Published Paper Details:

The paper aims to explore the concept of dread and desperation depicted by the character Werner Pfennig, a German boy in the novel All the Light We Cannot See written by Anthony Doerr. The novel depicts a tale of hope, resilience, and the human spirit during World War II. The plot follows two young protagonists, Marie-Laure, a blind French girl, and Werner, a German boy, whose paths intersect amid war. The novel explores existentialist themes through the characters' experiences and struggles. Werner, a 15-year-old German boy, grows up in a mining town, where he becomes fascinated with radio technology. He eventually gets recruited into the German army, where he is tasked with tracking down enemy radio signals. He is assigned to a task force charged with locating and destroying anti-German radio broadcasts. Werner is reluctant to join the army, but he has little choice in the matter. He is forced to participate in the war effort and his skills in radio technology make him an asset to the German army. The paper attempts to explore the concept of dread and desperation and highlights feelings of disconnection, confusion, and search for meaning by Werner in the novel.