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Characters
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French
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German
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Marie-Laure Le Blanc
Daniel - father – principal locksmith at National Museum of Natural
History
Sea of Flames - diamond
Saint-Malo
Etienne – Marie-Laure’s great uncle
Henri – brother – recorded science lessons on radio – heard by Werner
and Jutta in Germany
Madame Manec – housekeeper
Old Ladies’ Resistance Club
Crazy Harold Bazin – gave Marie-Laure key to stone grotto
Claude Levitte – perfumer – collaborated with Germans
1974
Dr. Marie-Laure – studies mollusks
Helene – daughter
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Children’s Home
Werner Pfennig
Jutta – sister
Frau Elena
National Political Institute of Education – Essen, Germany
Frederick – bunk mate
Dr. Hauptmann – professor
Frank Volkheimer
Frau Schwartzenberger – Jewish woman in Frederick’s apartment
building
Sergeant Major Reinhold von Rumpel – searching for Sea of Flames
1974
Jutta – sixth form algebra teacher
Albert – husband
Max - son
Frank Volkheimer – installs and repairs TV antennas
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For discussion:
NOTE: Page numbers are from hardback edition of book.
1. At the Political Institute of Education, what was the purpose of the exercise, “Who is the weakest?” and the beating of Frederick?
2. When Werner went off to school, Jutta was afraid he would become like Hans and Herribert, two older boys at the Children’s Home. She asks Werner, “Is it right to do something only because everyone else is doing it?” (page 133) But very early in his time at the school Werner reflects that, “Never had he felt such a hunger to belong.” (page 139) Was this inevitable or orchestrated by the people at the school?
3. Did Werner have any control over his fate? When Jutta was visiting Marie-Laure at the end she said, “It was hard for him not to do what was expected of him.” (page 515) How much control did Werner actually have?
4. Jutta also said, “It was not very easy to be good then.” (page 515). Was it easier for some people rather than others – Jutta compared to Werner and Frank for example?
5. Discuss the various choices the characters made:
* Werner smashing Jutta’s radio
* Werner not coming to Frederick’s defense when he was beaten and then bullied at the school.
* Frederick refusing to dump water on the freezing prisoner.
* Toward end when Werner and Volkheimer were trapped in the basement of the hotel, Werner did not tell him he heard the Marie-Laure’s radio broadcast.
* Etienne sending Marie-Laure to the bakery to get the secret messages.
6. Is Frederick’s mother partially to blame for what happened to Frederick? Do you think she feels guilty? Like Werner, did she and Frederick have a choice?
7. When Werner says Marie-Laure is brave (page 469) she replies, “When I lost my sight, Werner, people said I was brave. When my father left, people said I was brave. But it is not bravery; I have no choice. I wake up and live my life. Don’t you do the same?” Werner’s reply is, “Not in years. But today. Today maybe I did.” How did you interpret this exchange?
8. Why did the little girl in the red cape and Frau Schwartzenberger become so important to Werner? He kept seeing the little girl and toward the end she morphed into Frau Schwartzenberger (page 450).
9. Did you like the chapter, “The Simultaneity of Instants” on pages 466 and 467. What point was the author trying to make?
10. At the end, did you think Werner had kept the stone? Were you disappointed in him? Why did he go back and get the wooden house and keep the key?
11. One description of the book said it looked at the “contradictory power of technology.” What was the various views of technology presented in the novel? Did you think this was a major theme? The obvious follow-up question is how has technology evolved and is its power even more contradictory?
12. Discuss your reading experience. Did you enjoy reading this book? Why do you think it earned the Pulitzer Prize?
*****
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