Radio

The radio is an ever-present fixture in the novel. It is in many ways a neutral tool. It has power but only when activated. The Germans are quick to spread news about the glorious army and about a new hope via the radio. The French resistance take to the airwaves to hinder the German efforts. Etienne and the professor fill the space with science and music. Marie-Laure reads classic literature and pleads for help.

Key is that the neutral radio requires both a speaker and a listener. One must believe the publicity of the Nazi broadcasts, one must hear the coordinates from a rebel radio in order to direct the planes, one must be moved by the music, literature and pleas for help to be willing to risk their own lives to help. Thus the radio is a conduit, requiring a connection on both ends: people.

Radio Quotes

It would not have been possible for us to take power or to use it in the ways we have without the radio. (Joseph Goebbels) Epigraph

But he watches his sister’s face, motionless except for her eyelids, and in the kitchen Frau Elena holds her flour-whitened hands in the air and cocks her head, studying Werner, and two older boys rush in and stop, sensing some change in the air, and the little radio with its four terminals and trailing aerial sits motionless on the floor between them all like a miracle. Part 1, Radio

Through the panel he calls, ‘I am not killing you. I am hearing you. On radio. Is why I come.’ He pauses, fumbling to translate. ‘The song, light of the moon?’ She almost smiles. (Werner) Part 10, Are you there?

Sea of flames

The obvious dilemma of the Sea of Flames is paralleled in the lives of the characters. Save yourself or save others. To save themselves, Werner and Volkheimer unquestioningly obey any order given. Von Rumpel tries to save himself through his quest to obtain the diamond at any cost. Big Claude betrays his own town to make a better life for himself. Saving others is a decision that some characters make without hesitating, such as the devotion of Daniel and Etienne toward Marie-Laure. The French resistance women likewise risk their own lives to save others.

The fable of the Sea of Flames goes even further. In the legend, a priest speaks to the prince and warns him about the danger. The prince has the priest’s tongue cut out. This portion of the fable reminds us of characters who speak up against the Nazi powers but are silenced. Jutta argues with her brother saying she heard a different side to the story but Werner refuses to listen. Frederick speaks up in protest against torturing a prisoner and is beaten. When some are saving themselves, like the prince, they will not tolerate opposition.

Sea of Flame Quotes

The keeper of the stone would live forever, but … misfortunes would fall on all those he loved. Part 1, The Warder

That something so small could be so beautiful. Worth so much. Only the strongest people can turn away from feelings like that. Part 1, Sea of Flames

Marie-Laure says, ‘I heard that the diamond is like a piece of light from the original world. Before it fell. A piece of light rained to earth from God.’ Part 1, Sea of Flames

The despair doesn’t last. Marie-Laure is too young and her father is too patient. There are, he assures her, no such things as curses. There is luck, maybe, bad or good. A slight inclination of each day toward success or failure. But no curses. Part 1, Key Pound

A real diamond is never perfect. Part 5, Lapidary

It is cut, polished; for a breath, it passes between the hands of men. Another hour, another day, another year. Lump of carbon no larger than a chestnut. Mantled with algae, bedecked with barnacles. Crawled over by snails. It stirs among the pebbles. Part 12, Sea of Flames

Shells

As an adult, Marie-Laure has become an expert in shells, having travelled with Etienne around the world to find and categorise molluscs. She returns to the museum where she had fallen in love with them as a child. Under the care of Dr Geffard, a colleague of her father’s, she had spent time touching and learning about shells. Molluscs have a life that Marie-Laure could relate to. She liked the way they moved moment to moment, centimetre to centimetre. Like her, not being able to rush around they were careful. She also related to the shell as a piece of armour protecting them from gulls who would pick them up and dash them against the rocks. Although at times Marie-Laure imagines she is a whelk in a shell, it is those who protect her that are a real shell. First Daniel, then Etienne and then Werner.

Shells Quotes

On the back wall of Dr. Geffard’s lab are cabinets that contain more drawers than she can count, and he lets her open them one after another and hold seashells in her hands—whelks, olives, imperial volutes from Thailand, spider conchs from Polynesia—the museum possesses more than ten thousand specimens, over half the known species in the world, and Marie-Laure gets to handle most of them. Part 1, Key Pound

‘Well,’ says Madame Manec. She pits and quarters another peach. ‘You can be anything. You can be the Mermaid if you like. Or Daisy? Violet?’
‘How about the Whelk? I think I would like to be the Whelk.’ (Madame Manec and Marie-Laure) Part 5, The Blade and the Whelk

Puzzles, Locks, Keys

One common trait that Werner and Marie-Laure share is their ability to use logic and dexterity to solve puzzles. It is metaphoric of the world they live in. The world they inherit is difficult to understand, changing and hard in which to survive. Werner focusses on the puzzle of repairing radios, using his imagination to trace invisible currents and find a solution. Marie-Laure thoughtfully twists and turns elements of the puzzle, discovering push keys and hidden compartments in her father’s scale models. Conversely, Von Rumpel smashes the puzzle box under his heel.

Keys are symbolic of logic and power. Every key has a lock. This mantra is used by Marie-Laure’s father to remind her that any problem has a solution, she must only think of what that is. This helps Marie-Laure make rational choices when she is in danger after Daniel is taken away. Keys also indicate power in that they lock Daniel and Etienne away and control who has access to parts of the museum. The keys Hubert Bazin give Marie-Laure enable access to the grotto, which becomes a safe haven for her and eventually the Sea of Flames.

Puzzles, Locks, Keys Quotes

All my life, Marie-Laure, I have been the one carrying the keys. Now I hear them jangling in the mornings when they come for us, and every time I reach in my own pocket, only to find it empty. (Daniel) Part 5, Pneumonia

Walk the paths of logic. Every outcome has its cause, and every predicament has its solution. Every lock its key. Part 3, Chateau

Keys as long as Marie-Laure’s forearm and keys shorter than her thumb. Part 1, Key pound