All the Light We Cannot See Essay Questions

Consider the structure and the movement in the short chapters, going back and forth through time. "The movement happens on both on a small scale within individual moments, but also on a bigger scale across the entire book" (Smith). Discuss the role time plays in the book.

Doerr uses the movement through time to create dramatic suspense in the novel. He also uses it as a way to set the scene and context of a historical fiction where the outcome of the war and the historical event is already known: the suspense is mostly related to the changes within the characters; thus the movement through time allows Doerr to develop Werner’s character into one that would save Marie-Laure. The movement also provides space for the reader emotionally, distancing the reader from hard-to-read passages about the atrocities committed in war.

Look again at the two epigraphs:

“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. . . . Of the 865 buildings within the walls, only 182 remained standing and all were damaged to some degree.”—Philip Beck

“It would not have been possible for us to take power or to use it in the ways we have without the radio.”—Joseph Goebbels

What is the significance of these quotes in the context of the novel?

The epigraphs touch on two topics: the bombing that occurred in Saint-Malo at the end of WWII, and radio transmissions as used by the Nazis to disseminate propaganda. The first quote, by historian Philip Beck, sets the historical scene of the book, alerting the reader that the novel is set in a time period in which known events occurred. The bombing and destruction of Saint-Malo is woven throughout the novel, and is the setting of the climax of the plot as well. The quote by Goebbels, the Nazi Minister of Propaganda, demonstrates how radio was used as a tool to disseminate propaganda for the Third Reich. Radio plays an important role in the development of the theme of nationalism in the novel; first, with Werner and Jutta's discovery of a radio, where they begin to catch some of the broadcasts of propaganda aimed at children; and later, Werner's expertise in radio engineering wins him a position at an elite school, which in turn leads him to a specialized position in the Wehrmacht fighting.

“Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever” (Chapters 18, 30, 82, 134) is a phrase that appears to Werner repeatedly throughout the book; what is its significance in the novel? What is the relationship between this quote and Madame Manec’s question: “Don’t you want to be alive before you die?” (Chapters 84 & 144.)

This phrase resurfaces for Werner throughout the novel in the theme of memory: it is a comfort to remember those words, which he first heard as a child from his beloved radio with his sister. At that time, the phrase opened his eyes to the magic of science and technology, inspiring him to explore and discover that which fascinated him. Later, the phrase changes meaning for him, as it comes up when he is closing his eyes to the violence around him; he must then open his eyes to the kindness he can participate in, against the odds. Ironically, it was Etienne who wrote that line, and yet, he has not left his home in over 20 years out of fear. Madame Manec's question thus is challenging Etienne years later to return to that place of curiosity and human connection. Etienne's character also progresses in this way: he is able to live a little and open his eyes again by first participating in the resistance, and then later by traveling with Marie-Laure.

Blindness and imagery of the senses form a large part of Marie-Laure's narrative. Think of this sentence: “To shut your eyes is to guess nothing of blindness” (Chapter 127). What is demonstrated to the reader through Marie-Laure's blindness?

Marie-Laure’s blindness allows her the skill of feeling/hearing/smelling/sensing in some better way than other people. In that way, her blindness is framed as an ironic ability to see more than others. Her blindness is also a tool to allow for sensory imagery outside of what is usually described in imagery, the word itself implying something seen—an image. With Marie-Laure the reader gets to also experience smell, touch, sounds, memories, and imagination associated with these things.

The motif of radio transmission is extremely important in the story and the time period. How does radio help move the plot forward, and how does the meaning of radio change throughout the course of the novel?

Radio begins as an exciting experiment in discovery of science and technology for Werner. However, as the radio is used more and more as a tool of German nationalism, Werner succumbs to that version of radio, agreeing to help Dr. Hauptmann with his radio transmitter and transceiver triangle calculations. In a parallel structure, from the other side of the story, radio is initially used by Etienne and by Marie-Laure as a way of hearing news and discovering things from around the world; after it is forbidden, their radio transmitter is also used as a method of resistance against German rule.

These two opposing forces of radio come together at the end, rediscovering the original importance of radio for the characters—connecting people, entertaining, and discovering information—in the communication between Marie-Laure's story telling and Werner's listening in the cellar.

Anthony Doerr has been criticized for the absence of the Jewish side of the World War II story in his novel. Yet, the novel has also won great critical acclaim for its ability to tell a tender story of two children impacted by war. How would you flesh out arguments for both of these perspectives? Which do you think is a more accurate representation of the novel, and why?

Doerr's novel is enticing partially because it is so well crafted and suspenseful in the structure and the momentum, and partially also because it is a different view on World War II narrative than the one that is often told. While the story does not entirely ignore the mistreatment of Jewish people by the Germans, it does not put it in the spotlight. This side of the criticism asks whether it is ethical to ignore the Holocaust and all the atrocities that occurred, and instead to focus on a character that is a Nazi, thereby giving very little voice to the victims of the story. However, Doerr's narrative does expand the view of who was impacted by the war: the children in these countries, who had few options presented to them, and made choices out of survival. He highlighted this concept of humanism, strung throughout the novel as a theme of choices that humans can make toward their own destiny; in the end, the narrative makes clear that Germany as a whole made the wrong choice, and the surviving German characters are condemned to their guilt and shame at having been a part of that. Thus the novel does not glorify the Nazis, nor does it recount the horrors of the Holocaust, yet it doesn't paint its characters all as monsters who supported the Nazi regime: its conclusion is more nuanced, residing in the trauma and pain felt by people who participated, marginally or actively, in its unforgettable atrocities.

Why do you think Doerr continued the narrative beyond the wartime period to 1974, and then, at the very end, jumped to 2014? What effect does this achieve for the reader?

Because of the historical fiction of the story, the ending of the war is not a surprise in the plot: the plot is instead carried by its characters. By showing us the aftermath of the war in 1974 and how it has damaged or changed the characters in many ways, Doerr goes beyond the context of the war, and of the fairy tale like concepts captured within, and brings a sense of realism to the damage and lasting effects war has on people and on countries.

Take another look at the chapter headings, and their relationship to the content of the chapter, as well as to other chapters—for example, there are two chapters entitled "Leaflets," and there are three chapters with the title "Weakest," and later three entitled "Music." Discuss the use of these chapter headings in the structuring of the plot and the story.

These chapter headings often use words from within previous chapters, thus continuing the movement of time for the story, and developing on phrases heard earlier in the novel. For example, the phrase, “Good Evening, or Heil Hitler if You Prefer," is said in Chapter 16, and reappears as the title of Chapter 26, when the nationalism in Germany is increasing and Werner begins to feel the ever-expanding machine of Germany. Also, the repeated chapter headings with the title 'Weakest' start with a general story about the first exercise that the boys do to extract the weakest, then zooms in during the next 'Weakest' chapter to show how this exercise impacted Werner when he saw it occurring to Frederick, and finally in the last 'Weakest' chapter we see the climax of the subplot of Frederick’s bullying, when he is absent one morning and Werner is confronted once more with the reality of the cruelty that is happening at Schulpforta.

Discuss the use of Jules Verne’s Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea in the text: what is the relationship between that narrative, those characters, and All the Light We Cannot See?

Unlike Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, there is not much left to question at the end of All the Light We Cannot See. Yet there are other important parallels in between the plots and characters that help to move along the plot of Marie-Laure's, and later Werner's, narratives. One parallel is that of Marie-Laure's life in Paris being interrupted: she had to leave the second half of her book there in Paris, and was thus not able to finish the story for many years. After Marie-Laure receives a new copy of the book, she reads a part where Captain Nemo is suspected to be carrying out a secret mission, and this is part of what leads her to realize her father had hidden the Sea of Flames in the model of Saint-Malo. Finally, the excitement and magic and imagination of the story of Twenty Thousand Leagues is part of what saves Marie-Laure, because by reading it on the radio, she is able to reach Werner.