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46. Neighborhood Watch #2
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
Olly messages Maddy when he can between classes. For his first week at school, he sends Maddy pictures of everything from his locker and the librarian to his math homework. Maddy wallows and settles into a grudging routine with Nurse Janet. She finds that she’s jealous of Olly’s life, even though he insists that high school isn’t a utopia. Things get difficult by the third week. Maddy misses him and who she is with him. One day, Maddy watches Olly get home from school. A girl gets out of the car, puts her hand on Olly’s shoulder, and smiles. Maddy is shocked and thinks of Mom—Mom knew this would happen. Maddy wants to size up this girl, but she knows it’s not really a competition if she can’t leave the house. Olly frowns at Maddy’s window, but Maddy pretends to not see.
Because Maddy doesn’t have any experience actually attending high school, it naturally feels like a utopia for her, especially since she loves reading and learning so much. When Olly comes home with this girl, Maddy is forced to reckon with the fact that her illness does indeed mean that she can’t truly engage with Olly in the world, no matter how much they message each other online or mime at each other through their windows. Her inability to experience things means it’s less likely that Olly will choose to be with her long-term, since that would require him to sacrifice important life experiences as well.
Themes
