O’Levels Literature 2065 – All The Light We Cannot See – List of Important Quotes

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Literature Study Notes – All The Light We Cannot See. How to achieve an A for O’Levels literature or language arts? 

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All The Light We Cannot See

All the Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr is a moving novel set during World War II. It tells the story of a blind French girl, Marie-Laure, and a German soldier, Werner, whose lives become connected in unexpected ways. Through their experiences, the book explores themes like survival, the effects of war on people, and how we find light and hope even in the darkest times.

As O’Level Literature students or IGCSE students, it is important for students to examine how the author uses powerful language, vivid descriptions, and different points of view to show the struggles and strength of his characters.

The novel asks important questions about how war shapes lives and how we can still find beauty and meaning in a world filled with darkness. Here are a list of quotes to help students who are studying the text to understand the text better. 

 

 

#1: “When I lost my sight, Werner, people said I was brave. When my father left, people said I was brave. But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don’t you do the same?”

  • Part 10
  • Character: Marie-Laure
  • Techniques: Contrast, rhetorical question 

#2: “You know the greatest lesson of history? It’s that history is whatever the victors say it is. That’s the lesson. Whoever wins, that’s who decides the history.”

  • Part 1
  • Character: Jutta
  • Techniques: Rhetorical question, dialogue

#3: ‘It’s not a person you wish to fight, Madame, it’s a system. How do you fight a system?’ ‘You try.’”

  • Part 5
  • Character: Etienne
  • Techniques: Contrast, rhetorical question

#4: “Silence is the fruit of the occupation; it hangs in branches, seeps from gutters.”

  • Part 7
  • Character: Narrator
  • Techniques: Personification, onomatopoeia

Analysis:

This quote refers to the atmosphere of a town under occupation during World War II. The silence is a result of the oppressive presence of the occupying forces, and it pervades every aspect of daily life.

The image of silence hanging in branches and seeping from gutters is a metaphorical description of how the silence has become tangible and inescapable. The use of the word “fruit” is significant because it implies that the silence is a direct result of the occupation, and it is something that the people are forced to endure as a consequence.

The quote highlights the impact of war and occupation on ordinary people, and how it can rob them of their voice and freedom.

#5: “Her Majesty, the Austrians call their cannon, and for the past week these men have tended to it the way worker bees might tend to a queen. They’ve fed her oils, repainted her barrel, lubricated her wheels; they’ve arranged sandbags at her feet like offerings.”

  • Part Zero
  • Character: Werner 
  • Techniques: Imagery (queen, workers, nationalism), metaphor

#6: “War, Etienne thinks distantly, is a bazaar where lives are traded like any other commodity: chocolate or bullets or parachute silk.”

  • Part 9
  • Character: Werner
  • Techniques: Listing, metaphor

#7: “Every hour, she thinks, someone for whom the war was memory falls out of the world.”

  • Part 13
  • Character: Narrator
  • Techniques: Hyperbole, contrast

Analysis:

This quote refers to the passage of time and the inevitability of death. The war that is being referred to is World War II, and as time passes, those who experienced it as a firsthand memory are growing older and passing away.

The phrase “falls out of the world” suggests that these people are leaving the world and that their memories of the war will soon be lost with them. The quote also conveys a sense of sadness and loss, as it highlights the fact that a generation of people who experienced such a significant historical event will eventually be gone, and with them, their memories and stories.

#8: “She crouches over her knees. She is the Whelk. Armored. Impervious.”

  • Part 9
  • Character: Narrator
  • Techniques: Short sentence structure, narrative voice

#9: “The violins spiral down, then back up. Etienne takes Marie-Laure’s hand and together, beneath the low, sloping roof—the record spinning, the transmitter sending it over the ramparts, right through the bodies of the Germans and out to sea—they dance.”

  • Part 7
  • Character: Narrator
  • Techniques: Contrast, imagery, compound sentences

#10: “I thought that if I made the broadcast powerful enough, my brother would hear me. That I could bring him some peace, protect him as he had always protected me.”

  • Part 3
  • Character: Etienne
  • Techniques: Extended metaphor/ motif of the radio, cyclical language

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