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Henri LeBlanc
Vision
The most obvious symbol in All the Light We Cannot See (so obvious it shows up in the title) is vision. From early on, Doerr encourages us to consider the different symbolic ramifications of sight…
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Radio
For the majority of All the Light We Cannot See, the only connection between the two major storylines (that of Marie-Laure and that of Werner) is the radio that Werner owns as a child…
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The Sea of Flames
The beautiful, priceless diamond known at the Sea of Flames could be termed the “MacGuffin” of All the Light We Cannot See: it’s an object that drives the plot forward for the simple reason…
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The Models of Paris and Saint-Malo
Because Marie-Laure is blind, her father, Daniel LeBlanc, builds elaborate models of the cities where she lives—first Paris, then Saint-Malo—to give her a way of training herself to navigate through the city without…
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Whelks, Mollusks, and Shells
Throughout the novel, Marie-Laure is associated with mollusks—she studies them and collects them as a child, and when she grows up, she becomes a noted scientist of mollusks. During her time in the French Resistance…
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Get the entire All the Light LitChart as a printable PDF.
