Light We Cannot See

In the book, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, many of the characters stories can seem fascinating to the modern reader. Marie’s story deals with her blindness, and how her father attempts to assist her by making a model of the neighborhood they used to live in, making puzzle boxes for her to solve on her birthdays, and even traveling with her on his back through the French countryside to Saint-Malo when the Germans attacked their town. Werner’s story, which is quite fascinating, deals with the grim, bleak, and cloudy lifestyle that he used to live in when he was an orphan. Eventually, through his innovative ingenuity, he manages to impress a German military official, and gets caught in the brutal trap that is the Wehrmacht. Werner
seems quite the inventor, yet his superiors don’t ever ask of him for inventions that could quite possibly benefit the good of Germany. Instead, he gets hauled into the battlefield of WWII, and forced to accept the fact that he could potentially be risking his life for glory and the “interest of the world”(Doerr 85). Throughout the book, he goes through a mental and spiritual journey of pain, forgiveness, and memories. The modern reader could sympathize with him, and the fact that he was dragged into the world as an underage soldier. They could also gain a bit of insight into him, especially when the vice minister visit the orphanage he used to be in, and proclaim that he will be in the mines, “as soon as he turns fifteen. Same as every other boy in this house.”(Doerr 58). Werner is trapped in this mindset of either you fight for the glory of your country, or you suffer and be stuck with a deadbeat job that will get you nothing.