Ian answers “[Spoiler Alert] Why do you think the...”

Genetta asked this question about All the Light We Cannot See:

[Spoiler Alert] Why do you think the author decided to add the rape scene? Does it add anything to the characters' arcs? Does it propel the plot forward? Does anything result from that scene? Frau Elena, Jutta, and the other three girls were already obviously miserable. The reader has already experienced the cruelty of war. Why was the rape scene necessary?

Ian It's interesting to see this question pop up. I had just become curious, as the tide began to turn for Germany in the novel, about whether the America…moreIt's interesting to see this question pop up. I had just become curious, as the tide began to turn for Germany in the novel, about whether the American soldiers had truly been the dashing, selfless liberators we have heard praised. In that spirit, I had begun to investigate whether rape was widespread during the occupation of Germany, so when I read this chapter, it felt very fitting within the arc of the history of WWII. The characters and the interweaving of their stories is the centerpiece of this novel, but it is also a history of what life was for those living through the war, on both sides. We learned about what life was like for a few civilians and for a few army officers as the war began, during the course of the war, and as the war ended. In order to complete that arc, we needed to see/hear/feel what it was like for Jutta, Werner, Volkheimer, and Marie-Laure in the aftermath. This omission would have left a hole in the fabric of the larger story being told. Doerr actually seems to have approached the subject with a delicate touch, considering that gang-rape and rape-murder were also rampant as the Soviets occupied East Germany. I think he walked a fine line in choosing not to gloss over an essential fact of the end of the war, but also to avoid taking its treatment to the extreme. (less)

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All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr (Goodreads Author)

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