English exam - All The Light We Cannot See

Leaflets

Americans sending notes to innocent Germans telling them to get out

Dusk

time when its turning into night, mysterious/eerie vibe/tone, transition point (when things are changing, war is coming, darkness is about to descend, fear) light/dark (hope, fear, confusion)

tide

tide represents the war, constant, always know when it is coming/knew this would happen the war, water, introduce motif,

Werner Pfennig name

Werner means defending warrior Pfenning means worthless, valueness coin (His names are juxtaposed)

(Coins are of use like how he is a tool for the germans, not a lot of choice like how you can't buy a lot of things/not a lot of choice, coins don't get to choose their value like he did not choose what his life was like)

Significance of the mines

death, his dad died in there, social class, no light trying escape the life of the mine but never does because he steps on a mine, feels like he has no choice and trapped, irony he can't escape his fate

Round (Dynamic) character

who changes, grows and has human complexity

Flat (static) character

always the same, character who does not change, often used as foils to help us understand the protagonist

Marie-Laure LeBlanc name

Marie-Laure means bitter, one who raises LeBlanc means light

Marie Laure

Brain sees things in color, Kind hearted, blind, reliant upon her father, physically lost and has to rely on guides, has control/takes control over her environment, does not make herself a victim, heightened senses especially touch smell, and hearing, fixer and have things go back to normal, also in darkness, curious

ML and Werner could not be more different but there is a thread that weaves them together

Madam Mancec

Motherly figure to ML, connects the family together the gule, reminds me of sookie from gilmore girls, symbolizes the fight back against the nazi's and they wont take it, foil to herself, patient, understands them in a deeper level, symbol of time, frog in the pot symbol, paradox: gentle but tough, her resistance fighter name is the blade

Canned peaches: hope and nostalgia and childhood and the joys of life

Canned peaches: hope and nostalgia and childhood and the joys of life

Peaches: warring off evil

Fredrick name

Name means powerful peace maker, true to himself (splash water on the person)

Fredrick

represents what Werner should do (werner's conscience), wise, intuitive, opposite of what the nazis want (kind, gentil, peacefully rebellious, artistic, shy)

loves birds which represent freedom (symbol) and reads book birds of world, trapped in his own mid maronite like in ML and Werner, stationed irony: when he is broken and free but also he is not free because what happened is what the nazi's wanted

draws spirals after being brain damaged

Valkheimer

Called the giant, he is big, tall, physically imposing and powerful, kind of what the nazi's want, obedient follows the rules, tool in the plot, dehumanized, chooses to disobey his orders in the hotel of bees and that's what saves ML, becomes human, redeems himself by delivering Werner's things to Jutta and telling her about him, he starts as a flat/static character but becomes a round character, becomes gentil and protective and sees the light, morally conflicted, mirror to werner

Moved by classical music even though they cruelly kill many people

Reinhard von rumpel

Reinhold means "Wise Leader"

Rumpel means "Power"

Names equated with inability and power, He thinks highly of himself desire power, greedy persistent, give it a break rumplestiltskin's - fairytale character troll who is looking for gold, villain, slowly dying losing his value of himself - mirrors the downfall of nazi germany, wants the sea of flames badly

Etiene

ML's great uncle, ptsd because he lost his brother in ww1 , shelters, afraid to go out in the world, loving, protective of people he loves, ironically connect to Volkheimer moved by music, trapped like ML in her own mind, frederick, and werner, afraid, lacks hope (most characters are except ML and she brings the light) ironic because character who is blind can see the light/shines/brings it, round character, transforms because of Madam Manec and ML, rebel in the resistance, adventure, closed off but opens to others

Jutta

represents werner's childhood/innocence, symbol more than a character, story is by her presence, outspoken, rebellious, holds werner to the right thing, moral compass, she symbolizes home, grounds him,

Daniel LeBlanc

Marie-Laure's father

locksmith at Paris's Museum of Natural History

is entrusted with the Sea of Flames diamond

builds models of Paris and Saint-Malo for Marie-Laure

arrested under suspicion of treason

dies in German prison camp in 1943

Frau Elena

runs the orphanage where Werner and Jutta grew up

Protestant nun from Alsace, France

she teaches the Pfennigs to speak French as well as German.

Unlikely hero ideas

Madam Manec

she is selfless, strong and cares despite the gloom that is hing over their heads

Greets ML and her father with kindness when they show up

Supplies food even when there is not a lot of food + significance of that

Mother figure

Resistance group

Characters who find the light

Fredrick

even though he is sent to a school that trains boys to become Nazis he still stays true to himself/his morals so he is able to keep the light/things he loves a part of him unlike other boys who lost their light and now are surrounded by darkness

Example: He still bird watches and sticks to his morals even if it gets him in trouble

Also he is the light for Werner who wishes he was not afraid to be himself

Radio

Contrast to see of flames because the radio they wanted to be hidden and see of flames is also hidden but they wanted to find

Connects characters with an invisible string

Ex: ML and Werner through the radio broadcast

It ties them all together

It gives them all hope and shines light literally and figuratively

When the radios are hidden it comes into the light

Paradox because it is a tool in the war but it also sends messages between the resistance

Represents Werner himself

used as a tool constructs a new identity

He mashes it showing he does not want to be a nazi but it also breaks him apart from Jutta and even though he did it to protect her

But it also brought him to save to ML

Whelk

Whelk - ML's resistance name

Characteristics: unlikely beast (just like ML)

People don't expect much from her besides her father because she is blind, young dependent, the whelk is hunted because they have a soft meat and they are an easy target like how Rumple hunts her and thinks she will be an easy target

Found in cold environment - ML lives in an inhospitable place (paris) where she is shunned bullied

Use shells to pry open their pray like a tool like ML who uses her other senses a lot to keep her safe

She claims her own power and uses what she has as a power because everyone has them but not everyone uses them to the lengths that she uses

Shell: safety, home, security,

The shell has a spiral shape like how her life keeps spiraling and so does paris

The whelk affects the entire environment like ML

3D- models

Protection not only the sea of flames but also when she is learning St. Milo and when the whole model is destroyed their house is like when St. Milo is bombed but her house stays intact

Like a garden angle

Eitienne's house holds ML and the little house holds the sea of flames like how ML is the sea of flames

Everyone around her dies

Really rare and one of a kind and so is ML's character

Both are very protected

Both desired/sought for

Werner and Von Rumple

ML does not even know its there and how she does not need it because she is the jewel and how she gives it back to the sea which shows she can be independent in her life

But the people who want it destroy their lives trying to find it

Von Rumple knocking over the model is like how her life is falling apart

Walls curve in + fall just like the city the effect of the war

sunflowers/peaches

Sunflowers:

Driving to the field to kill Russian soldiers

Personified: rodding praying, dying

Represents the men there about to kill

Awareness for the reactor dramatic irony

Sunflowers need light to live and their dying like how Werner is dying rn and loosing hope and can't see

Peaches:

Wedges of wet sunlight (21)

Running out of food at the end of the war

Like hope is running out

Madam manic has connected them all together

Symbol of love

Symbolize: hope, nostalgia, childhood and innocence of life, and warring of evil and ML eats them when Von Rumple is in the house

Feels like she can't ask for more like how because of the war children feel like they can't achieve more

What does the subplot of the Sea of Flames add to the novel?

most it represents greed, Since the very beginning and to this day the SOF brought out the worst in people, hunger to find it and greed to keep it for themselves not caring what harm it would inflict on others. It started with the prince (in the myth they told the children) and now is shown through the depiction of Van Rumple.

But for ML the sea of flame is a burden and source of anxiety. When ML discovers the stone she realizes all the bad things that have happened like her family being torn apart is because she had the stone all along. Her father left it behind to protect it from getting in the wrong hands and ML feels obligated to protect it, until she can get rid of it, from Von Rumple because that is what her father would have wanted. Ultimately Ml decides to throw it back in the water.

What does the mine represent to Werner both literally and figuratively?

I think the main thing the mines represent for Werner is death, darkness, and fear. the mines play an important role in Werner's decisions and shows how desperate he is to escape them. I think he feels like he is being cornered and his only options are to work in the mines where his father died or school. When he decides to go off to the school, I think he knows it will hurt Jutta but also knows it will only hurt her more if he is killed in the mines. The irony is that he can never truly escape his fate or the mines because even after he joined the army he was still connected to them and eventually it killed him.

Dramatic Irony

The readers know something that the characters don't

Oxymoron

A pair or set of contradictory terms

Situational irony

Opposite of what the readers expect