Philip Larkin's Ignorance

“Ignorance” by Philip Larkin is a poem, believe it or not, about ignorance. Throughout the poem the idea that people are not truly aware of the actions of others around them, nor how life is affecting them truly is important. Larkin uses this idea to his advantage to express the idea that people in the world do not understand why they are doing what they are doing along with the idea that people will live to the pleasing of others and then die.

“Ignorance” connects to my novel based on the relation of the main collective theme of ignorance. The ideas that Larkin creates relates based toward the children in “All the Light We Cannot See” because of the ignorance they face to the war around them, along with the lack of knowledge that Werner has

for what he is fighting for. Line one through three of the poem, “Strange to know nothing, never to be sure of what is true or right, or real, but forced to qualify or so I feel” speaks closely like the lives of Werner and Marie-Laure. Lines one through three relate to Werner’s life because he is not truly sure if what he is fighting for is the right thing to be fighting for, nor does he realize what is happening in the world around him. These lines relate to Marie-Laure in the sense that she joins the rebellion against the war, but does she truly know what she is standing for, and how it could affect her in the long run. This idea of connection between both the poem and the novel helps to give reason behind the theme of the novel “All the Light We Cannot See” and the form of ignorance that is created within both works of literature.
Both works of literature makes the readers think deeper into how ignorance not only affects characters in the novels or poems we read, but also how society is affected because of ignorance. Both pieces of literature share an audience because of this, which includes those who are ignorant, in order to show them the consequences of their thought process or lack thereof, along with the audience of those who wish to be enlightened of the idea of how society, along with historical events are affected due to a mass amount of ignorance.
Through both works of literature “Ignorance” and “All the Light We Cannot See”, both are found to be thematically similar with a shared theme of ignorance, while sharing an audience and important ideas that help us at readers find connections through literature.