All the Light We Cannot See question

Because, quite simply, life is not always a happy ending.

I was profoundly shocked by Werner's death, it felt like it was a really cruel and unfair way for him to go. His death serves absolutely no purpose and achieves nothing. It felt like his life peaked when he saved Marie-Laure and from then on, he was just a marked man on his way out. I guess that's the point - to show that death, especially during wartime, can be a really random event and not a particularly heroic one.

Pay attention to the title. "All the Light We Cannot See." What does it mean? Perhaps it talks of tings that are in front of us? Perhaps because we are all blind to what is really going on. Perhaps it speaks to our hunger to understand. Perhaps it is about sharing and understanding the sadness of what was going on.
Denise Kusel
Santa Fe, NM

I liked Werner since the beginning. It was a shocker that author chose 'him' for an unexpected death (that they do in books) or tragedy, to make us all cry. Marie and Werner would've been so perfect for each other. Why Doerr why -- did you have to do this to us poor readers? :'(

I was angry at first too. And in some parts of me now, I still am. But like everything in this book, it was realistic.

But god, I'd still cry over it no matter how many times I'd read it.

Werner's death did seem rather simplistic and unreal to me. After surviving so much, I also expected him and Marie-Laure to end up together, Nuzhat. Like Tanya, I thought the author's point was to show death can be random, and just because you survive the war, doesn't mean you survive. Later, I reflected that Werner was already starting to resent some of his actions, so maybe it a way for him to escape the guilt he might have felt as he aged. Shame, that could have been a really interesting perspective to explore.

The body can only take so much. Werner was but a boy and he was put through the lose of both parents, years of hunger, the devastation of the soul by the Nazis, a transformation of his soul by seeing the killings and by doing the killings......His body and his soul could not take any more; he was drained and he had to die.

I was shocked myself when Werner died. At first I thought, maybe it didn't actually happen, it's just the perspective that makes it seem like he died. But, alas, my hopes on that were dashed. It was just very unexpected - well, I found.
Looking back now, I guess Doerr was playing on how harsh and unfair life is, and how unexpected death can be. And, to honest, if it had to be one the two main characters (Werner or Marie-Laure) to die, I'm happy it was not Marie-Laure. She was my absolute favourite.

It didn't impact me as much. I could somewhat see it coming. I found it to be a logical step. In my opinion, the point that was trying to be made is how "innocents" and "good" guys are the ones that die in wars. How, despite being able to survive all kinds of casualties, you are never safe when you are one of the "bad" guys.

Werner had to die from a plotting point of view, as the only way he could atone for his crimes, chiefly failing his friend and the deaths of the mother and child as innocents. For him to be a 'moral example' that outcome was inevitable, even though his help for Marie-laure has in many ways been plotted as his redemption. The irony of him being killed by a landmine planted by his own side is just a reminder that those nasty devices arent fussy about who they blow up. Let's face it, there are plenty of them scattered around the world today.

The story is that there are no happy ever afters, war is unfair, indiscriminate and dmaging. In Werner's case extremely damaging it is made clear in the text that from the deaths of the mother and daughter his mental state is seriously deteriorating.

Marie-Laure was the innocent, she was the only person who remained innocent, like Werners sister, so those two characters could be plotte to survive.

I loved this novel, it was very real and in life bad things happens to good people and bad people get away with all the manner of heinous behaviour
It is a testament to Doerr's skills building a character that Light's readers felt so attached to Werner.
Every time I see or think of that scene in Lonesome Dove when Gus (Duvall) rides off to Montana (we know what fate belies him), gallantly tipping his hat I get teary.
That is a skilled writer- and actor.
This was one production of a novel for which I marvel at the perfect casting.

I was trully shocked he died, I felt he didn't diserve it; but when you continue reading you see that his death was necesary to show how everything comes to a full circle in life. I don't feel it was meaningles, it has a way to really show us the good, and the bad of life, how not everything is fair, but it is worth fighting and leaving for.