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 assures Carla that this won’t be like last time and sweeps the curtains aside. The California sun is blinding at first, but then Maddy sees an older woman, an older man, a girl a little younger than she is, and finally, a tall, lean boy. He wears all black and moves with a graceful, gliding gait. The boy studies the house and then runs up the wall before dangling from a windowsill. The boy’s mom praises him, but the father growls at him to stop doing that. Maddy feels breathless. The boy stands and meets Maddy’s eyes. He smiles at Maddy, but she’s so flustered she can only frown. That night, Maddy dreams that the house breathes with her. She fears that her breath will make her life explode.
Maddy’s dream about breathing with the house situates her as being unhealthily connected to the house and everything it stands for—namely, Mom and their close relationship. When Maddy fears that her breath will explode her life, it suggests that she fears making any changes that might distance her from her house and the identity she assumes while she’s in it. Though changing and being independent are normal parts of growing up, Maddy’s unpleasant dream suggests that this is something unusually anxiety-inducing for her.
Themes
