Irrationality and Emotional Instability

they aimed to is burnt and Monsieur Giannott as the owner of the place is reported to flee to London. Marie Laure, under this chaotic world, tries to convince herself that what has happened to her is merely a test made by her father for her. She tries to calm herself and keep thinking that everything is not real. She is depicted as unable to accept the reality she is in. This narration shows her irrationality through her denial over the reality. She keeps telling herself that the truck which carries them is not moving away from their home in Paris while factually it goes away from Paris. Meanwhile, in the other parts of the story which is specifically made to tell the journey of Werner Pfennig, the women are also narrated as irrational and emotionally unstable beings. This letter from Jutta Wer ner’s sister below is one of the examples that indirectly lowers the female figures through the portrayal of their irrationality. Theres a new radio transmitter in Brandenburg called the Deutschlandsender 3 my brother says it is three hundred thirty-something meters tall the second- tallest man-made construction in the world. It pushes basically everything else off the dial. Old Frau Stresemann, shes one of our neighbors, she says she can hear Deutschlandsender broadcasts in her tooth fillings. My brother said its possible if you have an antenna and a rectifier and something to serve as a speaker. He said you can use a section of wire fence to pick up radio signals, so maybe the silver in tooth can too. I like to think about that. Dont you Professor?Songs in your teeth? Doerr, 2014: 67 It is told in the passage that Jutta is retelling how Old Frau Stresemann can hear the radio broadcast in her tooth fillings. It seems funny at the first glance. However, beyond of this funny story, it entails a deeper meaning that probably Frau Stresemann is actually an irrational old lady who speaks absurd things. It can also be interpreted as probably this was her attempt to make Jutta as a kid laughs and happy. Yet, aside from those views, it is a very contrast phenomenon that the narration of Werner for knowing exceedingly far from Jutta and intellectually superior to Old Frau Stresemann. This narration shows how odd it is. The gap among them is so obvious. Then, does it mean both of the female figures are inferior to Werner? In the end of the passage, it is even told that to get a broadcast one should have an antenna, a rectifier and something as a speaker. However, Juta is narrated to disregard those components by simply relying on the silver to get a broadcast. She is narrated as mimicking Old Frau Stresemann ’s thought to hear songs through her teeth. This exaggerative imagination may raise many questions. As a child, she is free to imagine things. Yet, does it mean she can be irrational as well even though she knew already the truth? How come somebody hear a song through his or her teeth while one needs ears to hear things? For what purpose is it? It is funny actually if it is possible. Nonetheless, she is certainly depicted as a denial kid. That imagination would only happen if there is something which produces sounds in the teeth or mouth which loud enough so that it can be heard through one’s ears. This means there should be a speaker in the mouth. Therefore, from this narration, Jutta is depicted as a childish girl because of her unrealistic and optimistic imagination. She is indirectly narrated as less smart or dumber compared to his brother. Another example of the narrations of irrationality and emotional instability comes from Marie Laure’s again. As a girl, she is continually depicted as rationally and emotionally problematic in the novel. This short passage below may answer how irrational and emotionally unstable she is. Calm yourself, she thinks. Concentrate on filling your lungs, draining them. Filling them again. She stays under her bed. She says, “Ce n’est pas la réalité.” Doerr, 2014: 97 This narration tells Marie Laure’s emotional problem. She has to tell herself to think and concentrate by taking a deep breath to fill her lungs with air to cope with her emotional instability. The frequently appears phrase of “calm yourself” in the novel also shows how severe her emotional instability is. Moreover, “Ce n’est pas la réalité” in English means “This is not a reality”. Under this passage, Marie Laure is narrated as trying to deny the reality again. It seems she is dreaming somewhere and rejecting anything happened to her in the passage. She is depicted as escaping from the reality she is in. She is depicted as not wanting to fight and face what lies ahead. This self pampering by rejecting the reality is probably also intended by her to keep her calm. Marie Laure’s escapism is depicted as her morphine to keep her struggling. This quotation below tells Marie Laure as a dumb girl. It also shows how females are being narrated as intellectually inferior as well. Thus, they cannot stay rational and control their emotion. First she climbs to the third floor to drink from the bathtub. With her lips against its surface, she takes long inward pulls. Pooling, burbling in her gut. A trick she and Etienne have learned over a hundred insufficient meals: before you eat, drink as much water as you can, and you will feel full more quickly. “At least, Papa,” she says out loud, “I was smart about the water.” Doerr, 2014: 212-13 This narration subordinates Marie Laure’s intellectual capacity. The word “at least” may entail a meaning that probably she is aware that she is dumb or her father never says a word to compliment her about her intellectual sides. The success of Marie Laure’s attempt to slip from danger and get the water to cure her thirst is ruined by the phrases. To close the analysis of irrationality and instability of emotion, this passage which tells Marie Laure interacting with the ghost of her grandfather as a boy and the dearest people for her who are not factually there is an interesting finding. No gunshot. Nothing. Out the now glassless window, the sound of rain falling on the burning houses is the sound of pebbles being stirred by waves. Marie- Laure steps onto the floor of her grandfather‟s old bedroom and summons him: a curious boy with lustrous hair who smells of the sea. He‟s playful, quick-witted, charged with energy; he takes one of her hands, while Etienne finds the other; the house becomes as it was fifty years ago: the boys‟ well-dressed parents laugh downstairs; a cook shucks oysters in the kitchen; Madame Manec, a young maid, fresh from the countryside, sings on a stepladder as she dusts the chandelier . . . Papa, you had the keys to everything. The boys lead her into the hall. She passes the bathroom. Doerr, 2014: 385 Marie Laure is narrated entering the house fifty years ago when all of the people she met in the house were all young. She is helped by her grandfather in his boyish state and all the people she knew in the house also in their younger states. This narration is imaginative. She fantasizes or probably is delusional because of her inability to deal with the reality she faces in. The result from this narration is the depiction of her irrational mind. She is so desperate that she wishes to be helped by ghosts. The explanation above proves how Marie Laure is irrational and emotionally unstable.

4. Submission

Females in Doerr’s All the Light We Cannot See are found as submissive individuals. Hornby 1995: 1191 explains submission as “the acceptance of defeat”. This means by submitting one will acknowledge the superiority of others due to their power. In the perspective of sexual paradigm, this means females are less powerful in comparison to males. Power is inherently a broad concept of interrelation. Thus, to say females are submissive individuals is underestimating and will inevitably create problems. Do females believe they are lack of power? Does this sexual stereotype regarding power justify that females are vulnerable beings? Submission happens because of many reasons. Every individual who submits must have their own reasons why it is justify for them to submit. Byron 2015: 71 clearly explains that submission constructs other beings as sovereign entities to govern those who submit. This means when an individual submits, this individual gives consents to others to govern this individual. There is a transfer of power given to those who govern. In a feminist paradigm, this consequently means that when a woman submits to others, she must be letting others to govern her. Doer explicitly portrays the submission of his female characters in All the Light We Cannot See through many narrations of their inability to handle themselves and through the acknowledgement of males’ power over themselves. This passage below narrates the submission of Marie Laure’s reasoning to his father. In her head, her father reasons: The gate closed before the door, not after. Which means, whoever it is, he closed the gate first, then pulled the door shut. He’s inside. All the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. Etienne knows he would have triggered the bell, Marie. Etienne would be calling for you already. Boots in the foyer. Fragments of dishes crunching underfoot. It is not Etienne. The distress is so acute, it is almost unbearable. She tries to settle her mind, tries to focus on an image of a candle flame burning at the center of her rib cage, a snail drawn up into the coils of its shell, but her heart bangs in her chest and pulses of fear cycle up her spine, and she is suddenly uncertain whether a sighted person in the foyer can look up the curves of the stairwell and see all the way to the third floor. She remembers her great-uncle said that they would need to watch out for looters, and the air stirs with phantom blurs and rustles, and Marie- Laure imagines charging past the bathroom into the cobwebbed sewing room here on the third floor and hurling herself out the window. Boots in the hall. The slide of a dish across the floor as it is kicked. A fireman, a neighbor, some German soldier hunting food? A rescuer would be calling for survivors, ma chérie. You have to move. Doerr, 2014: 303 The passage shows the subordination of Marie Laure’s capability to think and reason. The narration of her father ’s thoughts and voices dismisses Marie Laure’s self reasoning. Marie Laure is narrated as a girl who is unable to think by herself. She is very reliant to the thoughts of her father. This narration clearly shows her dependency to his father. This dependency never lets Marie Laure to gain her confidence in thinking. She is depicted as unable to summon her own power. Thus, by submitting to her father, it is the only reason to remain in comfort. There are also depictions of Marie Laure begging for protection from others. There are many paragraphs that show Marie Laure’s submission to others by asking for a help to everything she can hope for. There are even narrations from those paragraphs that degrade Marie Laure’ rationality by describing her to beg to an inanimate object and dead people. Below is an example of how Marie Laure begs to the Sea of Flame by questioning its power that also shows her desperation. Then she reaches back through the wardrobe, finds its doors, and closes them. Protect me now, stone, if you are a protector. Silently, says the voice of her father. Make no noise. With one hand, she finds the handle Etienne has rigged onto the false panel on the back of the wardrobe. She glides it shut, one centimeter at a time, until she hears it click into place, then takes a breath and holds it for as long as she can. Doerr, 2014: 305 There are two important points in the paragraph above. The first is Marie Laure ’s attempt to submit to the stone rumored to keep the holder immortal. The second is Marie Laure’s submission to her father’s thoughts. Both of them tell the readers that Marie Laure is so powerless and has very little courage to govern herself. Although, the narration is followed by the running questions in her head that shows her thinking process, Marie Laure’s thought is still subordinated by his father’s voice. One of the elements of submission which shows the loss of power to govern oneself is depicted vividly in this narration. She is narrated as a submissive and irrational being. She is a fragile who needs continuous helps from anything surrounds her. Marie Laure’s submission is also depicted in her fear of getting killed by a stranger she does not know. She is narrated to beg for a help to her absence father and great uncle, but never to any female figures like Madame Manec or Madame Ruelle. In the other words, she begs for a protection only to male figures. This behavior is odd because she exclusives males. It means she just wants to submit to male figures. This condition is narrated when she is alone in the house and feels the aura of threat comes from Sergeant Von Rumpel who stays in the house. She is depicted as hiding in the attic and confines herself there. The paragraph below shows the condition of the problem. “She keeps saying, „Help me.‟ She begs her father, her great-uncle. She says, „He is here. He will kill me.‟ ” A moan shudders through the rubble above them, and in the darkness Werner feels as if he is trapped inside the Nautilus, twenty meters down, while the tentacles of a dozen angry kraken lash its hull. Doerr, 2014: 442 She is narrated as badly needs a help from male figures. Moreover, the narration even becomes more dramatic by putting Werner in the passage. Werner, who is also actually badly trapped in the cellar and nearing his death, is narrated to fill the desire of a hero to save her. Werner is narrated as being moved by her broadcast. This probably shows how Doerr manages to tell the reader that the hero even though in his worst condition can rise and shine to save the needy. The narrations of Marie Laure’s submissiveness continue even after she has been saved by her male hero, Werner. Under this passage below, she even submits to Werner by showing him the treasure of the house, the transmitter. What wonders in this house She shows him the transmitter in the attic: its double battery, its old-fashioned electrophone, the hand-machined antenna that can be raised and lowered along the chimney by an ingenious system of levers. Even a phonograph record that she says contains her grandfather’s voice, lessons in science for children. And the books The lower floors are blanketed with them — Becquerel, Lavoisier, Fischer—a lifetime of reading. What it would be like to spend ten years in this tall narrow house, shuttered from the world, studying its secrets and reading its volumes and looking at this girl. Doerr, 2014: 472