Rachel Burdick
AS English 1
April 29, 2019
IR#4
Prompt: Write an essay to analyze the significance a theme in your book. Make sure to
state a strong claim and explain why it is significant
In the historical fiction novel, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, the
main characters, a blind girl from France and an orphaned boy from Germany, live
through World War II and the setup of the war. Although the boy joins the Nazi party
while the girl helps the French resistance, the book follows the lives of the main
characters until their deaths.
One of the main themes in the book is destiny versus choice, as Marie Laure has
the choice to help the resistance against the invading Nazi Germans and Werner
chooses to become part of the elite German school leading to his role in the Nazi party.
The theme shows how as humans we have free will to pick decisions that impact our life
trajectories but sometimes we were destined to choose them anyways by fate. This is
seen when Werner is, “called, says the letter, to report to the National Political Institute
of Education #6 at Schulpforta. He stands in the parlor of Children’s House, trying to
absorb it” (Doerr 124). The circumstances that orphaned, poverty-stricken Werner and
many young Germans were in, forced them into servitude to the Nazi party. While
Werner did ultimately decide to go, eventually the Nazi party forced everyone to “join”
the Hitler Youth and train under the Nazi principles of conduct. Consequently, the power
of choice was taken away from young German boys in the latter part of the war and it
became their destiny from birth to join and live under the regime. Furthermore, all the
young boys growing up in Germany during this time had already had their life plans
chosen for them by fate and WWII. Another example of choice versus destiny comes
from Marie Laure’s side of the story, when Madame Manec (her aunt) decides to join the
resistance and “do something”’... ‘“Nothing so bold as all that. But we smaller
things-simpler things...But first I need to know if you’re willing” (Doerr 248). Marie
Laure’s aunt implies that she and her group of friends start resisting the new power by
doing small tasks; such as, smuggling food to Jewish people, helping the French
museum house some important, rare exhibits, and broadcast radio programs of news to
French families against German orders. Consequently, Madame Manec gives the
women the power of choice to join her in the mission but all choose to join her. The
environment they were in either made them break their moral principles by watching
Jewish people around them suffer under the hands of Germans or break the laws the
Germans had implemented around them. So for the French woman, it was not a choice,
but a moral campaign against the powers, that made them resist. This shows that it may
have been fate that let them join together.
In conclusion, destiny and fate are interconnected concepts explored throughout
the novel showing how human nature, morals, and circumstances drive people to make
choices, helped along by the character’s destined life path, that impact their storylines
and lives.