Anthony Doerr s All The Light We Can Not See - 1023 Words

Novels and texts about war, or more specifically the World Wars, are often written in a glamorized manner, and are told in the perspective of the victors. Consequently, seldom are readers allowed a glance at the losing side’s perspective. In the case of the World Wars, Germans are rarely cast sympathetically in literature, however, in All The Light We Cannot See and All Quiet On The Western Front, they are humanized rather than vilified. Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See is about a blind French girl, Marie-Laure LeBlanc, and a German boy, Werner Pfennig, whose paths collide in occupied France as both try to survive the devastation of World War II. Erich Maria Remarque’s, All Quiet On The Western Front deals with a group of German†¦show more content†¦The heinous consequences of war subsequently result in the tarnish of the protagonists’ innocence and altered their perspective of the world. In All The Light We Cannot See, this gradual rec ognition of the harsh realities of their respective societies is highlighted through the bildungsroman structure of the novel as well as the present-tense narration. This accelerates a sense of urgency within the reader to advance along the characters; the use of a non-linear plot line further propels this insight. The switching of time periods also juxtaposes and highlights the contrast between the characters before and during the war. The redheaded girl in the velvet cloak emblematically represents the uncorrupted generation whose lives were devastated during the war. When Werner see’s the girl’s dead body, it catalyzes an extreme transformation due to psychological trauma: â€Å"Her moon eyes are open and moist and her mouth is stretched back in an oval of surprise†¦ Werner waits for the child to blink. Blink, he thinks, blink blink blink.† (p.368). In that instant, he recognizes war as brutal and inhumane. In All Quiet On The Western Front, the callous experience of war results in the protagonist’s detachment of feelings such as kindness and compassion. His perspective of the war becomes a bitter denunciation against sentimental and romantic ideals of warfare. The loss of Paul’s innocence is conveyed through the paradoxical quote, â€Å"Young men of iron.