Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Five Feet Apart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Sacrifice
Death, Grief, and Guilt
Risk and Consequences
Survival, Terminal Illness, and Hope
Hardship and Family Dynamics
Summary
Analysis
Stella awakens from surgery and is surprised to see her parents being cordial to each other. Julie wheels Stella back to her room and Stella comments that Julie will have a baby soon. Julie says Stella will have to help her raise it, since Julie doesn’t have a partner. Stella thinks she will be a great “aunt” to Julie’s child. Delirious on medication, Stella calls Will and leaves a rambling voicemail in which she calls him “sexy.” In her room, he’s left her a handmade paper flower bouquet that matches the flowers in Abby’s drawing.
Julie is late into a pregnancy, but Stella has ignored the pregnancy for weeks, even though she’s known Julie for many years. Stella appears to be jealous—she wishes she could have her own family but is pretty sure she never will. Julie’s remark that Stella will be her baby’s aunt is a touching reminder of how close Stella has become to her nurses over the years. Going through such a severe hardship as cystic fibrosis alongside Julie, Barb, Poe, and Will has allowed a unique bond to form among everyone at the hospital, even when it has caused distance and separation among the patients’ biological families.
Themes
Stella goes back to sleep and wakes up again to see that Michael, Poe’s ex, messaged her. She learns that Poe is thinking of going to Colombia, and Stella can tell that Michael cares deeply for Poe. Stella sees her parents again, and they apologize to Stella for how they have acted since Abby’s death. Stella is shocked to see them being nice to each other, and they assure Stella that her happiness matters to them more than anything else. Stella considers that her surgery had a silver lining.
Barb’s lecture had a significant impact on Stella’s parents. They now realize that they must put aside their grief in order to be present for and support Stella, who has been suffering and in need of their support since Abby died. Now that Stella’s parents are cordial with each other, she doesn’t have to worry as much about making sure they would be able to cope if Stella died. Her illness has finally motivated her parents to come together and bond over their shared struggle.
Themes
Stella texts Will to meet her in the hospital atrium. She is very excited to see him, and she fixes her hair and makeup before leaving her room. She waits in the atrium for a while, but Will doesn’t come. Poe shows up and informs her that Will isn’t coming, and that Will sent Poe to tell Stella that things are over. Stella is shocked and confused. Poe explains the conversation he overheard between Barb and Will.
After her surgery, Stella comes to embrace Will’s philosophy that a life dictated by a medical regimen is not a life worth living. Ironically, though, Will comes to the opposite conclusion thanks to his conversation with Barb. Stella and Will have essentially adopted each other’s values and have each abandoned their original viewpoints—with the ironic result that, as things stand, they can’t draw any closer to each other.
Themes
Stella immediately gets up to go to Will’s room. She is tired of letting her illness rule her life, especially because disaster can strike even when she takes all the right precautions. Stella knocks on Will’s door, but he refuses to come out. In the hall, Poe tells her that it’s for the best. Poe compares Will to Abby—they’re both risk takers. Stella yells at Poe, saying that he is afraid of being in love—he has broken up with many different partners in the past.
Stella’s surgery transformed her mindset, as she genuinely ran the risk of never waking up from the anesthesia due to her weak lung function. After surviving surgery, she understands that she may die at any point, regardless of how rigid her treatment plan is, so she might as well experience everything that she always wanted to do but that cystic fibrosis held her back from. Poe wants what is best for Stella’s health, but it’s true that he ended many relationships solely because he didn’t want his partners to have to deal with his illness.
Themes
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Over the next few days, Stella doesn’t talk to Will or Poe and she feels lonelier than ever. Eventually Poe and Stella make up. Poe says that Stella is right—he is afraid to get close to people because he doesn’t want to burden them with his illness. When Poe turns 18, he will lose the insurance that covers his treatments and he doesn’t know how he will continue to pay for them. He knows that if he fell in love, his partner would take on the burden of his medical costs, and then he would die young anyway.
After Stella goes days without speaking to Poe and Will, it is clear how important close social relationships are to her—as they are to everyone—which again highlights how isolating the six feet cystic fibrosis patients must keep between themselves are. Just as Stella tries to avoid upsetting her family with her illness, Poe avoids romantic relationships for the same reason. Will, too, decides that being apart from Stella is better than endangering her. Stella, Poe, and Will all deal with the same fundamental problem, which is that they want to avoid burdening others with their cystic fibrosis.
Themes
