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16. Astronaut Ice Cream
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
Carla smiles knowingly at Maddy and sings “Take a Chance on Me” by ABBA under her breath. As Maddy tries to eat lunch (she’s never hungry anymore), she tabs to her email while Carla isn’t looking. She has 13 emails from Olly. Maddy catches Carla’s eye, insists she’s not looking at anything, and then lies that she’s watching a cat video. This is a mistake; Carla loves cat videos and starts to come over. Maddy says that this is a bad video—the cat dies. Carla stares at Maddy in shock and then begins to laugh. She laughs that Maddy is awful at keeping secrets, says that she always knows when teen girls are up to no good, and asks why Maddy didn’t tell her that she has a crush on Olly. Maddy says that she didn’t want Carla to worry about her getting sad, and insists that she won’t.
Though Maddy does try to keep her crush a secret from Carla at first, it’s telling that she does eventually feel comfortable sharing with Carla that she likes Olly. This again shows that Carla has put herself in a position where she’s a much safer adult for Maddy to talk to. This does suggest that Carla is doing something right here, while Mom is missing out on a crucial part of connecting with her daughter by making Maddy feel as though she has to lie to Mom about Olly.
Themes
