Dialectical Journal All The Light We Cannot See

Werner likes to please people, but not the right people. Werner builds radios for the Nazis, and they praise him for it, for instance, “Werner sets up the first transceiver, uses measuring tape to pace off two hundred meters, and sets up a second. He uncoils the grounding wires, raises the aerials, and switches them on. Already his fingers are numb… Werner puts on the headset and fills his ears with static…. “I have him sir.” Hauptmann starts smiling in ernest. The dogs caper and sneeze with excitement.” (Doerr 244-245). By the reaction that Werner’s

“The best measure of a spiritual life is not its ecstasies but its obedience.” – Oswald Chambers

Kate Chopin’s aspiration to deliver The Awakening was to convey to the early 20th century public her position of women’s roles, rights, and independence in a time of strict gender roles. Chopin conveys to readers the oppression of women during her time. Edna Pontellier is Chopin’s protagonist in the novel, and she finds herself unhappy and contempt of her role as a republican mother, which characterizes the idea of women’s work, and Edna identifies indirectly with the women at the Seneca Falls convention. Throughout the book Edna’s husband, Leónce Pontellier, continually scolds her for not being an attentive and loving mother and Edna compares herself with Madame Ratignolle, who is the epitome of motherhood

It was a night like no other, the whole world asleep, and at peace. Little did Gabriel know, this was his last moments to see the world. For tomorrow, he would lose something he always held dear. As Gabriel lies in his bed, not knowing what tomorrow brings, he closes his eyes, and falls fast asleep. In the middle of the night, he hears a sound like no other, a strange ringing. The noise grows louder and louder, and a whisper saying, “Open your eyes.” When Gabriel tried to open his eyes, either his eyes were not cooperating, or its was just too dark; because all he saw was darkness.

An important theme in Kate Chopin’s novel The Awakening is the desire for some women to abandon their dull lives as only mothers and wives. In other words, solitude. The main character, Edna Pontellier is a woman with such desires. She has two sons with her husband, Leonce Pontellier, whom she would rather not be with. The theme mentioned earlier is seen all throughout the novel, by means of several different symbols, including birds. There are three examples of birds used within the story, two of which in the very first chapter. The story opens with a loud parrot repeating the phrase: ‘Allez vous-en! Allez vous-en! Sapriste!” (Chopin 1) This roughly translates to “Go away! Go away! For God’s sake!” These words

“But I don’t want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.” “In fact,” said Mustapha Mond, “you’re claiming the right to be unhappy.” “All right then,” said the Savage defiantly, “I’m claiming the right to be unhappy,” This significant quote from Brave New World had moved innumerable readers’ heart, so do I. Exaggeration? No. It’s the satire to the false meaning of the universal happiness, and it’s this quote which made me had rethink what do I really want and the way of living I want to choose. Because the deep influence and rumination brought by the book, I would like to say

“They were not badly off whilst Morel was in the hospital. There were fourteen shillings a week from the pit, then shillings from the sick club, and five shillings from the Disability Fund.” (pg.87)

1) “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment” (O’Brien 20).

Chapters 3 to 5 express the many pains that all Jewish people alike were subjected to. Many’s perspectives, moralities, etc changed, but what was the Germans to gain for this? Did this benefit their agenda at all? In chapter 3 of Night, by Elie Wiesel, many Jewish people are stripped of their humanities through the processes of assigning numbers in place of names, shaving off body hair, removing gold dental work, and wearing the same clothing in concentration camps.

Marie-Laure Leblanc, a blind girl whom had to flee from Paris with her father, quickly learned how to adapt to a new town and eventually led to experience the war alone as a young blind girl. Marie-Laure’s story ends up corresponding to Werner Pfennig, a young orphan boy from Germany, whom has a huge fascination for radios. During the war Werner is in charge of pinpointing and destroying opposing German radio broadcasts. Towards the end of the novel the two characters ended up meeting one another through one of the radio broadcasts and despite of all of the challenges throughout the novel they were finally able to see the good in one another.

In the book All Quiet on the Western Front, Erich Maria Remarque illustrates the picture of World War I to the reader. This book is the story of Paul Baumer, who with his classmates recruits in the German Army of World War I. This anti-war novel is an excellent book because through the experiences of Paul Baumer, I am able to actually feel like I'm in the war. It is a very useful piece of literature, which increases the readers' knowledge on how the war affected the people at the time setting. By reading this book, one is drawn into the actual events of the war, and can feel the abyss of death. I believe this piece is very well written. It is entirely simple, lacking any bias

I chose my book, All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr, because I recognized that it was in the time period of world war two. The novel didn’t touch on the topic of the holocaust and Hitler was only mentioned in certain parts which was what I was hoping it would, but I ended up really enjoying it anyways. When I began, I realized that their stories were told separately, following the pattern of every other chapter. This is was drove me in the beginning, trying to see if their stories ever connected and even when it was with something so little it was so satisfying to read. As I read, I began to like the book even more, though; sometimes it would go forward in time and suddenly go backwards, leaving me on a cliffhanger and having me wanting

Anthony Doerr chose not to include himself in this book because he didn’t want to the reader to be focused on this life. However, he did use his opinions on World War I and the Nazis. It seemed like Doerr’s own ideas and opinions flowed through the characters, making this book even more fantastic.

This “chunk” of his life took up ten years; ten years to study, research, and learn about Europe in the 1930’s to the 1940’s. This whole expedition started when he was on a tour through Europe and the tour stopped in Saint Malo. Here, Doerr was blown away once he learned about what occurred there nearly half a century ago. All the fighting and destruction and the damage that was caused, and yet a beautiful town could still be standing there is enough to take anyones breath away, let alone an author. To any author, this is just fuel and kindling for the next fire they will put onto the white pages of their next novel. This novel took up ten years of Doerr’s life, and when you research on how to write a novel such as this for ten years, it’s no wonder he was successful.

As the Allied bombers approach Saint-Malo and sirens wail, Marie-Laure and Werner each prepare for the bombing in their own way. Marie-Laure, instead of taking shelter, manipulates