Anthony Doerr’s World War II narrative All the Light We Cannot See was on the New York Times’ Bestseller list for over 100 weeks straight. It has become an important part of the canon of World War II literature. The book focuses on the way war impacts the lives of children, and on finding the goodness where it seems there is none.
In an interview with Scribner, Doerr asks, “Could I tell a story about how a promising boy got sucked into the Hitler Youth and made bad decisions that led to terrible, unforgivable consequences, yet still render him an empathetic character?” Anthony Doerr wanted to write a story that conveyed humanism. Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without theism and other supernatural beliefs, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity (“Definition of Humanism”).
However, strangely for a book set in World War II, there is no extensive mention of the Holocaust. Only one Jewish character is named, and her story is only briefly mentioned. This has aroused some rancor amongst readers; in a scathing review of Doerr’s novel in The New Republic, Green denounces Doerr for normalizing the Holocaust, stating Doerr's novel is an unsavory mixture of "relativizing" and "aestheticizing." Green claims that Doerr presents all violence, Nazi or Allied, as equivalent. Similarly, in the online publication On Reform Judaism, Halpern questions whether this is a new trend in World War II literature: the narrative of the sympathetic Nazi, as seen in The Book Thief as well. Yet, both these critics' opinions, as well as Doerr’s recognition that Werner’s narrative is emotionally harrowing and complicated, fit well with the idea that in modern historical fiction there is “recognition that all experience is subjective and every narrative partial” (Maragonis).
Doerr admits Werner’s was not an easy perspective to write from, saying “Part of the reason the book took me so long to write was that the subject matter was distressing” (Panda). Yet, Werner’s narrative is balanced by Marie-Laure’s all-seeing goodness. Werner is presented as a person victimized by his environment: he is a victim his poverty, lack of family, his natural adolescent desire to belong, and the nationalist propaganda inundating Germany at the time. Werner’s story thus asks the reader to consider how this type of historical retelling can help us grapple with the ethical complications of the past (Heyer & Fidyk). Specifically, what is our role as humans in making ethical choices, in the effort to shape our own destiny? Werner is an example of someone who is an inextricable part of horrible atrocities, and yet he remains very much relatable and sympathetic. Doerr, in his interviews, talks of humanism and how it influenced his novel, which is about “the ways in which people, against all odds, try to be kind to one another” (“All the Light We Cannot See FAQ”). In the end, Werner’s character comes to believe in and embody humanism, despite his affiliation with the Nazi party: he realizes he has choices in his own destiny, and the destiny of others.
