Anthony Doerr's All The Light We Cannot Speak
“Radio: it ties a million ears to a single mouth.”(Doerr 63). It starts as a Frenchman’s words radiate to a young boy in a small German town through a radio he fixes, but the voice comes back years later when he is a German soldier in France when he recognizes the familiar voice coming from a transmitter. In Anthony Doerr’s novel, All the Light We Cannot See the radio in the attic of 4 rue Vauborel is a secret when the Germans confiscate radios, in the Nazi-occupied Saint-Malo. The secret radio and the broadcasts influence the world around Werner, Marie-Laure, and Etienne. Werner Pfennig was ten when he fixes a broken radio that he finds in his small town of Zollverein, Germany. The first broadcast that he and his sister Jutta hears is one
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Etienne, after mourning the loss, decides to take over resistance efforts with the help of Marie-Laure. Etienne creates a subterfuge where Marie-Laure fetches bread at Madame Ruelle’s bakery where there are hidden messages in the bread, where Etienne broadcasts with his radio. At the same time, Werner is traveling in Nazi-occupied countries looking for radios in use, he travels to Russia and later Saint-Malo. When Werner is in Saint-Malo to detect radios he hears the voice that “is like something from a long-ago dream,” (406). However, Werner decides not to tell Volkheimer he hears a radio transmission. Werner decides to take control of his own life something Fredrick, a friend, said cannot happen. Werner tunes into the other broadcasts of the Frenchman with the radio at the Hotel of Bees. During a broadcast, Etienne the location of one of the air-defense battery, the Hotel of Bees, to the resistance; he gets arrested shortly after. When the bombings at Saint-Malo start Marie-Laure is by herself not knowing where her uncle or father is when von Rumpel, a Nazi Sergeant bags in looking for the ever elusive Sea of Flames. She escapes to the attic and uses the hidden radio to seek help, Werner and Volkheimer are listening to Marie-Laure, however, they are trapped in the cellar of the Hotel of Bees. Marie-Laure uses the radio
Etienne, after mourning the loss, decides to take over resistance efforts with the help of Marie-Laure. Etienne creates a subterfuge where Marie-Laure fetches bread at Madame Ruelle’s bakery where there are hidden messages in the bread, where Etienne broadcasts with his radio. At the same time, Werner is traveling in Nazi-occupied countries looking for radios in use, he travels to Russia and later Saint-Malo. When Werner is in Saint-Malo to detect radios he hears the voice that “is like something from a long-ago dream,” (406). However, Werner decides not to tell Volkheimer he hears a radio transmission. Werner decides to take control of his own life something Fredrick, a friend, said cannot happen. Werner tunes into the other broadcasts of the Frenchman with the radio at the Hotel of Bees. During a broadcast, Etienne the location of one of the air-defense battery, the Hotel of Bees, to the resistance; he gets arrested shortly after. When the bombings at Saint-Malo start Marie-Laure is by herself not knowing where her uncle or father is when von Rumpel, a Nazi Sergeant bags in looking for the ever elusive Sea of Flames. She escapes to the attic and uses the hidden radio to seek help, Werner and Volkheimer are listening to Marie-Laure, however, they are trapped in the cellar of the Hotel of Bees. Marie-Laure uses the radio