All The Light We Cannot See: Loss of Childhood Innocence by Traumatizing Events

Childhood innocence is precious and important for children everywhere, which is why it should never be snatched away. Everyone is born innocent, part of the journey of life is developing and gaining experience. Unfortunately, some children gain traumatic life experience quickly and lose their innocence in ways no one should. The novel, All The Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr follows the lives of three innocent children; Werner Pfennig, Jutta Pfennig and Marie-Laure LeBlanc and their individual journeys through World War Two. Throughout the novel, each child encounters traumatic events that give them brutal life experience. Doerr explores the loss of childhood innocence and the impact of traumatic life experience through three children, who experience brainwashing, harsh manual labour, and fighting for freedom. 

One of the cruellest ways children lose their innocence is when corrupt governments brainwash them into becoming child soldiers. Werner Pfennig loses his childhood innocence and acquires traumatic life experience when he is brainwashed to become a child soldier at a Nazi training school. Orphaned, Werner grows up with his little sister, Jutta, near a large mining complex in Germany. Werner is an innocent young child constantly bothering the orphanage directress “with some unanswerable query” proving his innocent curiousness to learn more about the world (Doerr 25). When Werner is fourteen he is accepted into the: “National Political Institute of Education #6 at Schulpforta,” a school that is meant to teach teenagers to become brutal Nazis. At the school, Werner, and other students are traumatized when the commandant of the school infuses the students with Nazi propaganda. During mealtimes, the commandant shouts phrases like: “Homesick? We mustn’t trouble ourselves over our homes. In the end we all come home to the führer. What other home matters?”. The commandant also forces all the students to: “soak a captured prisoner with a bucket of water” to assert dominance over the Nazi’s weak enemies. During his attendance at Schulpforta, Werner and hundreds of other boys are brainwashed into becoming child soldiers and commit terrible atrocities. Unfortunately, this is a problem in real life as well when government and non-government conflict forces recruit thousands of child soldiers, brainwash them and take away their innocence making them killing machines. Hence, Werner loses his childhood innocence attending the Nazi school and is impacted with a traumatic experience. 

No child should suffer through manual labour, children must be free to explore the world freely, not work in factories or on the streets. Jutta Pfennig loses her innocence when she must leave her home to work in a factory has a traumatic experience cleaning rubble off of the streets. When Jutta is only fifteen she is “transported from Essen to Berlin to work in a machine parts factory,” where she and other women and children disassemble old machines. After the factory closes, Jutta and the other orphans from the Children’s House are employed by a civilian firm to: “clean the streets after bombings”. Jutta suffers through harsh, disturbing manual labour, work no child should do. Like Werner, Jutta loses her childhood innocence, and gains harsh life experience. Therefore, because Jutta suffers through harsh manual labour no child should, losing her childhood innocence an experiencing traumatizing work conditions. No one should have to fight for freedom in any way, unfortunately, some people have to give up an innocent lifestyle and take up a fight for their freedom. 

Marie-Laure loses her innocence when she joins the French resistance against German occupation and gains rough life experience by fighting for her freedom. Marie-Laure and her uncle Etienne help the resistance and allied troops by sending them encoded information. Marie-Laure’s job is to walk to the bakery, order “one ordinary loaf,” then walk home to Etienne. “Sometimes the loaf has a white scroll inside,” Etienne takes the scroll and reads out the encoded message over his radio transmitter in the attic. Although Marie-Laure never fires a weapon, she risks her and Etienne’s lives whenever she walks to the bakery to receive encoded messages. Most people do not have to fight for their freedom yet Marie-Laure volunteers, even though she is only fifteen, and loses her childhood innocence while working to free her country. 

In conclusion, because Marie-Laure fights in the resistance to free her country, she loses her innocence and receives traumatic life experiences unknown to many. Throughout the novel, Doerr follows the lives of three children and their transformation from childhood innocence to a life impacted by traumatizing experiences through brainwashing, manual labour and fighting for freedom. Werner’s childhood innocence is taken when he is brainwashed into becoming a child soldier, Jutta is forced to clean up after bombings and Marie-Laure joins the resistance to fight for her freedom. These three children experience life in a way that no child should and gain scaring life experience that no one of any age should have. Childhood and adolescence for most is a fun and easy part of life. However, for these children, it is full of horrible events. At the end of the novel, Doerr reveals just how much these traumatic events changed their lives decades later. No child should be brainwashed into becoming a child soldier, nor forced into dangerous manual labour, or have to fight in the resistance for their freedom. Unfortunately, many children lose their innocence in tragedies, it is up to people around the world to stand up and protect the innocence of children everywhere. 

Works Cited

1. Doerr, Anthony. All the Light We Cannot See: A Novel. Scribner export ed., Scribner, 2014.