All the Light We Cannot See: by Anthony Doerr | Summary & Analysis

The teachers at Schulpforta thought they were improving the evolution of humanity, but it is really girls like Jutta and Marie-Laure who do so, taking comfort in starting over with the next generation. That they make so much of their lives, after what they suffered, above all brings home the theme that life does go on .

The human brain, as Etienne muses, remains the greatest puzzle, creating mazes of good and evil, light and dark.

Puzzles are, in fact, one of the most prevalent images in All the Light We Cannot See,from the wooden puzzle boxes that Daniel makes for his daughter to solve to the very existence of wars and inhumanity.Some of these puzzles have answers, some do not. They may be beyond human understanding, but life goes on. It takes bravery to live life fully

above all brings home the theme that life does go on .

His wartime experiences scar him to the point that he lives out his life as a lonely, haunted TV antenna repairman.

there is no light inside the brain, yet it can construct a world of light.

turn, his love for her feels like an explosion of brightness to Daniel. Madame’s peaches taste like sunlight, and she says that helping the resistance has put the light back in her eyes.

Doerr is careful to explain that Marie-Laure’s world is not a dark one. Though blind, she is still a creature of light. Her other senses, compensating for her blindness, explode into a whorl of colors, sounds and feelings. Her father, who is all things to her, is also all the colors, changing like a kaleidoscope to match what he is doing at the moment, such as red when he is cooking and blue when he is happily tinkering at home.

The human brain, as Etienne muses, remains the greatest puzzle, creating mazes of good and evil, light and dark

Doerr is careful to explain that Marie-Laure’s world is not a dark one. Though blind, she is still a creature of light. Her other senses, compensating for her blindness, explode into a whorl of colors, sounds and feelings.