Last week, I began reading All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr.
While it has been popular among the other Gifted students, hopefully I’ll be
able to provide some insight through my major blog posts you can’t see
elsewhere :).
While it has been popular among the other Gifted students, hopefully I’ll be
able to provide some insight through my major blog posts you can’t see
elsewhere :).
So far, I’m really enjoying reading the novel. It is based in history and the major
events that occurred are true, but the characters it follows are fictional. Although
the book is based around these two characters meeting, they have not yet gotten
anywhere close to doing so from where I am halfway through the book (page 265).
Interestingly, Doerr is able to use this as a way to keep me, the reader, engaged.
Every chapter, which is only about 3 pages, switches back and forth between the
characters, and the entire time, I know that they will meet. However, they’re living
in separate countries at completely different points in their lives, which draws a very
important question: when will the two finally meet? Marie-Laure is a blind teenage
girl living in France, and Werner is a teenage boy living in Germany. Marie-Laure is
currently dealing with her father’s absence after he was captured and taken to a prison
camp, and Werner is at a German academy learning how to use his skills as a novice
engineer to help the army. Both are young and naive, and I can’t yet picture in what
circumstance they would meet.
events that occurred are true, but the characters it follows are fictional. Although
the book is based around these two characters meeting, they have not yet gotten
anywhere close to doing so from where I am halfway through the book (page 265).
Interestingly, Doerr is able to use this as a way to keep me, the reader, engaged.
Every chapter, which is only about 3 pages, switches back and forth between the
characters, and the entire time, I know that they will meet. However, they’re living
in separate countries at completely different points in their lives, which draws a very
important question: when will the two finally meet? Marie-Laure is a blind teenage
girl living in France, and Werner is a teenage boy living in Germany. Marie-Laure is
currently dealing with her father’s absence after he was captured and taken to a prison
camp, and Werner is at a German academy learning how to use his skills as a novice
engineer to help the army. Both are young and naive, and I can’t yet picture in what
circumstance they would meet.
Besides that major question, I’m actually having fun reading through the different types
of literary devices that Doerr uses. As I mentioned in my first microblog, even the imagery
is not confined to one single variation. For example, Doerr must use tactile imagery quite
frequently in order to convey how Marie-Laure feels. She largely relies on touch, and Doerr
is unable to describe what things look like for half of the novel (when the chapters follow
Marie-Laure’s story). Other senses help her navigate the world as well, such as when Doerr
states, “They cross a seething thoroughfare, then go up an alley that smells like a muddy
ditch. Always there is the muted rattling of her father’s tools inside his rucksack and the
distant and incessant honking of automobile horns” (Doerr 77). After getting used to not
being able to rely on Marie-Laure’s vision as a reader, it became a lot easier to appreciate
Doerr’s writing style.
of literary devices that Doerr uses. As I mentioned in my first microblog, even the imagery
is not confined to one single variation. For example, Doerr must use tactile imagery quite
frequently in order to convey how Marie-Laure feels. She largely relies on touch, and Doerr
is unable to describe what things look like for half of the novel (when the chapters follow
Marie-Laure’s story). Other senses help her navigate the world as well, such as when Doerr
states, “They cross a seething thoroughfare, then go up an alley that smells like a muddy
ditch. Always there is the muted rattling of her father’s tools inside his rucksack and the
distant and incessant honking of automobile horns” (Doerr 77). After getting used to not
being able to rely on Marie-Laure’s vision as a reader, it became a lot easier to appreciate
Doerr’s writing style.
Hopefully, by my next microblog, I’ll be able to finally answer my burning question, and
definitely have more insight into why Doerr chose to format the novel this way. Thanks for
reading!
definitely have more insight into why Doerr chose to format the novel this way. Thanks for
reading!
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