Thus far in 'All the Light we Cannot See' by Anthony Doerr, I am almost at the end, hence, a lot has happened. Mare Laure is a sixteen year old, blind, Parisian girl who lives safely in an apartment with her father, Monsieur LeBlanc, a museum geologist. She lived a normal life, made up of her and her fathers routines of how they dealt with her blindness, accompanying him to work, learning about the wonders of the museum, walking to the park, and reading. Even the puzzle box she receives every year for her birthday remain the same, until one day her father informs her that they have to flee Paris to go live with her uncle Etienne in Saint-Malo, it will be safer there. She is confused an doesn't know why, but obeys anyways. There are two reasons her father insisted on fleeing. One, with the Germans invading, Paris is the most dangerous place to be. And two, her father is carrying The Sea of Flames, the museum's most expensive and prized diamond, said to bring good fortune to whomever owned it, but destroy the ones they love. The owners of the museum want it as far away and hidden from the Germans as possible. Meanwhile in Zollverein, Germany lives a teenage orphan named Werner Pfennig. He is presumably stuck in coal mining, with his little sister Jutta, no way out, and no future. Until one day when he finds a broken radio behind the orphanage where he lives. He quickly learns how to repair it and make it work. Him and his sister are completely enthralled by it and listen to it every night. Their favorite channel is one where a French man discusses science and theories, but little to they know that it is the voice of Marie Laure's uncle Etienne. A wealthy couple in the town soon catch wind of Werner's ability with radios, and ask him to come fix theirs. Once they see him at work, they almost immediately decide that he is to talented and too smart to stay here in Zollverein and rot in the mines, and give him money and an application to the Training School for the Nazi Military Elite. Here he proves superior in all his academics, and befriends Fredrick (a boy who is considered the weakest in the school, and takes a beating for it, he soon contracts a disease and becomes mentally impaired for the rest of his life). Werner on the other hand, invented a new form of trigonometry that allows you to figure out the location of foreign and illegal radio transmissions. This achievement sends him out into the world with a small team, intercepting radio transmissions and eliminating the law breakers that sent them, until he ends up in Saint-Malo, France. All this time Jutta has tried to keep in communication with Werner, to be his moral compass, but her letters arrive to Werner so censored and blacked out they're hard to read. Now, while all of this is happening, Von Rumpel, a Nazi gemologist is scouring Europe to find The Sea of Flames. Their are two decoys, and he has already come across those, Marie-Laure has the real diamond, and he is coming for her. Meanwhile, back in Saint-Malo, Marie Laure's father has been arrested for taking measurements of the buildings and streets in order to help Marie Laure find her way around this new, unfamiliar town. She clings to hope that he will return, but he never does. She helps Madame Manec with the resistance efforts, visits the sea shore, reads her braille copy of 2000 Leagues Under the Seas, and spends time with her uncle (he is too afraid to go outside because of his PTSD from World War One). As time get tougher, and Saint-Malo becomes the last liberated part of France, Etienne shows her his radio in the attic, which he is keeping illegally, and builds a fake wall in the back of the wardrobe that leads to a ladder to the attic. Madame Mannec dies shortly after, but Marie Laure is still eager to help with the resistance, so Etienne works to overcome his fear, and agrees to help. He receives word that his mission is to measure distances between buildings for an attack. He goes out in the morning to avoid being caught, but is not quite early enough, and is arrested, not to the knowledge of Marie Laure. Confused, afraid, and alone, she tries to figure out what happened. Von Rumpel breaks in the same morning. She takes some food, water, a knife, and her novel, and goes up to the attic to hide. From here she turns on the radio twice a day to read and transmit her uncle's old science channels to who ever could be listening, if anyone. And someone is, Werner. Trapped in the basement of a Saint-Malo hotel after it had been bombed and collapsed, he finally was able to get a radio working, and miraculously connects to Marie Laure's channel. He instantly recognizes the French science broadcasts from his childhood, and stays on this channel for days, listening to her read, and the science. When he finally finds a way out of the collapsed basement, he spots a house with a radio antenna sticking out alongside the chimney, and decides that must be the girl's house, it is. He runs through the door, and when he sees Von Rumpel searching for the girl with murder in his eyes, Werner kills him on the spot. He then coaxes Marie Laure out of the attic and they become each others only friends. After staying in the house for another day, Werner decides they must leave because of the constant bombing that has not stopped for four days now. He helps her out of the city and to safety, but he himself is unfortunately caught and put in a prison, where he contracts an awful sickness. Feeling he has nothing left to live for, he gets out of his prison tent and right onto the beach, where he is blown up by a minefield. Years later, Werner's sister Jutta is all grown up and has son Max. She hears that a possession Werner died with ( that she had in her house) belonged to someone living in Paris, France. (This someone will turn out to be Marie Laure, now 86 with a grandson.) While Jutta is on a train in France, she is terrified of the french people and what they might say to her because she is German. She arrives at Marie Laure's apartment, return the object that is hers, explains, that she is Werner's sister, and walks away, not able to bear staying any longer. "Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever."- Anthony Doerr
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'Wolf by Wolf' by Ryan Graudin was so fabulous! It was about a girl with a scientific mutation that made her capable of skin-shifting, in a world where the Nazis won World War Two. She goes undercover in a global motorcycle race for the Axis Powers with one mission; kill the Führer. There were so many twists and turns, I could hardly put it down, you never can predict whats going to happen next, and I love books like that. In some books you can see a twist coming, plain as day, before it actually happens, and it's kind of disappointing, which was one of the reasons I loved this book. I would recommend this book for so many types of readers honestly. I think people who like, thrillers, action, historical fiction, or science fiction, would thoroughly enjoy 'Wolf by Wolf'. I can't wait to read the sequel 'Blood for Blood', it looks amazing!
For my project I am reading 'All the Light We Cannot See' by Anthony Doerr, about the French Resistance of Vichy France during World War Two. Germany invaded France in August of 1940, hence changing the capital from Paris to Vichy, setting up the Petain regime, and making France embrace Nazi ideology. The French people were repulsed and afraid, they wanted the Germans out. Now the novel I'm reading made it sound like every french citizen was involved in the resistance (publishing and delivering underground newspapers, planning and launching sabotages, gathering intelligence, etc.), and that they were all willing to stand up and join in the fight to liberate their home country no matter the cost. But that could not have been farther from the truth. Out of the entire population of France, only one, maybe barely two percent was actively engaged and fighting in the resistance. "Only another eight percent were passive resisters—that is, they were willing to read subversive publications, celebrate traditional national holidays privately and quietly despite German bans, and provide crucial moral support to active Resistance networks. The vast majority of French people simply tried to muddle through and survive increasingly tough times, while a certain undefined, but uncomfortably large number either supported Vichy in the (forlorn) hope that it would ultimately form a bulwark against German repression, or actively collaborated with the Petain regime." - The Real Story of the French Resistance, The Daily Best. This is very different than the feeling of 'All the Light We Cannot See'. It seemed as if everyone in the town of Saint Malo hated the German invasion, and were involved in a way to stop it. " 'I want to do it. Madame would want-.'
'Tell it to me. Tell me the whole routine.' ' Twenty-two paces down the rue Vauborel to the rue d'Estrées. Then right for sixteen storm drains. Left on rue Robert Surcouf. Nine more storm drains to the bakery. I go to the counter and say, 'One ordinary loaf, please.' " -All the Light We Cannot See, page 322. At this particular point in the book, the sixteen year old blind girl, Marie Laure, is telling her Uncle that she still wants to help with the resistance even after Madame Manec, her guardian, has died. Everyone in Anthony Doerr's novel was fearless and hungry to help, much different from the actual situation. |
AuthorHi guys! I am an 8th grade student who loves to dance, read, and do anything outside. This blog might start to look like a hodge-podge of different things (and quite honestly it probably will be) as I will be using this for school projects, my own thoughts, dance, and basically anything else. Archives
May 2017
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