Here is the next part of the extract: The GirlIn a corner of the city, inside a tall, narrow house at Number 4 rue Vauborel, on the sixth and highest floor, a sightless sixteen-year-old named Marie-Laure LeBlanc kneels over a low table covered entirely with a model. The model is a miniature of the city she kneels within, and contains scale replicas of the hundreds of houses and shops and hotels within its walls. There's the cathedral with its perforated spire, and the bulky old Château de Saint-Malo, and row after row of seaside mansions studded with chimneys. A slender wooden jetty arcs out from a beach called the Plage du Môle; a delicate, reticulated atrium vaults over the seafood market; minute benches, the smallest no larger than apple seeds, dot the tiny public squares.Marie-Laure runs her fingertips along the centimeter-wide parapet crowning the ramparts, drawing an uneven star shape around the entire model. She finds the opening atop the walls where four ceremonial cannons point to sea. "Bastion de la Hollande," she whispers, and her fingers walk down a little staircase. "Rue des Cordiers . Rue Jacques Cartier."In a corner of the room stand two galvanised buckets filled to the rim with water. Fill them up, her great-uncle has taught her, whenever you can. The bathtub on the third floor too. Who knows when the water will go out again.Her fingers travel back to the cathedral spire. South to the Gate of Dinan. All evening she has been marching her fingers around the model, waiting for her great-uncle Etienne, who owns this house, who went out the previous night while she slept, and who has not returned. And now it is night again, another revolution of the clock, and the whole block is quiet, and she cannot sleep.

9 A student read this part of the novel and said, 'The writer makes Marie-Laure sound vulnerable.' Do you agree? Use the table below to help you plan your ideas: All The Light We Cannot SeeStudent workbook Yes / No ... because ...: Quotation from the text which supports this: 10 Now use your work from question 9 (The writer makes Marie-Laure sound vulnerable.') to write up your answer. Make sure you analyse each of your quotes, thinking about how the writer's use of language and structure impacts on your impression of Marie-Laure.

1)Yes, because she cannot see and because she is young.

Quotation: "A sightless sixteen-year-old named Marie-Laure LeBlanc kneels over a low table covered entirely with a model."

2)Yes, because she is anxious and a bit apprehensive.

Quotation: "All evening she has been marching her fingers around the model . . . She cannot sleep."

3)Yes, because is alone.

Quotation: "Waiting for her great-uncle Etienne, who owns this house, who went out the previous night while she slept, and who has not returned." 

4)No, while she cannot see, she is smart and able to adapt.

Quotation: "'Bastion de la Hollande,' she whispers, and her fingers walk down a little staircase. 'Rue des Cordiers. Rue Jacques Cartier.'"

5. No, because she can fend for herself.

Quotation: "In a corner of the room stand two galvanised buckets filled to the rim with water. Fill them up, her great-uncle has taught her, whenever you can."

Step-by-step explanation

I agree that the writer makes Marie-Laure sound vulnerable. The writer narrates that there is "a sightless sixteen-year-old named Marie-Laure LeBlanc (who) kneels over a low table covered entirely with a model." This passage conveys to the reader that not only she's quite young but also unable to see. This is a vulnerability considering the wartime circumstances. The writer also evokes to the reader that Marie-Laure is anxious and a bit apprehensive. This is seen in the following text, "All evening she has been marching her fingers around the model . . . She cannot sleep." The way the writer describes these actions give the reader a sense of dread of what is happening and what is about to come. Lastly, the writer makes it a point to say that Marie-Laure is alone at this particular moment. This is evidenced by the following passage, "Waiting for her great-uncle Etienne, who owns this house, who went out the previous night while she slept, and who has not returned . . ." This description makes the reader feel her isolation and seeming helplessness. 

However, despite this vulnerability, the writer hints that Marie-Laure is capable of overcoming difficulties. She is characterized as smart and able to adapt as seen by her good memory. "'Bastion de la Hollande,' she whispers, and her fingers walk down a little staircase. 'Rue des Cordiers. Rue Jacques Cartier.'" Moreover, the writer portrays Marie-Laure as capable of fending for herself. "In a corner of the room stand two galvanised buckets filled to the rim with water. Fill them up, her great-uncle has taught her, whenever you can." This shows that she is not totally helpless and weak despite her physical and situational vulnerability.