All The Light We Cannot See Theme

Anthony Doerr’s award winning novel, All the Light We Cannot See allows the reader to see into the lives of Marie-Laure LeBlanc and Werner Pfennig. Despite their age and geographical distance, these two kids are insightful and curious about the world around them, and are discovering and learning how to handle situations beyond their control. The theme of sight and the lack there of is a key idea presented within the novel. The idea of sight and losing sight of insight, intertwines the lives of Werner and Marie-Laure, even though they have not met, because they share similar experiences as they face new challenges.
Werner and Marie-Laure are able to see the good and bad of their surroundings through the use of their other senses. Doerr showcases

that sometimes, a character chooses one way of seeing in order to compensate for not having access to another. The most clear example of this method is Marie-Laure, who turns to her model of Saint. Malo because as a blind person, she doesn’t have access to literal sight. “Marie-Laure opens her bedroom window and listens to the evening as it settles over the balconies and gables and chimneys, languid and peaceful, until the real neighbourhood and the miniature one get mixed up in her mind.” (Doerr, 30) Sight is not the only way to view the world. The simple sounds of chimes, and the emotional feeling of peace are things that are not obtainable by physical sight, and they allow Marie-Laure to see her neighbourhood and experience the world around her. In this section, we see Marie-Laure’s ambitions to explore and understand the world—ambitions matched only by Werner Pfennig’s, hundreds of miles away. Werner is an orphan and has no one to help satisfy his curiosity. Werner turns to his discovery of a broken radio. Once he is able to get the radio to work, he is finally able to see not only beyond the orphanage, but beyond Germany. The orchestra, the plays, he can see it all. The radio is a symbolic representation of the light that cannot be seen. Werner uses his hearing to see. “He blinks: he has to swallow back tears. The parlor looks the same as it always has...Yet now there is music. As if inside Werner’s head, an infinitesimal orchestra has stirred to life.” (Doerr, 33) He cannot physically see the incoming radio waves, but he can see the plucking of violin strings when the orchestra plays, and he can see the tall and brave Germans marching down the streets to save the day. Werner is able to see because his mind converts sounds into beautiful scenes. Marie-Laure’s use of her other senses and objects allows her to see more terrifying depictions of what is happening around her. “She has nightmares. Silent Germans row up the Seine in synchrony; their skiffs glide as if through oil… They surge into the museum, scatter into the departments. The windows go black with blood. (Doerr, 66). Marie-Laure can not physically see her surroundings, so when she hears rumours of an attack, she can only imagine the worst. She sees these images in her nightmares based off the history she has learned from the museum, and the rumours people are spreading. It is also important to note that she imagines the museum in danger, which is another tool Marie-Laure uses to see the rest of France and the entire world. Werner is also at a disadvantage because his lack of seeing, makes him fall for the propaganda posted by the Nazi Party. “....Five dozen inch-tall storm troopers march there, each toy man with a brown short and tiny red armband, some with flights, some with drums, a few officers astride glossy black stallions….Werner studies it through the glass for a long time, trying to understand how it works.” (Doerr, 39) He is blind and oblivious to the truth because is relying on other senses to see and understand the rest of Germany, and is too focused on the mechanics of the toys, that he cannot see the bigger threat. The reliance of senses is significant for both Werner and Marie-Laure, as they both use them to compensate for their lack of sight of the world, however, they do not rely on themselves all the time.
Guidance from adults is how most children are brought up. Marie-Laure has her father, Daniel LeBlanc, and while Werner is an orphan, he has built a special connection with the professor on the radio. Marie-Laure and Werner use the guidance and words of Daniel LeBlanc and the professor, respectively, to see the real world, and understand how to survive in it. Daniel LeBlanc, Marie-Laure’s father, is devoted to ensuring his daughter can see the world better, than if she could physically see. “At home, in the evenings, her father stows their shoes in the same cubby, hangs their coats on the same hooks...Then he lights a cigarette and goes to work on his miniatures at a workbench in the corner of the kitchen.” (Doerr, 30) Daniel spends several hours working on a miniature version of their city. Marie-Laure uses this model to see her neighbourhood. This connects back to Marie-Laure using her senses to guide herself. She touches the model to see a full blueprint of her neighbourhood in her mind. Daniel also takes her on several walks around the neighbourhood to test her blueprint which allows her to see the world around her, but never alone. Marie-Laure can see the world around her through the aid of her father. Daniel is Marie-Laure’s personal set of eyes as in he allows her to see the world better. He sends her to the museum and provides her puzzles to target her intellect. Miles away, Werner is connected to sight through a simple copper wire, uses the Professor to see the world around him. His mind is opened to new discoveries on how everything works. “Time slows. The attic disappears. Jutta disappears. Has anyone ever spoken so intimately about the very things Werner is most curious about?” (Doerr, 48) Like Marie-Laure, Werner seems fascinated by slow, gradual processes—here, the life cycle of a piece of coal. It’s more explicitly suggested here that Werner and Marie-Laure have a shared temperament of inquisitiveness. The French professor’s ideas on sight, light and darkness also clearly reference Doerr’s theme and symbol of vision—even if “seeing” doesn’t mean literally seeing with the eyes, it is important to seek out the truth and to try to understand the world as best as possible, before the opportunity is taken away from you.
The lack of sight, and not necessarily physical vision, is devastating, and both Marie-Laure and Werner experience this heartbreak.

As the professor on the radio advised, “Open your eyes….and see what you can with them before they close forever.” (Doerr, 49) Werner unknowingly has the words of the professor haunting him. “One more year. Then they’ll give him a helmet and a lamp and stuff him into a cage with the others.” (Doerr, 68) If Werner is sent into the mines, then he will become blind forever. He will no longer see the plucks of the strings in the orchestra, or the gears moving in a simple machine described by the professor on the radio. It will be devastating for a young, intelligent and inquisitive boy to be restricted by his sight, because he can no longer see anything but coal and the cruelty of the world. Miles away, Marie-Laure is being stripped away from her sight as well. Every year for her birthday, her father buys a Braille book. She is currently reading 20 Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, written by Jules Verne, a novel allowing her to see the depths of places she’s unfamiliar with. Books are her way of learning and seeing. When she read Around the World in 80 Days, she was able to “see” what Fogg saw on his adventures. Her ways of seeing are slowly being taken away from her. Daniel spent more hours at the museum, and now she is leaving behind an important contribution to her sight. “ My book—’ ‘Better to leave it. It’s too heavy.’ ‘Leave my book?.’” (Doerr, 76) Marie-Laure’s father tells Marie-Laure that she has to leave behind her old books—essentially, her old life in Paris and an essential way of seeing. This is a painful passage because Marie-Laure had worked so hard and accomplished so much in being able to see and live her life, and is now forced to leave it all behind because of situations beyond her control. Similar to Werner who is forced to go into the mines and told to abandon his ambitions and vision, Marie-Laure is forced to leave

behind part of her sight. Werner’s insight into how the world works is taken away from him as well. “...Werner stares at the congealed liver on his plate with his eyes burning and something inside his chest compressing tighter and tighter, and for the rest of supper the only sound is of the children cutting and chewing and swallowing.” (Doerr, 58) Werner’s ability to see and understand the simple things in life are taken away from him, and he is angered by this. Marie-Laure and Werner’s lives are laced together through their passion for reading, books and being able to see the world in their hands, but they also experience the devastation of “sight” being taken away from them.
Anthony Doerr’s novel, All the Light We Cannot See, suggests that we should accept that no single way of seeing should be used in order to see the world in its entirety. Werner Pfennig and Marie-Laure LeBlanc’s lives are intertwined through the theme of sight. Doerr uses the two young characters to showcase that the truth should always be seeked, and this in result is “seeing” the world. Seeing through their senses and the guidance of others intertwines the lives of Marie-Laure and Werner as they provide Marie-Laure and Werner a way of maturing, a way of conquering their fears, and even a way of escaping from the tragedy of their lives. Yet Marie-Laure and Werner are able also able to see the cruelty of the world when their methods of seeing are stolen from them by forces beyond their control. Doerr associates sight with knowledge, and as Marie Mitchell once said, “We have a hunger of the mind which asks for knowledge of all around us, and the more we gain, the more is our desire; the more we see, the more we are capable of seeing.” and this concept is presented in both Marie-Laure and Werner’s lives as they “see” the world.