All the Light We Cannot See is a fascinating novel written by Anthony Doerr about two children growing up during World War II. One of them is a girl, blind at the age of six and lives in France. The second child is boy, chosen to attend an elite school for Nazis. Amongst the many books that I have read in my life, it's the first time I've come across a book like All the Light We Cannot See. Anthony Doerr writes his novel by moving back and forth between the lives of both characters. I have read at least 40 chapters, with every other one about Werner and the next about Marie-Laure. At one point, Marie-Laure is talking to her great uncle, Etienne in France, and then before you know it, Werner is "to report to the National Political Institute of Education #6 at Schulpforta" (Doerr 124), Germany. …show more content…
As a result of Germany invading France, Marie-Laure and her father enter a remote town "two days after fleeing Paris" (Doerr 107). At the same time, Werner, originally forced to go work in the coal mines at 15 years old, escapes his fate and enters a military engineering school "near Hamburg, in Saxony. Two hundred miles east" (Doerr 124). Yet at the same time, they are both very different people. Marie-Laure is blind and is 'the one being invaded', while Werner still has vision and is with 'the one's