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66. The Murphy Bed
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 wakes up slowly and realizes they now only have 20 minutes to make it to the beach to watch the sunset. She shakes Olly awake and slips into her new red dress, thinking she looks like the picture of health. Maddy finds Olly sitting out on the balcony railing. He smiles at her and calls for her. They kiss and Maddy says yes—the sunset will wait; she wants to have sex. Sensing her nervousness, Olly says they don’t have to and mutters that he needs to buy condoms. Maddy says she bought some earlier. They undress, kiss, and have sex. Maddy feels like she knows all the secrets of the universe.
Again, choosing to have sex allows Maddy to experience something that she never would’ve gotten to had she not left her house and fallen in love with Olly. When she suggests that sex makes her feel like she understands the secrets of the universe, it makes it clear that experiences like these help people figure out how they fit into the world and can be overwhelmingly positive in this regard.
Themes
