Good And Evil In 'All The Light We Cannot See'

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn’s line, “the dividing between good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being” is entangled in one of the themes of the novel All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr. The theme of human nature being able to be split into good versus being split into evil. Throughout the novel, the reader meets Von Rumpel, Bastian, and Hauptmann, who clearly never step close to the good line; the reader has Marie-Laure, who never even ponders the possibility of crossing the line; and then the reader has Werner, who is in-between the two, blurring the lines of what is good and evil, constantly shifting back and forth through his actions dictated by his own morals, but forced along through fate. One may consider the idea

Frederick’s set of morals is much cleaner than Werner’s, Frederick is shown to believe in his own self and believing in his own strength of character, constantly refuting authority even when he’s being punished for it with brutality. A key scene where Frederick is shown to fully be as free-willed as he likes is on page 229, Frederick takes a huge stand against Bastian by refusing to dump water on the prisoner, “Five boys later, it is Frederick’s turn. Frederick, who clearly cannot see well without his glasses. Who has not been cheering when each bucketful of water finds its mark. Who is frowning at the prisoner as though he recognizes something there. And Werner knows what Frederick is going to do” (Doerr 229). Werner on the other hand, clearly shares several of the same morals as Frederick, but Werner simply doesn’t take action for his morals. While Frederick is being beaten senseless, Werner does nothing. While Frederick is taking a stand against Bastian, Werner does nothing. When Frederick goes missing, Werner does nothing, he doesn’t have the moxie to find his friend that he cares about, he simply lets the information come to him in possibly the most passive way. Once Werner finds how Frederick had been disabled, and finally goes to

At the end of the novel, Werner has been trapped in the Hotel of Bees, smothered by rubble all around him. He is starving. He is weak. He only has the radio to get by, and on the other side of that radio is Marie-Laure reading out the wondrous tale of Captain Nemo and the Nautilus, and when she decides to fight Von Rumpel head on, Volkheimer hears the beautiful music and decides to take action. Werner of course has been pleading Volkheimer for a way to get out, but Werner finally is given a chance to escape and he takes it. Werner has spent a horrible time in Russia, his skills of identifying where radio signals are coming from, leading to the death of an unknown amount of civilians, has pushed his heart deep into the evil side. Now that he has a chance to finally do some good in the world he marches over to where Marie-Laure is trapped, not even getting any food or water he desperately needs, shoots Von Rumpel and saves her without any remorse. Werner doesn’t do this for a purely selfish reason such as the Sea of Flames, he does this for himself and for Marie-Laure’s safety most importantly of all. He clings to the childhood memory of the Frenchman who broadcast to Werner and Jutta’s ears their entire childhood as a way to boost his heart back over to the good side. On page 465, a small line of thought that Werner has reveals his major development as a character, “All your life you wait, and then it finally comes,