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3. Madame Manec
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
Interconnectedness and Separation
Fate, Duty, and Free Will
Family
Science and “Ways of Seeing”
Summary
Analysis
Werner returns from his rigorous exams, and the children at the orphanage are eager to hear his stories of training. Only a few days later, Werner learns that he has been chosen to study at the National Political Institute. To his amazement, he’s going to leave the orphanage and escape a life in the mines.
Werner has seemingly worked his way out of the orphanage and out of the mines—and yet it also seems that he ultimately wasn’t selected for his intelligence, but rather for his blonde hair and blue eyes. This is a different kind of “fate” or “chance” holding sway over one’s personal free will.
Themes
In the months before he starts classes at the Institute, Werner tries to talk to Frau Elena. Elena is sad that Werner is going to the National Institute. She tells Werner that people will “celebrate” Werner’s achievement—especially people like the government official who took Werner’s book from him. Jutta doesn’t congratulate her brother, and in fact she begins ignoring him. Nevertheless, the other children admire Werner for his achievement, and Werner promises that he’ll “Show them.”
We can see the distance growing between Werner and Jutta. Before, they’re enjoyed listening to the radio together, but now, Jutta can barely talk to her brother. We don’t know exactly why Jutta is apprehensive, but it seems to be because she has disapproved of the Nazis from the start—she wants Werner to escape the orphanage, but not to become a scientist assisting an immoral cause.
Themes
