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’s heart is the only thing that hurts, so she tries not to use it. She reads existential and nihilist books, doesn’t think about Olly, and resumes her classes after four weeks. Mom hovers worriedly and seems to want things to go back to the way they were before. Maddy doesn’t want to do mother-daughter nights, as she doesn’t enjoy much of anything, but she pretends when she sees Mom getting thinner and thinner. Olly’s emails eventually stop. One night, Mom says she’s asked Carla to come back. She explains that she trusts Maddy, since Maddy learned her lesson the hard way.
The assertion that Mom wants things to go back to the way they were before suggests that in important ways, things will never be the same. Maddy has now made memories that don’t include Mom and experienced things entirely alone, which in a healthy relationship, wouldn’t be a problem. This again implies that Maddy and Mom’s relationship isn’t entirely healthy.
Themes
