Previous
52. Half Life
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
In a letter to Mom, Maddy says that she loves her, and that Mom is kind and selfless—but that Mom won’t understand what Maddy is going to say and do. She writes that she’s only alive thanks to Mom, but it’s not enough. She insists that she’s not really doing this because of Olly, but Olly did introduce her to a new part of herself that won’t be quiet. Maddy asks if Mom remembers how sad she was when they read The Little Prince for the first time and he died in the end to get back to his rose. Now, she understands it. He wasn’t choosing to die—he wasn’t alive without the rose. She asks Mom to forgive her.
The comment that being alive isn’t enough shows Maddy’s newfound recognition that living in her controlled, sanitized environment isn’t the same as taking risks and seeing everything that the world has to offer. She understands that the life she leads in her imagination and in books is no substitute for experiencing things firsthand, and her choice to break free from Mom and gain these experiences shows that Maddy is growing and coming of age.
Themes
