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 the reader that no matter how many books they’ve read, she’s read more. Her bedroom is entirely white except for the spines of brand-new books, which are are the only color. The books come decontaminated from “Outside,” and Maddy would like to see the machine that decontaminates and seals them in plastic wrap. When Maddy receives a new book, the first thing she does is write her full name in it. She’s not sure why she does this, as Mom never reads and Carla, her nurse, spends her time watching Maddy breathe. No one visits either. Regardless, Maddy then goes on to create a list of rewards for someone who finds her book. These range from the fanciful (picnics and snorkeling with Maddy) to the mundane (a walk or a conversation with Maddy).
The way that Maddy treats her books reveals that even though she goes on to insist to the reader that she’s happy, she does long for more in her life. In particular, spending her time coming up with so many rewards for finding a lost book suggests that she craves companionship and contact with people who aren’t Mom or Carla, while the presence of the mundane rewards in particular do indicate that Maddy is lonely and yearns for connection, pure and simple.
Themes
