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
Maddy describes her new nurse as “an unsmiling despot with a nursing degree” named Janet Pritchert. She insists on being called Nurse Janet, and Maddy fixates on the fact that she’s not Carla. By the afternoon Maddy decides to adjust her attitude, but then she finds a sticky note on her laptop. It has animals in nurse’s hats on it and says that rules aren’t meant to be broken, but Maddy can use the internet until three p.m. Maddy is certain that this is because Olly is in school now and doesn’t get home until after three. Seeing that it’s 2:30, Maddy feels offended that Nurse Janet assumed that she’d break the rules and decides to not improve her attitude after all.
The cutesy animals on the sticky notes, combined with Nurse Janet’s manner of treating Maddy, suggests that she’s treating Maddy much more like a small child in need of firm rules and regulations than like a young adult who should be allowed some freedoms and opinions. That Mom hired Maddy reflects Mom’s similar line of thinking, as keeping Maddy grounded like this ensures that Maddy will effectively remain a dependent teen forever.
Themes
The next day, Nurse Janet’s sticky note reads that moping is unhealthy and says that she expects three smiles every day. Maddy and Olly settle into a new rhythm of instant messaging sporadically until three p.m., and after dinner, Olly and Maddy stare at each other through their windows. Mom refuses to budge on her position, and Nurse Janet leaves another note saying that life is a gift and shouldn’t be wasted. Maddy remembers that Carla said the same thing. She wonders if she’s wasting her life.
When Nurse Janet gives Maddy the exact same advice that Carla did, it introduces Maddy to the idea that she can interpret what that means however she’d like. While Nurse Janet likely intends Maddy to take it as another request to smile and get over it, Maddy can choose to take it like Carla intended and can vow to actually live her life.
Themes
