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    Summary and Analysis of All the Light We Cannot See: Based on the Book by Anthony Doerr
    Summary and Analysis of All the Light We Cannot See: Based on the Book by Anthony Doerr
    Summary and Analysis of All the Light We Cannot See: Based on the Book by Anthony Doerr
    Ebook83 pages1 hour

    Summary and Analysis of All the Light We Cannot See: Based on the Book by Anthony Doerr

    By Worth Books

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    About this ebook

    So much to read, so little time? This brief overview of All the Light We Cannot See tells you what you need to know—before or after you read Anthony Doerr’s book.
     
    Crafted and edited with care, Worth Books set the standard for quality and give you the tools you need to be a well-informed reader.
     
    This short summary and analysis of All the Light We Cannot See includes:
    • Historical context
    • Chapter-by-chapter overviews
    • Profiles of the main characters
    • Themes and symbols
    • Important quotes
    • Fascinating trivia
    • Glossary of terms
    • Supporting material to enhance your understanding of the original work 
    About All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr:
     
    Anthony Doerr’s Pulitzer Prize–winning novel is a beautifully crafted story about the intersection of two very different lives: A German boy with a knack for radios and a blind girl in occupied France are somehow united as Europe is plunges into World War II.
     
    An ambitious and symbolic tale spanning eighty years, All The Light We Cannot See illiminates how goodness and hope can be found even in the darkest of times.
     
    The summary and analysis in this ebook are intended to complement your reading experience and bring you closer to a great work of fiction.
     
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherOpen Road Integrated Media
    Release dateMar 21, 2017
    ISBN9781504044813
    Summary and Analysis of All the Light We Cannot See: Based on the Book by Anthony Doerr
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    Worth Books

    Worth Books’ smart summaries get straight to the point and provide essential tools to help you be an informed reader in a busy world, whether you’re browsing for new discoveries, managing your to-read list for work or school, or simply deepening your knowledge. Available for fiction and nonfiction titles, these are the book summaries that are worth your time.  

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      Book preview

      Summary and Analysis of All the Light We Cannot See - Worth Books

      Contents

      Context

      Overview

      Cast of Characters

      Summary

      Character Analysis

      Themes and Symbols

      Direct Quotes and Analysis

      Trivia

      What’s That Word?

      Critical Response

      About Anthony Doerr

      Author’s Style

      For Your Information

      Bibliography

      Copyright

      Context

      All the Light We Cannot See opens with the Battle of Normandy, on August 7, 1944, and is set almost entirely during World War II throughout France and Germany. The storyline flashes as far back as 1934, as Hitler begins his rise to power, and closes with two final chapters set in 1974 and 2014.

      The novel released in May 2014, and quickly became the unexpected fiction bestseller of the year, surprising both the author and the book’s publisher. The wartime setting of the story was an effective framework for highlighting the contradictory power of technology in culture and politics and the incremental growth of demagoguery. These two topics struck a nerve in America, where the 2016 presidential primary races were kicking off and debates about the power of the Internet, the manipulation of the news, and the growing populism in politics dominated the public discussion.

      By the end of the year, the book had been reprinted 25 times. The combined momentum of a successful marketing campaign with independent booksellers, an enthusiastic critical response, and the announcement of a National Book Award nomination made All the Light We Cannot See one of the most popular books of 2014. The following year, the novel won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, the Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, and Fox Searchlight Pictures acquired the film rights.

      The author, Anthony Doerr, was an award-winning short story writer who had published just one novel before All the Light We Cannot See, which took him more than a decade to finish. His work has been praised for rich symbolism, complex metaphors, and precise prose. In writing All the Light We Cannot See, Doerr was influenced by reflections on the miracle of modern communication and the idea that there were all these still-untold stories tucked within the D-Day story.

      Overview

      Anthony Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See tells the story of Werner Pfennig, a German orphan with a gift for radios, and Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a blind French girl growing up with her father in Paris. The parallel lives of the main characters intersect and ultimately unite against the backdrop of the Nazi invasion of France during World War II.

      As German forces near the city, Marie-Laure is forced to evacuate Paris with her father, Daniel, who is hiding the legendary Sea of Flames diamond for the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (National Museum of Natural History), where he works. They escape to Saint-Malo, where Marie-Laure’s reclusive great-uncle Etienne lives. After her father’s arrest, Marie-Laure and Etienne transmit secret partisan messages from their hidden radio to help the French Resistance.

      Meanwhile, Werner has escaped an oppressive life in his mining-camp orphanage to study at an elite Nazi school, betraying his sister and ignoring the darkness of the growing nationalist ideology to pursue his dream of becoming a scientist. He is forced to join the German military at age 16, and tasked with locating and destroying partisan radio transmissions.

      As Marie-Laure and Werner struggle to survive the war, cancer-ridden German Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel becomes increasingly obsessed with locating the Sea of Flames. He is determined to add the priceless diamond to the trove of treasures plundered from across Europe for Hitler’s planned museum, but his search becomes a personal quest as he learns of the stone’s purported healing powers.

      Werner is sent to Saint-Malo at the same time that von Rumpel arrives, having tracked the diamond to Marie-Laure. Werner and Marie-Laure find themselves trapped at opposite sides of the city, he by Allied bombing and she by the arrival of the German treasure hunter. Her broadcasts unite them, and in the end, they save each other’s lives.

      This epic wartime novel is rich with metaphors and symbolism: it explores the ways humans are able to find hope in the darkest of times; examines the tension between fatalism, duty, and free will; and illustrates the web of unlikely and surprising interconnections between people.

      Cast of Characters

      Bastian: A former schoolmaster with a scarred face, round belly, soft shoulders, and menacing jackboots, Bastian is a particularly sadistic warrant officer in charge of field exercises at the National Political Institute of Education #6 in Schulpforta. He carries a rubber hose used to beat boys, including Werner’s friend Frederick, and almost certainly incited the final beating of Frederick by a group of schoolmates, causing the boy’s permanent brain damage.

      Hubert Bazin: A homeless veteran of World War I who wears a copper mask to cover facial injuries from war, Bazin lives outside the library. He gives Marie-Laure the

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