Month: January 2023

  All the Light We Cannot See is a 530 page historical fiction by Anthony Doerr which takes place in Saint-Malo, a city with walls around. This story is about two main characters Marie-Laure Leblanc who went blind at a young age and Werner Pfennig who’s an orphan that is a genius. As the conflict develops Werner try’s to use his intelligence as a force for good while Nazi officials urge him toward violence and brutality. A secondary important conflict occurs when von Rumpel(the villain of the story) pursues the diamond, putting Marie-Laure in danger.The rising action is when Werner is admitted to a Nazi training school, trained to use his skills to detect radio transmissions, and then sent to the front lines, where he contributes to the deaths of innocent people. Another rising action intersects with the secondary conflict of Marie-Laure being endangered by von Rumpel, creating an opportunity for Werner to help her. The climax is when Werner goes to Marie-Laure’s house to help her. At the house, Werner shoots von Rumpel. The falling action is when Werner helps Marie-Laure escape from the town during the ceasefire. The falling action continues years later as Jutta ( Werner’s younger sister) investigates the belongings she receives from the veterans’ group. The book ends in a final flash-forward towards the main characters adult lives. The constant migration from city to city and Marie-Laure’s loss of her father, then Madame Manec, then Etienne.


    After reading this book it ending up being one of my favorite books I‘ve ever read. One of the reason is that it alternates between Werner’s and Marie-Laure’s story, then eventually starts forming to make the two story’s into one. Another reason I love this book is that it’s a historical fiction book. 


     One of my favorite characters in this story is Madame Manec. Madame Manec is Etienne’s housekeeper, she teaches Marie-Laure how to be brave and strong minded. Madame Manec is very kind which can be proven with this quote “Madame Manec leaves a dish outside Henri’s door”. This shows that she is kind because she cooked she cooked a dish for someone else’s door.
   

   My favorite quote For this book is “ The other boys crane they necks. Dr.Hauptmann’s lips are pink and his eyelids are improbably thin. As though his is watching Werner even when he blinks”. I love this quote from the book because it was a really funny moment when the teacher realizes that he has a genius in his class.