Nya Herring Ms. Criswell ENG 111 04 September 2017 The Effects of War On Characters in All The Light We Cannot See The story of All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a fictional tale that takes place during World War II. The author chose to write the book from many different perspectives, which allows the reader to see through the minds of several characters within the story. Marie-Laure is a blind girl that is being taken care by her father, a locksmith. Daniel, her father, works to protect artifacts at a museum in Paris. The war, however , forces them to leave there home with a possible diamond that is priceless. They flee to her great-uncle Etienne, a man who has been broken by his experience with war and the death of his brother. …show more content…
It is through his experiences in the war that redefine the way he previously believed. He is seeing exactly how much death is prominent in all sides of the war. The war his country has so strongly supported and positively promoted as being won, is in fact a lie. It cost many innocent lives of other countries. It not only affected other countries, but led to many deaths of the German’s own people. A series of events intensified his doubt in his own government. One event that causes Werner to feel guilt in an elaborate way, is the death of a young girl and her mother. It on this day that he is able to see the innocence that is left in the world as he looks at the young girl playing without a care in the world. While he watches her he thinks to himself, “This is life...this is why we live, to play like this…”(366). It ultimately shows his belief that this is how his childhood should have been like and his desire to preserve one’s innocence. He never got to be a normal kid who liked to play without a care in the world. He was always helping out around the orphanage and watching over his sister and then he had a very strict school that did not tolerate playing around. To see a child playing in a time of a great war is a major shock to Werner. Even before the war, he was never given that privilege. However, the moment does not last long before Werner has to get back to work. It is shortly after that he finds an illegal broadcast and pinpoints a general location that it is originating from. He finds what he believes is an antenna by an apartment window, but soon realizes that “what he thought was an antenna is nothing more than a painted rod...probably meant to anchor a clothesline”(367). Werner’s duty in his team was to find illegal broadcasts from non-German soldiers and as a result he feels responsible for the death of the young girl “...with big clear eyes that reminds