'The Light' essay Flashcards
Introduction: overall thesis
Masterfully manipulating the revisionist Historical fiction form, Anthony Doerr’s postmodern text All The Light We Cannot See (The Light) (2014) allows for the re-examination of human behaviour framed within the horror of WW2, illuminating the empathetic consideration of the ability of shared humanity to unite.
Introduction: signposting
Celebrating the multiplicity of human perspectives, Doerr challenges the notion that all human experience is the same by giving a voice to those redacted from history. Revealing through intertextuality, Doerr esteems the power of art to fortify and provide comfort through its enabling of deeper understanding of the human experience.
Introduction: concluding statement
Ultimately, The Light ignites a deeper understanding of the unified nature of shared humanity despite adversity, enlightening readers to consider that there is more that unites us than divides us.
Para one: intro
Through the Revisionist Historical fiction form, The Light challenges the binary narratives of WW2 including Axis being inherently evil and glorified representations of wartime patriotism.
Para one: techniques
- shifting flashbacks to uncover humane qualities of German soldiers dehumanised as “electrons…(with) no say”, cyclical entrapment
- achronological structure of Doerr’s text which invites the reader to predict how the Werner will escape his predicament
- third person omniscient narration to empathise not only with the Soviet is tortured with icy water, but also with Werner who is paradoxically captive to Nazism when he “drowns” his forced moral transgressions, victim of internalised ideology
- motif of numbers “The war that killed your grandfather killed sixteen million others. One and a half million…they’re more than numbers. Do you understand?”, which reiterates the destructive nature of war which dehumanises individual lives
- visual imagery “Little eyeballs blinked at him from the cobblestones. Corpses stirred in the shadows…His heart beats icily in a faraway cage” is indicative of the harrowing impact of war that irreversibly traumatises individuals to dissociate from the light
para one: concluding statement
Ultimately, Doerr resists the singular narratives perpetuated by the victors of war, and this leads him to celebrate the stories of unlikely heroes by representing multiple voices and stories through his vignette form.
para two: intro
Utilising the dual narrative form and achronological structure, Doerr hones in on the individual experiences of war, to give voice to silenced narratives, specifically women, of the past, arguing that the unique experiences of war cannot be reduced to a single story. Doerr esteems the challenges patriarchal paradigms by representing the individual stories of women who demonstrate perception, intelligence, and courage during the devastation of WW2, to ultimately deepen our understanding of diverse human experiences.
para two: techniques
- While presenting Marie-Laure (ML) as vulnerable trapped in a “labyrinth bristling with hazards”, Doerr uses the titular motif of light to paradoxically characterise her as having astounding perception to look beyond the darkness of her world.
- symbolism Whelk” described as being “armoured” and “impervious”, emphasising her moral tenacity which renders her powerful
- present tense when Jutta is raped “Jutta does not allow herself to make a single sound” brings readers personally into Jutta’s experience which conveys the paradox of her wanting to understand the soldiers’ lost humanity which she avidly maintains
- characterisation of Madame Manec’s physicality as “a little girl with stars in her eyes” reveals her courage in undermining notions of female passivity during her resistance work as she becomes a metaphorical “blade”
para two: concluding sentence
Hence, Doerr esteems the importance of the individual experience by giving voice to women of fortitude, suggesting that human experience cannot be reduced to a single story of female passivity.
para three: intro
Doerr esteems the power of art and storytelling through the use of intertextuality to establish connections between characters, the reader, and the text across temporal spaces, hence enabling a deeper understanding of the complexity of connections gained from art, the ability of art to foster strength and beauty in times of adversity, and the power of art to remind individuals of their own morality.
para three: techniques
- epigraph from Joseph Goebbel’s “It would not have been possible for us to take power or use it in the ways we have without the radio” which references its use to spread indoctrinating Nazi ideology, preluding the power of the radio to “tie a million ears to a single mouth” (Doerr)
- motif of light “The only light comes from the amber filament inside Werner’s signal meter… the spectrum is all static and then it is not.”, the radio is described as holding hope for Werner during his literal and figurative darkness
- Connecting dual narrative: ML reads Twenty Thousands Leagues Under the Sea and plays Clair De Lune over radio, Werner describes in the drowning motif “It is as if he has been drowning for as long as he can remember and somebody has fetched him up for air…Werner sees six-year-old Jutta lean towards him…the cords of his soul not yet severed” references Werner’s ironic drowning as he drowns the soldier with water at Schulpforta (flashback)
para three: concluding statement
Hence, Doerr’s novel reveals art’s power to fortify, connect and liberate us in times of adversity, enabling a deeper understanding of the human experience and our world throughout time.
conclusion
Through challenging the grand narratives of WW2, Doerr’s historical revisionist novel The Light powerfully invites a reconsideration of the construction of history, hence esteeming the power of the human experience and celebrating the power of art to sustain individuals, ultimately suggesting that there is more than unites humanity than divides it.
