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59. The Carousel; Madeline’s Dictionary
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
As Maddy and Olly ride toward their hotel, the car turns and suddenly, Maddy can see the ocean. She declares that she can’t believe that she’s been missing the entire world and Olly asks the driver if they can stop. The driver pulls over at a park and Maddy bolts out of the car for the water. She takes off her shoes in the sand and wades into the waves up to her knees. Olly calls for her to be careful, but Maddy isn’t sure what he means—if he doesn’t want her to drown, if he’s cautioning her to not get sick, or if he’s cautioning her to understand that it’s impossible to separate oneself from the world. Maddy feels like now, she’s a part of the world and it’s a part of her. Maddy defines ocean as a part of herself she never knew, but suspected was there.
When Maddy wades into the ocean, she confirms that the ocean itself is a symbol of all of life, and indeed of the world. Now that she’s standing in it, she cannot go back to the way things used to be—she now understands what it’s like to truly live in the world, which means that her photos, videos, and books that portray the ocean will no longer be enough to satisfy her. Thinking through Olly’s calls to be careful shows that this is also giving Maddy new perspective, as she’s able to recognize that it’s silly to caution her about the ocean when Maddy might die of something else instantly.
Themes
