Character Analysis: All The Light We Cannot See

Anthony Doerr’s novel All the Light We Cannot See shows the reader how children would deal with war and how it shaped who they are today. Doerr’s purpose for writing this novel is to highlight how mentally taxing the war was and that there was no permanent escape from the war. Both Marie-Laure and Werner believed they could escape the war both physically and mentally, yet their involvement in it makes it more difficult. Marie-Laure’s fear of her father going to jail shows how she becomes involved in the war. Werner struggled with trying to escape the war through his fascination with radios when it just brought him further into the war. After understanding the effect on certain individuals; the story zooms out showing how the majority

Marie-Laure’s story exemplifies the mental suffering she had to go through in the war. Her father was the person that she felt she could always count on. She never understood why he made the promise he did to her. He wanted to give her hope just as he said to Marie “open your eye and see what you can with them before they close forever.” (Doerr 258). This sentence shows how the father wants Marie to do everything in her power to live her life to the best of her ability. He wanted her to experience everything. Although he knew she could not see everything that was going on, she could hear and feel everything. The model she used was one way she could keep her sanity in this time of war. During the war she had to cope with her father being arrested and not being able to help him. Her disability made

Every possible way he could get out, he tried but it just brought him farther and farther into the war. Werner’s great uncle showed the reader that this fate of war was bond to happen to him. “He saw dead people through the walls. Terrible things in the corners of the streets. Now your great uncle doesn’t even go outside. Werner’s uncle was suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, fearful of doing even simple tasks. Doerr’s development of Werner’s uncle helps bring out how Werner will have to cope with the war and what he can do to get out of it. The acceptance of war was extremely difficult for Werner because all he wanted to do was escape the war. He did everything he could to get out of the coalmines, but his obsession with radio dragged him farther into the war. Having to be a part of the Nazi party caused him to deny what work he was doing by lying to himself, “Don’t tell lies. Lie to yourself. Werner, but don’t lie to me” (Doerr 133). Werner was so used to the lie he was telling himself, he began to believe it was the truth. This aspect of the story exemplifies how not only other people can brainwash us to think something, but that we can force ourselves to think something as well. By not accepting the reality of the war it will just make it difficult for the individual to cope with the war later. This causes mental damage to these children that are doing everything they can to survive. The