All the Light We Cannot See

Werner Pfennig is the second protagonist of the novel. Werner is age 18 during the siege of Saint-Malo, when he rescues Marie-Laure and helps her escape the city during a brief cease-fire.

As a child, Werner’s interest in science is encouraged by a Frenchman’s broadcasts: “Open your eyes and see what you can with them before they close forever” (282). The drive to see and learn all that he can is the major theme of Werner’s life and a significant key to his character.

Intelligent, gentle, creative, and determined, Werner finds a way out of the coal mines which killed his father through admission to a Reich-sponsored school, where he can learn the higher math and science necessary for him to become a scientist or an engineer. Originally, Werner sought entrance to the school simply to escape the mines, but soon he finds himself responding to the call of the Reich. Werner wants to belong. However, Werner is a small, white-blond orphan, who was raised by a French protestant nun; only his extreme intelligence and the favoritism of Dr. Hauptmann, a science teacher, save Werner from being bullied out of the school.

Werner’s idealism is tainted by the harsh realities inculcated by the Reich: duty, nation, toughness, and a willingness to die. His only friend, Frederick, is beaten senseless by the other boys, with the collusion of the commandant, breaking Werner’s devotion to the Reich forever. In the face of Frederick’s injury, Werner can no longer turn away from the cruel reality in front of him. Werner is broken by the Reich and his war experiences, but he is able to regain his humanity by rescuing Marie-Laure. Though brief, his love for her, which allows him to regain his dignity, allows him to die a free man.

Daniel LeBlanc is Marie-Laure’s father, and the nephew of Etienne LeBlanc, who lives in Saint-Malo. Brilliant and creative, Daniel works as a locksmith at the French National Museum of Natural History. He also devises and builds clever puzzles, including the box that holds the Sea of Flames in the museum, as well as model neighborhoods and puzzle boxes for Marie-Laure’s amusement and education. Completely devoted to raising his daughter, Daniel teaches her to navigate the world as a blind person and encourages her education with help from the many experts in natural history at the museum and by learning Braille.

Though Daniel is arrested and disappears during his imprisonment in a series of work camps during the war, his teachings and devotion to Marie-Laure marks her life forever. In particular, he taught her not to be afraid. As a result, she encourages her great-uncle to overcome his fears, including agoraphobia. Without Daniel’s influence, Marie-Laure would not have been able to help Etienne.

Like her older brother in her intelligence and creative talents, Jutta adores Werner. They spend a lot of time together, and Jutta helps Werner gather the scraps he needs to build his inventions, including the wireless radio. Together, they listen to the Frenchman’s scientific broadcasts. As a result, Jutta, a talented artist, draws pictures of Paris and dreams of visiting it one day.

However, Jutta’s exposure to the radio broadcasts revealing German atrocities in France on Werner’s homemade wireless, challenge her, even at 12 years old, to question her government and Werner’s willingness to collaborate with the Reich by attending the school at Schulpforta.

As a survivor of the war and a German citizen, Jutta bears significant guilt over the many atrocities committed by Germany during the war. When she takes her son Max to visit Saint-Malo in 1974, in pursuit of information about her brother’s last days, she expects to be treated badly, but no one seems to care that she is German. Even though it is extremely painful for her, to honor her brother she follows the leads in his canvas knapsack to their conclusion, learning of Marie-Laure, meeting her, and returning the model house to her. Significantly, Marie-Laure never reveals to Jutta that Werner saved her life three times over, or the true significance of the model house, though she does send the last recording of the science program to Jutta for her son, Max.

Traumatized by his experiences in World War I and the loss of his brother, Henri, in the war, Etienne nevertheless forces himself to defeat his fears in order to help his great-niece, Marie-Laure. When she loses all the other adults in her life, Etienne is the only person she has left to count on. She needs him. Furthermore, Etienne realizes that he must step up and take Madame Manec’s place in the French resistance after her death by performing the radio work she once performed. A man of much learning and talent, he overcomes his agoraphobia and other demons to fulfill a parental role in Marie-Laure’s life. He finds that by confronting his fears head-on, he ceases to be afraid. He is 62 years old during the siege of Saint-Malo.

Seventy-six years old at her death from pneumonia, Madame Manec is the mastermind of the Saint-Malo old ladies’ resistance club. Strong-minded, but gentle and kind, Madame teaches Marie-Laure how to be both resilient and strong. She defies Etienne by taking Marie-Laure to the beach, and she also calmly and deliberately involves Marie-Laure in her resistance activities.

For 60 years she took care of the LeBlanc family, and for more than 20 years, she appeased and supported Etienne’s fears. Finally, however, she demands that he grow up and face his fears. She demands that he stand up for what is right and participate in the resistance. His refusal mars their relationship until she becomes ill. Madame Manec’s death and Marie-Laure’s decision to continue Madame’s work, force Etienne to overcome his fear and trauma. Only because of Madame’s example is he able to do so.

Werner’s only friend, besides his sister, Frederick is a dreamer. The same age as Werner and his bunk-mate at Schulpforta, Frederick, like Werner, is completely out of place in the Reich school due to his intelligence, obsession with birds, sensitivity, and conscience. Though from a rich and influential family, Frederick cannot succeed at Schulpforta.

Identified early on as one of the “weakest,” Frederick endures many beatings and terrible bullying at the hands of the other boys in the school. When he refuses to throw a bucket of water onto a prisoner, Frederick dooms himself. Soon, with the collusion of the school commandant, Frederick is beaten nearly to death and lives the rest of his life with a brain injury that renders him an imbecile. Frederick’s kindness, his conscience, and his dignity in the face of bullies, teach Werner important lessons and offer an example that Werner finds impossible to live up to until the end of the novel. However, without Frederick’s friendship and influence, Werner may have never redeemed himself by saving Marie-Laure.

A physical giant of a man, Frank Volkheimer comes to love and respect Werner Pfennig for his intelligence and gentleness when they are students together at Schulpforta. Volkheimer and Werner both assist Dr. Hauptmann with the development of the transceiver used to track down radio broadcast locations. Thrown into the war at 18, Volkheimer kills many men.

By the time he is reunited with Werner two years later, he is in charge of their unit, which is responsible for hunting partisan radiomen, and has been aged terribly by all he has seen and done. However, he never shows anything but kindness to Werner. He even protects Werner from the harsher realities of war, just as he did in school. Werner is never forced to wield a gun or kill; Volkheimer and the other members of the unit perform all such violent acts.

Set apart by his tremendous size and the trauma of his war experience, in 1974 a lonely Volkheimer takes Werner’s belongings to his sister. He is gentle and kind with little Max, who reminds him of Werner. Volkheimer’s character reminds the reader of the tremendous costs of war to humanity.