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 thinks of nothing but kissing. She’s read about it and seen it in movies, but she’s never thought about actually kissing someone. Because of her nerves, she insists that she and Olly should wait a few days before they see each other again. Maddy knows she should tell Carla about touching Olly, but she’s afraid that Carla won’t let Olly visit. She thinks that Olly is the only person she’s never lied to. Two days after the touch, Maddy feels fine. She devises a pre-kiss checklist, which includes lip balm and practicing kissing on her hand, a pillow, and a gourd. She lists things that will create the proper atmosphere such as rain or a boom box. Then she lists the six steps of kissing.
Just as with her webdoc.com article, Maddy’s kissing primers and checklists are a way for her to try and make sense of her emotions and the desirable yet terrifying event in front of her. Again, this makes the case that these are perfectly effective ways for someone to deal with discomfort and uncertainty, but all the kissing primers in the world are still no substitute for actually kissing Olly and seeing what it’s like to do so.
Themes
