Now, that's somethin', isn't it?! I mean, that's deliberate symbolism by Anthony Doerr. But what? To me, that is the most "picturesque," evocative, memorable use of symbolism in the book. But evocative of what? When I read that chapter I googled "sunflower symbolism" and was sure I was going to find instantly the "translation." I didn't. I thought the sunflower "stood for" something, like the tulip for the vagina. I didn't find that. I found this:
The Sunflower, Wiesenthal reveals that the sunflowers became a harbinger of hope and also a reminder of his own responsibility. At the point when he encounters the military grave, he believes that he is doomed to die at the hands of the Nazis alongside his fellow prisoners. However, the sight of the sunflowers, at the time, he says, “aroused new thoughts in me. I felt I would come across them again” (15). When, after the war, Simon comes across a bunch of sunflowers growing wild on a hillside, the sight prompts the memory of the soldiers’ cemetery and the afternoon he spent with the dying Nazi.
The Sunflower, Wiesenthal reveals that the sunflowers became a harbinger of hope and also a reminder of his own responsibility. At the point when he encounters the military grave, he believes that he is doomed to die at the hands of the Nazis alongside his fellow prisoners. However, the sight of the sunflowers, at the time, he says, “aroused new thoughts in me. I felt I would come across them again” (15). When, after the war, Simon comes across a bunch of sunflowers growing wild on a hillside, the sight prompts the memory of the soldiers’ cemetery and the afternoon he spent with the dying Nazi.
Tantalizing, no? But...no, that's...not...it.
And then this:
How do you find the light that nourishes you?
What the sunflower "can teach us" and the "light" in the title? No.
So, I don't know what the sunflower is symbolic for in All The Light We Cannot See. But, something!
