Frogger style

Jumpy. That’s the best word to describe the style with which Doerr crafted his novel. The short chapters not only keep readers on their feet, but allow for the frequent point of view and time period changes that take place throughout the story. Through Doerr’s careful selection of characters on both sides of the main conflict in the book, we see the different ways the war influences the lives of the various characters. The jumps in time allow for Doerr to give us a detailed description of our characters pasts’, while maintaining the plot line taking place in the present (1944). This gives us the context to understand what is happening in 1944, like Werner’s reference to the radios or von Rumpel’s presence in Saint-Malo. The frequent changes in focus are also key in the development of the character foil between Marie-Laure and Werner, as we get real-time descriptions of their circumstances and feelings.

Another key aspect of Doerr’s writing style is how he keeps things realistic. The majority of this book is based off of very real things, from the German mine-town of Zollverein to the Schulpforte Werner attends. Having a little bit of historical knowledge of the time period this book takes place in, as well as having visited some of the places mentioned in the book only add to this. Sergeant Major van Rumpel mentions Hitler’s plan to turn Linz, Austria into an “empyrean city, the cultural capital of the world”. Having lived a mere 20 minute train ride away from the city, I can assure you that this would not have been an easy task. Linz is the industrial capital of the industrial Bundesstaat of Upper Austria, and is--relative to the stunning beauty of other Austrian cities such as Wien, Innsbruck or Graz--an eyesore. But despite this, Hitler did want to build his Führermuseum in Linz, likely because of its proximity to Braunau am Inn, his birthplace. Hitler’s great city was, however, to be Berlin, as he planned drastically renovate the city and title it the Welthauptstadt, or world capital city.

In one area, however, Doerr does stray from the facts. The Sea of Flames, one of the most evident and commonly recurring motifs in the book, is a precious stone with a fantastic element to it. The stone is rumored to protect its owner, while causing nothing but misfortune to those around him. While the Museum from which the stone originates in the book is very real, and does boast an admirable collection of precious stones, the Sea of Flames itself is entirely fictional. Although the properties of the stone and its pursuit by van Rumpel do add another plot line to follow, I find it an unnecessary addition, and one the takes away some of the story’s believably. Another important Motif in the story is the radio. While radios were a very widely-used form of communication in World War Two, its meaning goes beyond that of simply historical accuracy. Radios play big roles in the lives of both of our characters. Werner’s love and understanding of them is what ultimately saves him from his fate in the mines, and Marie’s great-uncle is obsessed with them. The radio actually acts as the sole link between our two protagonists, as Werner often listened to broadcasts about science sent out from the radio transmitter in Etienne’s attic. A third important motif is numbers. Werner is constantly using number in his work with his science teacher ironically named Hauptmann, or "main man". His instructor even tells him “It’s only numbers . . .  pure math. You have to accustom yourself to thinking that way”. Similarly, Marie-Laure constantly uses number as she navigates without sight, counting her paces taken or number of landmarks passed. Aside from these few motifs, Doerr creates his meaning mainly through plot development, which makes it even more important to understand the historical context of the book, as well as the allusions to history that appear so frequently.