of what it means to be young, care free and full of wonderlike a girl her age should be. The one day, madame Manec leads marie to the sea, a place she has never been and this act brings happiness and a sense of youth to Marie she has not felt in some time. In Marie’s case, her childhood and innocence are protected by the terrors that occur in her life, at least her being blind helps keep intact her one of the few things she has left.
The second protagonist introduced is Werner Pfenning, an orphaned german boy living in a coal mining town with his sister Jutta. It is shown that Werner has dreams of working as a scientist in Berlin and escaping his father's fate of working in the mines. Werner later accomplishes this by showing his natural talent with machinery, especially radios. Werner’s life begins in a sad, unfortunate situation, one very different from a happy childhood the reader expects, however, Werner’s life is changed when he encounters an old radio. The boy works until the machine comes to life and once it does, a spark of innocence and wonder come over Werner, which is well deserved. For some time Werner, his sister and the other children are given a priceless gidt which helps them ignore their mundane lives. Eventually Werner must come to terms with a decision that impacts his entire life. After fixing a radio for a rich and powerful German who has the ability to send Werner to a top of the line school for gifted German youth. Werner’s hopes of escape are so close to fruition that he decides to destroy the radio he built, this action essentially severs his relationship with Jutta, as he, in her eyes, has destroyed her hope and aspirations. Werner throughout the novel is forced to make decisions that one his age should not have to make. In France during the war, Werner saves a blind girl, Marie, from a horrible fate, this action helps Werner die a happy man as he believes he has redeemed the part of himself he lost during the war, one last valiant act to restore his innocence.
The final example of Doerr’s twisted and cynical way of showing innocence in a non innocent world is through Frederick. Frederick is a boy Werner meets at school, a boy who doesn’t belong. Frederick would rather watch birds chirping than shoot at targets and train for battle, Fredericks character in itself symbolizes the innocence in the world that is corrupted and overcome by the worlds cruelty. Frederick has the least Nazi like views of the German’s we meet in the novel, for this he is beaten and paralyzed by cruel boys at his school, showing the audience and Werner that the world isn’t fair. A scene depicting Werner and Frederick watching in disgust as other boys shoot birds out of trees is Doerr foreshadowing Fredericks unfortunate fate and the eventual fate of innocence of the world during this time,
In conclusion, Doerr is able to depict times of adolescence and youth and convey them to the audience in the conventional, happy approach, and a harsh, conflicting reality which flips the narrative on the reader, making the novel more connected to the reader and shapes the novel into the great piece of literature that it is.
The Death Of The German Boy;
The Role Death Plays in Theme Expression
Anthony Doerr's book, All The Light We Cannot See, is centred around World War II. The book, though it switches between the perspective of many people, mostly follows two storylines. One of a German boy, who ended up becoming a Nazi, and the other a blind French girl caught up in the war. Towards the end of the book the German boy, Werner, dies. His death signifies a few significant themes in the book; the insignificance of a single human life, the importance of experiencing life, and the destruction of war.
Nearing the last sections of the book the reader finds Werner a prisoner of war in American custody. He is seriously ill, and has spent the last few days in a medical tent. One night, fevered and delusional, Werner walks out of the tent and onto a field of landmines. This is how he dies, quickly, unheroic, and in the grand scheme of the war unnoticed. By having Werner die this way Doerr emphasizes the theme that individuals lives are insignificant, and what matters is the greater cause. Werner died, but the technology he developed would live on, and his army, though a bad one, would continue for sometime after him.
In the beginning of the book the readers finds Werner and his sister listening to a radio cast in Werner's room of the children's home. In the broadcast a Frenchman is talking about the properties of light, and other scientific wonders that capture Werner's attention. At the end of the broadcast the Frenchman tells the children that they must experience life before they are no longer able. This message sticks with Werner and is again emphasized when he dies. Werner was able to get out of his nowhere town. He was able study the sciences and invent. Even when he had to go fight in the war, he was able to see lots of Europe, and the ocean, and other natural marvels. Though in the end Werner regretted fighting on the side of the Nazis, he was able to experience life. When he died, at least he had truly lived.
After Werner steps on the landmine Doerr informs the reader that the mine was planted by Werner's army. This dark ironicy shows how destructive war is. There are thousands of pointless deaths, and countries get so caught up in killing each other, they they end up killing their own men. This theme is shown when Werener dies, after everything his own company was what killed him.
When Werner died, Doerr shows a few major themes to the reader. One, that the greater cause is what lives on, and individual life is often insignificant. Two, that you must experience life while you have a chance; and three, that war causes ridiculous amount of destruction.
In some works of literature, childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror. Focusing on All The Light We Cannot See, explain how its representation of childhood or adolescence shapes the meaning of the work as a whole.
Happiness in a sad world: A story of innocence taken from children
In All The Lights We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr uses times of adolescence and depicts happiness and wonder. However, he also uses the period of war, conflict and hardship to put an unorthodox spin on his novel, which ultimately enhanced and shaped the novel.
In the novel, one of the main protagonists Marie-Laure is introduced as a happy French girl who lives with her caring father who is a locksmith. Within the first few chapter Marie-Laure goes blind, resulting in a disability which would be the first of many unfortunate and terrible occurences to happen to Marie. These times of tribulation only worsen for Marie as she and her father are forced to flee their home due to the coming conflict. Marie-Laure and her father move in with a relative, Etienne, and his maid, Madame Manec, though the happiness does not last as Marie’s father has had to leave, and he happens to be imprisoned in Germany, far from his daughter. At this point in the novel Marie has lost nearly all sense of what it means to be young, care free and full of wonderlike a girl her age should be. The one day, madame Manec leads marie to the sea, a place she has never been and this act brings happiness and a sense of youth to Marie she has not felt in some time. In Marie’s case, her childhood and innocence are protected by the terrors that occur in her life, at least her being blind helps keep intact her one of the few things she has left.
The second protagonist introduced is Werner Pfenning, an orphaned german boy living in a coal mining town with his sister Jutta. It is shown that Werner has dreams of working as a scientist in Berlin and escaping his father's fate of working in the mines. Werner later accomplishes this by showing his natural talent with machinery, especially radios. Werner’s life begins in a sad, unfortunate situation, one very different from a happy childhood the reader expects, however, Werner’s life is changed when he encounters an old radio. The boy works until the machine comes to life and once it does, a spark of innocence and wonder come over Werner, which is well deserved. For some time Werner, his sister and the other children are given a priceless gidt which helps them ignore their mundane lives. Eventually Werner must come to terms with a decision that impacts his entire life. After fixing a radio for a rich and powerful German who has the ability to send Werner to a top of the line school for gifted German youth. Werner’s hopes of escape are so close to fruition that he decides to destroy the radio he built, this action essentially severs his relationship with Jutta, as he, in her eyes, has destroyed her hope and aspirations. Werner throughout the novel is forced to make decisions that one his age should not have to make. In France during the war, Werner saves a blind girl, Marie, from a horrible fate, this action helps Werner die a happy man as he believes he has redeemed the part of himself he lost during the war, one last valiant act to restore his innocence.
The final example of Doerr’s twisted and cynical way of showing innocence in a non innocent world is through Frederick. Frederick is a boy Werner meets at school, a boy who doesn’t belong. Frederick would rather watch birds chirping than shoot at targets and train for battle, Fredericks character in itself symbolizes the innocence in the world that is corrupted and overcome by the worlds cruelty. Frederick has the least Nazi like views of the German’s we meet in the novel, for this he is beaten and paralyzed by cruel boys at his school, showing the audience and Werner that the world isn’t fair. A scene depicting Werner and Frederick watching in disgust as other boys shoot birds out of trees is Doerr foreshadowing Fredericks unfortunate fate and the eventual fate of innocence of the world during this time,
In conclusion, Doerr is able to depict times of adolescence and youth and convey them to the audience in the conventional, happy approach, and a harsh, conflicting reality which flips the narrative on the reader, making the novel more connected to the reader and shapes the novel into the great piece of literature that it is.