Analysis Of All The Light We Cannot See

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.

As this excerpt begins the young child tells herself the

steps she took to go to the water fountain and other locations she may have gone before with little to no ease. But now that this war has left France in this type of condition she has to resort to such a unusual and limited form of locating where to go and how to get there shows how bad her home had become. “Sixteen paces to the water fountain, sixteen back. Forty-two to the stairwell, forty-two back. Marie-Laure draws maps in her head, unreels a hundred yards of imaginary twine, and then turns and reels it back in.” From what she said in her head about getting to wear she needed to go it can be inferred that France is so destroyed that places that were once recognizable now need to be further described to get too.

Continuing on in the excerpt the young child later on begins to make various claims regarding features in life mainly focusing on branches of science as they apply to aspects of our everyday lives.

Types of sciences include those that focus on plant life, animals, human life, and overall zoology. She looks at these branches of sciences that are studied and are applied to our everyday lives in the environment we live and she sees the change that has occured ever since this war has occurred. “Botany smells like glue and blotter paper and pressed flowers. Paleontology smells like rock dust, bone dust. Biology smells like formalin and old fruit; it is coiled ropes of rattlesnakes, the severed hands of gorillas. Entomology smells like mothballs and oil: a preservative that, Dr. Geffard explains, is called naphthalene. Offices smell of carbon paper, or cigar smoke, or brandy, or perfume. Or all four.” These vivid accounts of these sciences show that from her point of view the war has left these things of nature that have been altered because of the

war.

Later on in the excerpt the protagonist meets with young children that we infer to have been directly affected someway by the terrible war occuring in France.

The questions that have been asked and their responses are very interesting considering they’ve been observing a terrible tragedy that is still ongoing. “The children she meets brim with questions: Does it hurt? Do your shut your eyes to sleep? How do you know what time it is? It doesn’t hurt, she explains. And there is no darkness, not the kind they imagine.” It can be inferred that this answer means that this war/ calamity has left the people that have been affected with this realization that all this pain and darkness that will more than likely leave a person scared and running for answers but instead these kids aren’t scared or afraid, their just living in the moment and not worrying about the time or the outcome of this

war.

One thing to point out in this story is the significance of the protagonist being blind but this affliction does not stop her from viewing the world around her in her own unique way. When she dreams her sight returns to her but not in the conventional sense like how you and I see but by seeing different colors. “Her father radiates a thousand colors, opal, strawberry red, deep russet, wild green; a smell like oil and metal, the feel of a lock tumbler sliding home, the sound of his key rings chiming as he walks. He is an olive green when he talks to a department head, an escalting series of oranges when he speaks to Mademoiselle Fleury from the greenhouses, a bright red when he tries to cook. He glows sapphire when he sits over his workbench in the evenings, humming almost inaudibly as he works, the tip of his cigarette gleaming a prismatic blue.” The author illustrates this to show that even though we use our eyes for the singular use of seeing around us we can use our other senses to reach that same end result.

Marie’s disability is not shown in this excerpt as something that anchors or stops her from effectively progressing in life as she still earns to be adventurous. This effectively shows us that even though our sight is taken away we can still visualize the world in many ways. Especially by the way her relationship with colors is shown.