Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Everything, Everything, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age
Trust and Lies
Family, Abuse, and Bravery
The Value of Experience
Summary
Analysis
That night, Maddy gets on instant messenger and apologizes for her email. She asks if Olly is upset with her and explains that she sent it because she got scared. She accuses Olly of not writing, but Olly points out that she asked him not to write. They discuss why they love books and math. Maddy insists that it’s possible to find the meaning of life through books, but Olly suggests that life is meaningless. Maddy proposes the solution to their problem: just being friends. Olly agrees, but says that Maddy can’t check out his muscles or eyes, and they joke that he can’t check out Maddy’s hair and freckles.
Maddy and Olly’s decision to just be friends mirrors, in many ways, Maddy’s sanitized existence: while she knows there’s more out there (and while it’s clear to Maddy, Olly, and the reader that Maddy and Olly are attracted to each other), she nevertheless feels as though it’s safer to pretend that the outside world doesn’t exist.
Themes
