Jumps in time

[benjaminconnor]

What do you think of Doerr’s decision to have the story line jump back and forth in time throughout this book? Why do you think he decided to do this? Do you think this improved the quality of the novel overall? Did its use confuse you or improve your understanding of the story and characters?

[briannaanderson]

Jumping back and forth between different times definitely added suspense to the novel, like when Marie-Laure was hiding. It also shows us how the characters changed and grew, and then we have to keep reading to find out how those changes happened.
This writing choice, in my opinion, improved the quality of the novel. It helped me understand what was coming later on in the story better. For this particular book jumping back and forth is a better choice than having it be chronological.

[janepearson]

I think Doerr's way of writing and jumping back and forth between times, created a pondering suspicion for the reader. Doerr uses this back and forth method to leave the reader wanting more. It advances the reader to become more eager, while waiting for that time to return while reading. This technique allows the reader to find the end or possibly the next step during that specific period of time. For this particular novel it is important to leave as many hints and snippets of what is coming next for the reader, and this alternating between times provides the perfect bridge.

[ellahardiee]

I believe Doerr jumped back and forth between different characters' perspectives and different times in the war for two reasons, the first simply being to keep the reader on their toes and maintain a varying pace throughout the novel. My second theory is that the author wanted to reveal different actions, motives, conditions, and symbols on his own agenda. Particularly in "All the Light We Cannot See", this stylistic writing gives the author control of the reader's experience even more so, as Doerr weaves the intricate web of the story in a unique way, presenting contrasting experiences of the characters that lead up to the passing of Marie-Laure and Werners' paths. I think this improved the quality of the novel, as the reader must be reading it carefully and paying attention if they want to fully grasp the beauty and complexity of the tale. I found it difficult to skim through, so my meticulous reading of it helped me appreciate the story more, which I'm sure was one of Doerr's goals.

[hannahdorros]

When reading "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr, the way he jumps back and forth creates more suspicion rather than if he only had one story. Every time Doerr switches to the other character the story is usually left on a cliff hanger. This way of writing causes the reader to be more eager to continue reading. It as well gives the reader two very different perspectives of the war. Both of kids but both on different sides of it.
Overall I enjoyed having the different perspectives of two people eventually come together. Although at the beginning it had me a little confused I quickly began to understand and become more involved in the reading.

[faithadler]

I think Doerr's decision to have the timline jump back and forth throughout the timeline of the story added suspense to the novel. I also believe that it added another layer to our comprehension of the characters. By not writing the story in a consecutive timeline, it left the readers wondering what could have happened to lead up to the situation at hand, making them want to keep reading, to figure out what could have happened to change the storyline so intensely. I think that at times it started to become confusing, but as the reader progresses through the novel it becomes much easier to keep track of.

[jackh]

Using flashbacks throughout the story made it seem like a literary device of its own. I noticed that, in the beginning especially, he would edge forward in the modern timeline, but only so that it was a few steps ahead of the older timeline. After reading a chapter of the modern one, the older one would often explain or clarify the events happening. The modern one took place right before the climax of the story, enticing the readers from early on using the highest action as rewards every few chapters for reading the backstory. In many books, it can seem almost like a chore to get through the first third of the book which has little to do with the book's conflict and resolution. In this book, it was much more tolerable. Towards the end of the book, the two parts of the story converged right on the climax, and those last few chapters felt like torture right before the climax and resolution, knowing it was so close, but that we still had to finish the explanatory part of the book before we could have it. Overall, it is something that made the book much more enjoyable and suspenseful for me, and I would use this in something I wrote. Instead of the typical flat beginning and steep mountain gradient, the "mountain" part of the plot started at the beginning, and simply ascended slowly. However, the falling action seemed quick and dirty to me. The abrupt death of Werner, and lack of motivation for the characters to pursue the secrets entrapped by the war and each other made it feel as though the story, in the book world, disappeared into thin air. To think, that something like this could have been pieced together and put into writing, and been 1000 times better than any Anne Frank-style diary, is saddening when realizing that things like what happened in the book were relatively realistic and could have actually happened.