Monica answers “[Spoiler Alert] Why do you think the...”

Genetta asked this question about All the Light We Cannot See:

[Spoiler Alert] Why do you think the author decided to add the rape scene? Does it add anything to the characters' arcs? Does it propel the plot forward? Does anything result from that scene? Frau Elena, Jutta, and the other three girls were already obviously miserable. The reader has already experienced the cruelty of war. Why was the rape scene necessary?

Monica I think it symbolized the failure of the Nazis to achieve a PURE race. By raping German women the Russians were ensuring the future of mixed races, So…moreI think it symbolized the failure of the Nazis to achieve a PURE race. By raping German women the Russians were ensuring the future of mixed races, Some of those Russians were Jews. No matter how many “undesirables” were killed by the Nazis, they were replaced with mixed races all over again. it made a mockery of the wish for a pure Aryan race.(less)

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Randall Smith If this is true then why did they rape thousands of their own women who were prisoners of the Nazis. They raped Jewish women when they happened on to ...more
Jul 27, 2018 05:31PM

Monica True. But I think I am right about why the author included it,in the book.
Aug 09, 2018 06:07PM

Randall Smith I think you are right about why he put it in the book but he was wrong about why they did it. He also made it too easy. In the real accounts there was I think you are right about why he put it in the book but he was wrong about why they did it. He also made it too easy. In the real accounts there was much more brutality from these monsters. They also raped much younger children than 14 to 16 year olds in the book. I read one account of a 4 year old who was raped. They didn't care how old or how young. This 4 year old wasn't going to make any mixed children. Neither were the 80 year old grandmothers they raped. They also raped thousands of their own women who were taken prisoner and sent back to Germany as forced labor. They raped because they were lusting monsters and no other reason in spite of what the author meant or you believe. I hope they are burning in hell where they belong. You might wonder why I hate the Soviets so much. Read the true accounts of what happened and you will understand. Read these books. A Woman in Berlin tells of what she had to endure at the hands of the Soviet soldiers. A Wartime Memoir by Alaine Polcs is about an 19 year old Hungarian woman. They would rape children or old women but when they found a young pretty woman they made her life a living hell. They gang raped her so many times she was unsure how many there were. They and others came for her over and over again. Then I read A Long Silence by Sabina deWerth Neu. At the time she was 4 years old. One night they dragged her mother off and scores of Soviets raped her. Then they came for the little girl and her two sisters a few years older and raped them. She said the light went out of one of her sisters eyes and a few years later she killed herself. Online I read where a man found his father's diary. He was a Soviet Officer. He came upon a mother and her young daughter. They were both terrified and begged him to protect them because the little girl had been raped 20 times by Soviet soldiers. The thought of this has haunted me. How can someone calling himself human stand in line watching this little body being battered by these brutes waiting his turn. Reading these accounts has caused me to have a deep abiding hate for these monsters.When the author tries to say they only did this for revenge it offends me greatly. ...more
Aug 09, 2018 07:08PM

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All the Light We Cannot See

by Anthony Doerr (Goodreads Author)

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