Marie-Laure Character Analysis

Marie-Laure had always been curious and questioned what ordinary people did. “‘Why not,’ she asks, ‘just take the diamond and throw it into the sea?’” (pg. 23). When she went blind however, even small tasks seemed daunting, and her father had to help her regain her courage. The Nazi’s invasion of France forces her to use that courage and not lose her mind in a seemingly difficult situation. “‘You did well, Marie-Laure. I’m proud.’” (pg. 117) says her father as they evacuate the city. Upon reaching Etienne’s house, Marie-Laure and her father settle down before her father is summoned back to the museum. However, he gets arrested along the way and sent to a German prison camp. Marie-Laure is fearful for her father despite his reassuring letters that he is alright. She becomes more secluded and isolates herself out of worry, “Only then, with her toes and fingers in the cold sea, does her mind seem to fully leave her father; only then does she stop wondering how much of his letter was true, when he’ll write again, why he has been imprisoned.”
Madame Manec and several other ladies in the area form an old ladies’ resistance club which organizes small acts of resistance, like painting the French flag on a stray dog and sending it running through the Place Chateaubriand. It brings Madame Manec joy to be able to participate in something she believed was right “‘Seventy-six years old,’ she whispers, ‘and I can still feel like this? Like a little girl with stars in my eyes?’” (pg. 253) but it also inspires Marie-Laure to do something for the greater good. After Madame Manec’s death, Marie-Laure wants to continue what Madame had started, even when Etienne objects. “‘This will happen even now? Without Madame?’ ‘Why wouldn’t it?’” (pg. 322) Madame also inspires Etienne to take part in this, and he begins using his radio to broadcast reassuring news about loved ones to those that have been