All The Light We Cannot See Meaning

It is these kind of passages that riddle the novel. It is these passages that make it unique. Marie being blind might makes us think that her world is devoid of senses and colors, but it is just the opposite. Doerr spends an astonishing amount of time in the novel vividly describing Marie’s world and senses. He spends whole a chapter describing, through Marie, what a cave of snails feels like or what the crashing of waves sounds like. Even without her sight Marie’s world is full of senses. This also plays in the title All the Light We Cannot See. Aside from the metaphorical and figurative meanings, it has a very physical meaning to Marie. There literally a lot of light that she cannot see. But in her world all of this “light” is in her other
This also relates to the title as it is these small little moments that are the “light.” It is these moments that Doerr so thoroughly describes that are the “light” we as the reader in our world and the characters in the book’s world “cannot see.” We are too distracted and on the move in our world to see that little things that Marie sees and the characters are too preoccupied with the war in their world. As Werner and the rest of the world live in fear of the might of Germany little Marie takes time to notice the small things that are mostly missed. Even though she is blind, she, of all people, is the one who can see All the Light We Cannot See. There is something that binds us all, some “light.” It is light itself. But not light exactly as we see it. For as Marie shows us, even the blind can see it. It is through light that we can get at human connection, something that binds us all. Marie shows us that light can still connect us: even when we cannot see it, there is something more. She shows her access to this other world of connection beyond physical light while she sits in the attic of her Uncle’s