All The Light We Cannot See by Anthony Doerr: The Problem of Nationalism

The novel All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr relates to many worldly problems we have that are relevant to today’s day and age. An example of one of these situations would be nationalism. While frederick is being oppressed by the other cadets, Werner escapes into a laboratory where he was able to find Volkimeirs location. This project was being observed by members of their government. "Werner is succeeding. He is being loyal. He is being what everybody agrees is good. And yet every time he wakes and buttons his tunic, he feels he is betraying “ Nationalism is the idea that you should carry out the interests of the people in your cultural group such as your race, religion, country etc. Another way to put it would be, you think that your better than everyone and that your cultural group is number one. This is shown because the reason for all of these hitler youth camps and designed school was to mold the brains of these children to believe that they were number one.

Once Hitler died and hitler youth died with it, Germany became just another country and it no longer conveys issues in today’s day and age. Although there have been events in history and even today that are similar to the novel such as communism. A lot of communist countries such as North Korea have nationalistic intentions. There are many events that North Korea has done that are similar to Nazi Germany. For example, in Germany, if you were a Jew, Gypsi, or homosexual, you were killed and in North Korea, if you prostest you are killed. In some ways North Korea is worse. Germany cared for it’s people while North Korea doesn’t have enough food to feed its people. Both these countries are run by individuals with a lot of power over its citizens and they both have the same ideology witch is to support your country.

Additionally, a lot of the citizens in both Germany And North Korea have to go through military training. ”For their final test, each of the fourteen-year-olds is forced to climb a ladder haphazardly nailed to a wall. “ In North Korea, by law you must go through this immense training and German boys had to do it a lot earlier. This shows how seriously nationalism was taken by both these parties. They are told to support their country in any circumstances and they are put through military training. They are afraid that if they do not commit, they will be hurt and in North Korea, everyone in your family will be hurt. Therefore, the novel relates to the relevant idea of nationalism in today's world.