“All the Light We Cannot See” and the Power of Hope

“How are we going to get there? No one’s going to give us a ride because kindness is dead and all the people in the world have become evil at the same time.” – Marie
“Not all people.” - Daniel

“All the Light We Cannot See,” the film aadaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same title by Anthony Doerr, is a story of how the paths of a sightless French teenager Marie-Laure LeBlanc (Aria Mia Loberti) and a German soldier Werner Pfennig (Louis Hoffman) cross in the midst of the darkness and turmoil of World War II.

Marie’s father, Daniel (Mark Ruffalo), is the picture of a father’s love, as he rears his daughter on his own in order to become self-sufficient, literally exhausting every avenue to ensure she would have a full life regardless of blindness.

A retired carpenter, he painstakingly built models of the city to scale, using the number of steps separating every house, store, landmark, and street… ensuring Marie could make her way around it without needing help.

With this upbringing, Marie grows up to be a beautiful, confident, courageous, young woman.

Just in time for World War II. Just in time for the day the Germans have chosen to invade Paris, which fell on her birthday.

Werner, on the other hand, grows up in an orphanage. He develops a gift for building and fixing radios, before he is drafted into the army upon discovery of his skills.
Before leaving the orphanage, his younger sister Jutta, tearfully sends him off with these words.
“I know you’ll do something great.
You will stay the same, Werner Pfennig.
You must not change.
Do not let them impress you.
Do not let them convince you.
Keep the inside of your soul the same, okay?”

Unbeknownst to each other, they listen to the same radio show by a personality only known as “The Professor,” to help them make sense of the on-going strife.

According to Werner, “For one hour a day I want to listen to kindness and reason.” He needed to listen to “someone from our generation who thought if you open up the frequency and talk reason and sense and literature into people…. Then maybe the insanity of this old man’s war will come to an end.”

The Professor’s words through the airwaves gives them enough hope to be determined to survive. “I know that times are dark right now, children, but trust always that light does prevail.”
In the same spirit, Marie later declares, “Darkness lasts not even for one second when you turn on the light.”

We may not be in a time of war, but the world is still in need of hope, because all of us go through different kinds of darkness at some point.

This holiday season is a celebration of when Jesus, the Light of the world, was born into a world that needed hope. Reflect on the hope He brings you personally as you go through your holiday traditions and savor this time of year with your loved ones or on your own. Similar to Daniel’s love for his daughter Marie, reflect on the magnitude of God’s love as a Father willing to give what was most precious to Him so that we can experience a full life.

Merry Christmas!