All The Light We Cannot See Analysis

During stressful times and situations in life, many people have often found comfort in familiar things and routines. The comforts that people had during troublesome times is what kept them from not completely losing the person they were before the harsh experience. In All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, several characters sought comfort in things or situations familiar to them during their stressful experiences during World War II. Many times that distraction was a memory, a tangible object, a place, or a way of thinking. Focusing on something familiar often provided the character with a distraction, which allowed them to calm their minds, focus, and carry on during difficult times. In All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr proved …show more content…
In Paris as rumors of the war circulated, “She reads the first half of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea so many times, she practically memorizes it” (pg. 60), and this served as a testament to the comfort Marie-Laure found in the familiarity of Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. Additionally, when Marie-Laure was reading outside, a group of boys taunted her and alarmed her with claims that she would be targeted by German soldiers due to her blindness. As a result, “Marie-Laure raises her books as if to shield herself” (pg. 65),, which exemplified her dependence on her books to get her through challenging circumstances. Also, Marie-Laure was reluctant to leave her book when she had to flee Paris with her father. Finally, at the end of the war, when Marie-Laure’s father and uncle were imprisoned and Madame Manec had died, she gravitated back towards Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea. When the German soldier searching for the Sea of Flames posed a threat to her as he was inside of her house, Marie-Laure used her uncle Etienne’s radio to broadcast herself reading from the book. This action eventually caught Werner’s attention, and was ultimately the thing that saved