All The Light We Can Not See

"Hitler Youth:Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow." 2005. Studysync: Reading & Writing Companion. Sonoma, CA: BookheadEd Learning, LLC, 2015. 397-99. Print.

In The Perils of Obedience, Stanley Milgram introduces us to his experimental studies on the conflict between one’s own conscience and obedience to authority. From these experiments, Milgram discovered that a lot of people will obey a figure in authority; irrespective of the task given - even if it goes against their own moral belief and values. Milgram’s decision to conduct these experiments was to investigate the role of Adolf Eichmann (who played a major part in the Holocaust) and ascertain if his actions were based on the fact that he was just following orders; as most Germans accused of being guilty for war crimes commonly explained that they were only being obedient to persons in higher authority.

Recalling his devoted years to the Hitler Youth program, author Alfons Heck states “I have never once during the Hitler years thought of myself as anything but a decent, honorable young German, blessed with a glorious future” (206). This honesty conveyed by Heck elucidates the selfish ideals of those in the Hitler Youth, a theme apparent in the novel A Child of Hitler. Although Heck’s thoughts are self-conceited, they convey the opinions of those decieved by the Hitler Youth principles. As politically incorrect as these principles were, A Child of Hitler portrays them differently than other literature reporting on the subject. Through his descriptions of daily activities, Heck describes the pressure that children faced as Hitler Youth.

Moreover, All the Light We Cannot See began betwixt the notorious Nazi Party’s reign in Europe. Going back and forth between time periods, settings, and characters, the book, in the end, composes a mellifluous symphony of parallels that all eventually connect. Marie-Laure LeBlanc, a legally blind girl who continually viewed the glass as half-full, was accompanied by her father, Daniel LeBlanc, throughout the preceding portion of her pilgrimage to refuge during WWII. By fleeing unavoidable harm and siege in Paris, Marie-Laure and her father walked, by foot, to the island city of Saint Malo, France. The pair brought along a sacred, irreplaceable stone: the Sea of Flames from the Museum of Natural History in Paris, where Marie-Laure’s father previously worked. Finally reaching

First, Werner had an atypical childhood. Werner lived at an orphanage called Children’s House in Zollverien, a mining town, with

Werner’s view of the war was that it was real and it was his only way to get out of working in the mines, unlike all the other boys his age. On page 116, Werner is at a Nazi training camp in Schulpforta and he remembers what was said to him and Jutta back in Zollverein at the orphanage, “Exceptional. Unexpected. We will only take the purest, only the strongest. The only place your brother is going, little girl, is into the mines” (116). Back in Zollverein, Werner never thought that it was possible for him to get out of going to the mines, but he made it to Schulpforta. Furthermore, Werner yells, “Heil Hitler!” (116). Werner screaming “Heil Hitler” shows that he is in support of Hitler and the war. On the other hand, Marie-Laure was in denial about the war. On page 97, Marie-Laure is hiding in a room from the bombings that are happening outside, “She smells smoke and knows. Fire. The glass has shattered out of her bedroom window, and what she hears is the sound of something burning beyond the shutters.... ‘Ce n’est pas la réalité’” (97). Even with all the commotion of the fire and the broken windows, Marie-Laure still tried to convince herself that everything that was happening wasn’t real. When she says, “‘Ce n’est pas la réalité’”, that translates into: it’s not reality. By Marie-Laure saying it’s not real, it goes to show how much in denial she is

In Stephen Spielberg’s 1993 movie Schindler’s List, businessman and factory owner Oskar Schindler is concerned with both the welfare of his business as well as the workforce he employs of primarily Jewish people after witnessing their persecution by the German’s during the German’s occupation of Poland amid World War II. Themes pertaining to Social Psychology can be found in this film such as prejudice and discrimination, conformity, influence in social groups, aggression, cognitive dissonance, and altruism.

Anthony Doerr proves the individual writing style in his characters development, symbols, and conflict in the novel “All The Light We Cannot See”. In his unique was he creates the characters who are believable and relatable to readers, yet unordinary, with the struggles and suffering a real person would do. This book brings an inscredible amount of feelings and inspiration for life to truly value the life and remember that the huge price was paid for the peace in which most of the today’s world

In “All the Light We Cannot See”, Anthony Doerr introduces the reader to many characters the two main being Werner and Marie-Laure. Each characters has their own personality, struggles, and perspective on the war. “He sees the interlaced ironwork of Zollverein, the fire breathing mills, men teeming out of elevator shafts like ants… Without hesitating Werner steps off the edge of the platform” (Doerr, 116). Werner came from an orphanage in a German coal mining city where he lost his father and would have the same destiny, working in the mines.Werner knew that his only way out of the mines was to become part of the Hitler Youth program, which he did due to his bravery after initially being suggested for his knowledge of technology.

Werner, a German orphan lived a much different life. Before being accepted into a German Nazi school, Werner

In the exceptional novel All the Light We Cannot See, author Anthony Doerr, tells the story of two young adults whom had to experience life during World War II.

In the novel All the Light We Cannot See, Anthony Doerr uses symbolism to prove the theme about being gullible. Marie Laure has heard many people tell stories of the Sea of Flames stored in the National Museum of Nature. She has heard all these different stories and is getting a little worried because she believes all of them. So she asks her father and he tells her that “‘They are just stories Marie.’ And yet whenever anything goes wrong, the staff whispers that the diamond has caused it” (pg 51). The Sea of Flames was this stone that held a horrible curse, or so it was thought. It was kind of a symbol of this amazing, yet horrible life

Morality is adaptable in extreme situations. The Holocaust is an example of what happens to one’s morality when forced to adapt to animalistic behavior in order to survive. Life in Auschwitz required a purging of one’s human dignity for survival. Prisoners were constantly exposed to perpetual dehumanization, which inevitably led to the dehumanization, and restoration of one’s mental, physical, and social adaptation. Because of this, one’s morality begins to erase. It is in the adaptation of living in a merciless world that the line separating right and wrong begins to blur. Primo Levi’s Survival in Auschwitz and Art Spiegelman’s Maus, both represent how morality and ethics are challenged in the means of survival.

Hart, a legal positivist, believes that “law is law,” and argued against Radbrunch’s theory in servings as a solution to fix Germany’s judicial system. He argued against his theory and wanted a separation of law and morality because he thought that it would only “cloak the true nature of the problems,” and encourage a “romantic optimism,” rather than addressing the dilemma that the courts had in deciding on convicting Nazi criminals. Though Hart acknowledges that this case poses a difficult situation for the law, he does propose his own solution to the problem. With his positivist approach to the law, saying that the laws are the rules expected of us, and enforced at a particular time, he proposes that the “grudge informer” should be punished through a different and ‘new’ set of laws. These laws he deems “retrospective laws,” would entail punishing acts such as revenge and duplicity. However, this dilemma between choosing if the “grudge informer” was innocent

Meanwhile for Sophie, as an art lover she watched her favorite artists leave the country because they refused to create the forms of art Hitler deemed acceptable. Also, she discovered that many of her favorite books were placed under the “ banned books” list because they had been written by Jewish authors. As a result of these experiences, both Hans and Sophie realized that Hitler was not proposing to build a new world for everyone, but that his true plan was to build a utopia where blond, blue-eyed Aryans thrived and those that did not match this description were imprisoned, tortured, and killed (“Hans Scholl”).