War was one of the most difficult and brutal things a society could ever go through. World War II was especially terrible because it affected so many people.World War II was centered in Europe and the people of the European countries felt the effects much more than many of the other countries that were also participating in the world war. In the book All the Light We Cannot See written by Anthony Doerr, the story took place during World War II in Europe, the center stage for the war. This war was one of the most difficult wars because it destroyed homes, displaced thousands, tore families apart, killed off loved ones, and forced people to make tough decisions they had to live with for the rest of their lives. In All The Light We Cannot See, …show more content…
Anthony Doerr showed that in times of trouble, people reveal their true character. Since the age of 6, life for Marie-Laure LeBlanc was not easy, she found out she was blind and she had to deal with the disability for the rest of her life. In the book, Marie-Laure faced many challenges. Her father was arrested and was gone for a big part of her life, so she had to move around multiple times and had to deal with many tragic deaths during her lifetime. The biggest challenge for Marie-Laure was her disability. In World War II the Nazis persecuted and targeted the Jewish, and many other groups one of those groups was the disabled and this personally affected Marie-Laure.Once her father left she only had her great-uncle to protect her and being blind became a bigger challenge for her. Before she had her father to help her and while she still had the wooden town her father built life was still significantly harder for Marie. She was teased and targeted much more once Nazis took over her hometown. As it was stated in the following quote Marie-Laure had to hide the fact she had a disability to not be targeted as she would have been otherwise. “... and she can hear her cane roll along the edge of the bench and clatter to the ground. Someone else says, “They’ll probably take the blind girls before they take the gimps.” The first boy moans grotesquely Marie-Laure raises her book as if to shield herself.” (65). In the book Werner Pfennig faced many challenges.
He was very skilled around working a radio. He had the challenge of having to go to the National Institute even though his beloved sister Jutta disapproved of his decision to go. While he was at the National Institute he had to use his radio skills to help the Nazi leaders and soldiers kill hundreds of people. This was something Werner had to deal with and he suffered greatly with the idea that he was hurting and killing so many people with his “talent” for radios. This was one of the hardest parts of the war for Werner. The thing that kept his true character was that he continued no matter what to communicate and stay in contact with his sister, Jutta. He made most of his decisions based on his sister. One of his biggest struggles was he was at the National Institute and he was apart from Jutta. As it is said in the following quotes below Werner was torn with his decision because deep down his true character is being a loving brother and to protect Jutta. “Mostly he misses Jutta: her loyalty, her obstinacy, the way she always seems to recognize what is right.” (263) “Perhaps she’s the impurity in him, the static in his signal that the bullies can sense. Perhaps she’s the only thing keeping him from surrendering totally.” (263). Also in this quote Werner's love and consideration for Jutta is displayed. He even gave Jutta the opportunity to not show Frau Elena who was essentially the mother figure to the both of them. “I’ll …show more content…
write you letters every week. Twice a week if I can. You don’t have to show them to Frau Elena if you don’t want to.” (133). Daniel lived a fairly tough life. In the book David LeBlanc faced many challenges. His one and only daughter was blind so he devoted most of his life to helping her be successful and he was also greatly affected by the war. Even though he had to flee for his life to run away from the Germans he did not care too much. He also was imprisoned and sent to a prison camp but her did not complain, he dealt with it because he knew he was doing this so he could give a good life to his daughter. We can see Daniel’s true character because he left his daughter so she would not be imprisoned like he knew he would be. His true character was also a feeling of needing helping people. a This shows his true character of how much he cares about Marie-Laure with her disability she was very dependent on others and many people would help her whenever she needed assistance. Daniel though was a very big asset to her life. He was a master carpenter and he wanted to do anything and everything to help her so he built her a wooden custom town of Saint-Malo. He devoted a good part of his life to make a wooden village of Saint-Malo and this sincere and generous act made her life significantly easier. This gave Marie- Laure the opportunity and chance to venture out into the town by herself without being so dependent on another person. Daniel promises Marie-Laure he will do anything for her because he loves her that much and that is his own personality. As shown in the quote below you can see Daniels display of love and gratitude towards his daughter. “He sweeps her hair back from her ears; he swings her above his head. He says she is his emerveillement. He says he will never leave her, not in a million years.” (31) In the book Jutta Pfennig faced many challenges.
One of the main challenges Jutta had to face was her brother, Werner left her and went to school at the National Institute, a very prestigious and fascist school. Jutta did not like his decision and she struggled with this because they were so close for so long, because they grew up together in the orphanage. This was such a big struggle for Jutta because she thought this was one of the worst decisions he could have made. One of the other struggles for her was her losing her brother because they were so close. As stated in the following quote Jutta was not happy with her brothers choice and wouldn't talk to him. “Jutta opens her eyes but doesn’t look at him. “Don’t tell lies. Lie to yourself, Werner, but don’t lie to me.” (133). This was so hard because he was apart of a fascist school during World War II and she was not a fascist fan. Yet she ended coming full circle and coming back to her roots and her true character. She continued to love Werner and still communicated and talked to him even though she was upset with some of his past
actions. In the book Frau Elena faced many challenges. She had a few big struggles in life. They were she struggled leading the orphanage at some points because of a lack of resources. Another problem for her was in Germany when the Nazis are rising and rise to power Frau Elena is bullied very badly for being a woman in France at the time. Another one of her challenges was supporting both Jutta and Werner Pfennig’s ideas about Werner's educational location. In the following quote it stated that the kids were fighting and she had to deal with the both of them. “Three times he readies his argument and three times jutta turns on a heel and strides away. Hour after hour she helps Frau Elena with the smaller children or walks out to the market or finds some other excuse to be helpful…” (131) “ “She won’t listen,” Werner tells Frau Elena” (131). All the characters in All the Light We Cannot See showed their real personality and displayed their true character, when they went through the many challenges in their lives. All the characters faced many different challenges along their journey through the book but all came back down to earth and their roots and showed off how the events shaped them and their true character. The people in this book that kept their integrity throughout the book ranged from a blind teenager, to a teen good at radios, even a locksmith, a normal teenage girl, to the leader of an orphanage. Anthony Doerr did a phenomenal job of using all the different characters from many different scenarios and places to all show how troubling times will make people fall back on their true identity. All of these characters had their own struggles they had to manage and they all went through the traumatic events of the World War, they all displayed the fact of people keeping their true identity through tough times. In All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr used the characters stories and experiences to prove that in times of trouble, people reveal their true character.
The book All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doer, was not your traditional love and war story. It’s about a young blind girl named Marie growing up in the war, who had a connection with a young boy named Werner who is a part of the Hitler youth. There are a few other characters who are all in different parts of the world, and yet they eventually all meet up together and find out they all have some type of connection between each other. All of the characters in the book were affected by the war, and caused them to change into the characters that they ended up to be.
Everyone knows what war is. It's a nation taking all of its men, resources, weapons and most of its money and bearing all malignantly towards another nation. War is about death, destruction, disease, loss, pain, suffering and hate. I often think to myself why grown and intelligent individuals cannot resolve matters any better than to take up arms and crawl around, wrestle and fight like animals. In All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque puts all of these aspects of war into a vivid story which tells the horrors of World War 1 through a soldier's eyes. The idea that he conveys most throughout this book is the idea of destruction, the destruction of bodies, minds and innocence.
War always seems to have no end. A war between countries can cross the world, whether it is considered a world war or not. No one can be saved from the reaches of a violent war, not even those locked in a safe haven. War looms over all who recognize it. For some, knowing the war will be their future provides a reason for living, but for others the war represents the snatching of their lives without their consent. Every reaction to war in A Separate Peace is different, as in life. In the novel, about boys coming of age during World War II, John Knowles uses character development, negative diction, and setting to argue that war forever changes the way we see the world and forces us to mature rapidly.
Foremost, circumstances originally cause characters to alter their views and actions which will result in a loss of their identities without change. This idea is shown in All the Light We Cannot See, when Werner begins his final test for the Hitler Youth, which involves showing trust in the Nazi party. He jumps off a high platform to then be caught by a flag held by recruiters and after, “He rolls to his feet uninjured. The examiner clicks his stopwatch, scribbles on his clipboard, looks up. Their eyes meet for half a second . . . ‘Heil Hitler!’ yells Werner” (116). Unlike the boys who had done the activity previously, Werner does not hesitate to jump because he is desperate to make himself stand out as a way to prove his commitment to the Nazi party. He places himself in this situation not because he supports their cause, but rather because he believes his enrollment in the academy is the only way to pursue his innate talent of engineering. This idea shows he is willing to commit himself to a cause he has little knowledge in if that means he is able pursue the future he wants. Furthermore, when
Werner dreams of stepping into the shoes of an engineer, however, to do so he must leave behind his sister Jutta. Sacrificing the relationship between his sister and care-taker, he is used to create Nazi radios to help during war. When Werner asks to leave the institution, punishment only ensued, leaving a void and sense of betrayal within him. Despite the void, the true sacrifice comes toward the end of the novel. When the assistance of the radio enabled Werner and Marie-Lure to communicate.
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man tells of one man's realizations of the world. This man, the invisible man, comes to realize through experience what the world is really like. He realizes that there is illusion and there is reality, and reality is seen through light. The Invisible Man says, "Nothing, storm or flood, must get in the way of our need for light and ever more and brighter light. The truth is the light and light is the truth" (7). Ellison uses light as a symbol for this truth, or reality of the world, along with contrasts between dark/light and black/white to help show the invisible man's evolving understanding of the concept that the people of the world need to be shown their true ways. The invisible man becomes aware of the world's truth through time and only then is he able to fully understand the world in which he lives.
In All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr incorporates thoughtful ideas and concepts to create an emotionally gripping story of a German orphan and blind French girl in World War 2. Throughout the novel Doerr focuses on the themes of the choices people make in adversity, the possession of power and the blindness and awareness within people, which are developed through juxtaposing ideas, the utilization of vivid imagery and the characterisation of the two main protagonists.
Throughout their lives, people must deal with the horrific and violent side of humanity. The side of humanity is shown through the act of war. This is shown in Erich Remarque’s novel, “All Quiet on the Western Front”. War is by far the most horrible thing that the human race has to go through. The participants in the war suffer irreversible damage by the atrocities they witness and the things they go through.
the entire town. It can be clearly seen that what is created in the first
In the passage All the Light We Cannot See, the author, Anthony Doerr presents Werner’s fear and reluctance of the world in which he lives.
The word "war" is always horrible to man especially with who has been exposed to. It is destruction, death, and horrible suffers that has been with all man's life. In the short story "In Another Country", Ernest Hemingway shows us the physical and emotional tolls of the war as well as its long-term consequences on man's life. He also portrays the damaging effects that the war has on the lives of the Italians and even of the Americans.
War is a conflict between two or more nations that disagree on certain terms. The main victims of war are the soldiers who are left dead, wounded, or emotionally affected. In some cases, for example, the targets of the Holocaust were not only the soldiers, but also the people of the Jewish race that lived within Europe. Due to these occurrences, the victims often remain disturbed in many ways that change them forever. In the memoir Night by Elie Wiesel and the movie Unbroken, war impacts the characters in many ways that leave them suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD because they underwent unbearable conditions that traumatized them to the extent where they could no longer lead a normal life.
All the Light We Cannot See is a book written by Anthony Doerr published in 2014. It tells a story of a blind French girl named Marie-Laure and a gifted German boy named Werner Pfennig. The author takes the reader into the terrible time of the Second World War that is considered to be a dark and a massive atrocity in human history, which left eighty-five million people dead. Anthony Doerr explores this terrifying environment and tells the readers a story of two people who, against all odds, have seen kindness in the worst of times. The characters found the invisible light in a world bound to be covered in darkness. The themes of light and happiness are analysed numerous times throughout the novel, thus, it is critical to explore their definitions.
This excerpt is one from a novel called “All the Light We Cannot See” written by Anthony Doerr taking place in France during World War II. This excerpt is written in the point of view of a young child living in a war torn and desolate part of France at the height of a deadly and destructive war. The author’s use of the literary device of point-of-view is very prevalent throughout the story. Her point of view shows how bad her circumstances and surroundings are during this time. By describing her surroundings in France and as well as looking at usually normalized things as altered and/or different than before the war had occured in France which caused these items to appear this way.
Throughout history, wars have impacted not only the United States but the world as a whole. With this being said, World War II was a war that impacted many nations and countries. Along with the many countries that sacrificed many things to end the war, many soldiers did as well. But civilians from each and every country felt the impact just as much as those going to war and those being more involved. With that being said, Seamus Heaney’s poem “Testimony,” represents how much the war interacted with civilians.