All the Light We Cannot See
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
0. Leaflets 0. Bombers 0. The Girl 0. The Boy 0. Saint-Malo 0. Number 4 rue Vauborel 0. Cellar 0. Bombs Away 1. Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle 1. Zollverein 1. Key Pound 1. Radio 1. Take Us Home 1. Something Rising 1. Light 1. Our Flag Flutters Before Us 1. Around the World in Eighty Days 1. The Professor 1. Sea of Flames 1. Open Your Eyes 1. Fade 1. The Principles of Mechanics 1. Rumors 1. Bigger Faster Brighter 1. Mark of the Beast 1. Letter #1: Jutta 1. Good Evening. Or Heil Hitler if You Prefer 1. Bye-bye, Blind Girl 1. Making Socks 1. Flight 1. Herr Siedler 1. Exodus 2. Saint-Malo 2. Number 4 rue Vauborel 2. Hotel of Bees 2. Down Six Flights 2. Trapped 3. Château 3. Entrance Exam 3. Brittany 3. Madame Manec 3. You Have Been Called 3. Occupier 3. Don’t Tell Lies 3. Etienne 3. Jungmänner 3. Vienna 3. The Boches 3. Hauptmann 3. Flying Couch 3. The Sum of Angles 3. The Professor 3. Letters #2-4: Werner to Jutta 3. Perfumer 3. Time of the Ostriches 3. Weakest 3. Mandatory Surrender 3. Museum 3. The Wardrobe 3. Blackbirds 3. Letter #5: to Daniel LeBlanc 3. Bath 3. Weakest (#2) 3. The Arrest of the Locksmith 4. The Fort of La Cité 4. Atelier de Réparation 4. Two Cans 4. Number 4 rue Vauborel 4. What They Have 4. Trip Wire 5. January Recess 5. He Is Not Coming Back 5. Prisoner 5. Plage du Môle 5. Lapidary 5. To Marie-Laure, from Daniel 5. Entropy 5. The Rounds 5. Nadel im Heuhaufen 5. Proposal 5. You Have Other Friends 5. Old Ladies’ Resistance Club 5. Diagnosis 5. Weakest (#3) 5. Daniel LeBlanc to His Daughter 5. Grotto 5. Intoxicated 5. The Blade and the Whelk 5. Letter #8: Jutta to Werner 5. Alive Before You Die 5. No Out 5. The Disappearance of Harold Bazin 5. Everything Poisoned 5. Visitors 5. Letter #9: Werner to Jutta 5. The Frog Cooks 5. Orders 5. Pneumonia 5. Letter #10: Daniel LeBlanc to His Daughter 5. Treatments 5. Heaven 5. Frederick 5. Relapse 6. Someone in the House 6. The Death of Walter Bernd 6. Sixth-floor Bedroom 6. Sixth-floor Bedroom 6. In the Attic 7. Prisoners 7. The Wardrobe 7. East 7. One Ordinary Loaf 7. Volkheimer 7. Fall 7. Sunflowers 7. Stones 7. Grotto 7. Hunting 7. The Messages 7. Loudenvielle 7. Gray 7. Fever 7. The Third Stone 7. The Bridge 7. Rue des Patriarches 7. White City 7. Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea 7. Telegram 8. Fort National 8. In the Attic 8. The Heads 8. Delirium 8. Water 8. The Beams 8. The Transmitter 8. Voice 9. Edge of the World 9. Numbers 9. May 9. Hunting (Again) 9. Letter #11: From Werner to Jutta 9. “Claire de Lune” 9. Antenna 9. Big Claude 9. Boulangerie 9. Grotto 9. Agoraphobia 9. Nothing 9. Forty Minutes 9. The Girl 9. Little House 9. Sea of Flames 9. The Arrest of Etienne LeBlanc 9. 7 August 1944 9. Leaflets 10. Entombed 10. Fort National 10. Captain Nemo’s Last Words 10. Visitor 10. Final Sentence 10. Music #1 10. Music #2 10. Music #3 10. Out 10. Wardrobe 10. Comrades 10. The Simultaneity of Instants 10. Are You There? 10. Second Can 10. Birds of America 10. Cease-fire 10. Chocolate 10. Light 11. Berlin 11. Paris 12. Volkheimer 12. Jutta 12. Duffel 12. Saint-Malo 12. Laboratory 12. Visitor 12. Paper Airplane 12. The Key 12. Sea of Flames 12. Frederick 13 9. Numbers (2)
Themes
All Themes World War II, the Nazis, and the French Resistance Interconnectedness and Separation Fate, Duty, and Free Will Family Science and “Ways of Seeing”
Quotes
Characters
All Characters Marie-Laure LeBlanc Werner Pfennig Daniel LeBlanc Frank Volkheimer Jutta Pfennig Frau Elena Great-Uncle Etienne LeBlanc Madame Manec Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel Dr. Hauptmann Frederick Henri LeBlanc
Symbols
All Symbols Vision Radio The Sea of Flames The Models of Paris and Saint-Malo Whelks, Mollusks, and Shells
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All the Light We Cannot See

by

Anthony Doerr

All the Light We Cannot See: 9. Big Claude Summary & Analysis

World War II, the Nazis, and the French Resistance Theme Icon
Interconnectedness and Separation Theme Icon
Fate, Duty, and Free Will Theme Icon
Family Theme Icon
Science and “Ways of Seeing” Theme Icon
Themes Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in All the Light We Cannot See, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
World War II, the Nazis, and the French Resistance Theme Icon
World War II, the Nazis, and the French Resistance
Interconnectedness and Separation Theme Icon
Interconnectedness and Separation
Fate, Duty, and Free Will Theme Icon
Fate, Duty, and Free Will
Family Theme Icon
Family
Science and “Ways of Seeing” Theme Icon
Science and “Ways of Seeing”
Summary
Analysis
Claude Levitte the perfumer has been doing well as an informer—he talks to the Germans, and is rewarded with food and money. When von Rumpel arrives in Saint-Malo, looking for Daniel LeBlanc, he talks to Claude. Claude points von Rumpel to Etienne’s house.
Predictably, Claude Levitte is the one to tip off the Germans about Etienne’s house. The end of Doerr’s novel is filled with satisfying confirmations of this kind, as more plotlines have their loose ends neatly tied up.
Themes
World War II, the Nazis, and the French Resistance Theme Icon
Fate, Duty, and Free Will Theme Icon
Science and “Ways of Seeing” Theme Icon
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