A Study Of Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See From The Perspective Of Myth And Archetypal Criticism

All the Light We Cannot See is Anthony Doerr’s fifth work,which took ten years to complete.Once the book was published,it occupied the top of The New York Times and the Amazon Bestseller List.At the end of 2014,it was selected as the best novel of the year by more than 30 mainstream media and bookstores,and won the Pulitzer Prize in2015.This thesis intends to interpret All the Light We Cannot See from the perspective of Myth and Archetypal Criticism.The purpose of using Northrop Frye’s theory is to study how the novel reflects characters’ changes.Myth and Archetypal Criticism emphasizes the discovery of repeated imagery,narrative structures and typical characters in literary works.By using Myth and Archetypal Criticism,the archetypal paradigm contained in literary works can be understood.The thesis is divided into five parts.Chapter One introduces the purpose and significance of the thesis,the author and literature review,theoretical framework,research questions and layout.Chapter Two analyzes the novel from the aspect of imagery to explore the characters.Different characters have diverse interpretations of archetypal imagery,and these differences reflect the inner subconscious of each character.Chapter Three explains the motif of the novel,analyzes the transformation of the relationship between the characters before and after the war,and paves the way for further analysis of the structure of the novel.Chapter Four analyzes different characters’ changes of thought before and after the war.The theory is used to reveal the influence of war on people’s natural development.Chapter Five is the conclusion,in terms of imagery,motifs and characters which is designed to restate Myth and Archetypal features and the archetype characters’ personality changes in different periods of war.Then,through the character’s change of thought,the theme of love and hope is conveyed.On the one hand,the study of All the Light We Cannot See from the perspective of Myth and Archetypal Criticism theory helps readers to think about the theme of love and hope in the novel.On the other hand,it aims to explore the changes of characters’ nature in different periods of time.It helps people to pay attention to and think about the impact of war on personality.