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47. Higher Education
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 cancels another mother-daughter night, so Mom stops by her room. Maddy explains that she’s feeling mentally out of sorts as Mom feels her forehead. Mom says that she was a teenager once and found it very painful. Maddy is incensed that Mom thinks that she’s just lonely and angsty, so she snaps that she’s alone, not lonely. Mom flinches and asks if Maddy wants her to go, which makes Maddy feel bad for getting upset. Mom pulls out a framed photograph of herself, baby Maddy, Maddy’s dad, and Maddy’s brother. Mom is wearing a red strapless sundress, and to Maddy, looks like she belongs in an alternate universe. She’s never seen a photo of herself Outside before. Mom explains that it was taken in Maui, a month before the accident. Mom and Maddy say they love each other, and later, Maddy studies her baby face in the photo.
Maddy’s anger here is perfectly legitimate—she is utterly alone, not merely experiencing normal feelings of loneliness or angst. Her illness means that she doesn’t have any contact with other people, including Olly, that would make her feel less alone and would give her a more sympathetic outlet for her frustrations. The photograph introduces Maddy to the idea that once, she was a supposedly healthy baby with a future ahead of her. This photograph essentially allows Maddy to understand that her life could’ve taken a very different path, as it shows her how things were before everything changed dramatically.
Themes
