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80. Protection
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 defines suspicion as the truth that she doesn’t, can’t, and won’t believe. The next morning, she thrusts the email at Carla as soon as Carla arrives. Carla studies the test results, and rather than dismiss them, she asks if Maddy showed them to Mom. Maddy whispers that Mom insisted it was a mistake. After a minute, Carla says they need to find out the truth. Maddy is shocked and feels like they already know the truth—she’s sick and can’t leave her house. That’s who she is. Maddy asks Carla if she’s hiding something and with coaxing, Carla admits that she sometimes suspects that Mom never fully recovered from what happened to Maddy’s dad and brother. The walls close in on Maddy and she dry heaves into the sink. Maddy says she needs to know the truth and refuses Carla’s attempts to comfort her.
Carla’s reaction again shows that she believes her job isn’t just to make sure Maddy doesn’t die—it’s to make sure that Maddy has a confidante and someone to help her figure out who she is in the real world, whether that means introducing her to Olly or helping her get testing for SCID. Carla also models for Maddy how to deal with information like this by insisting that they don’t really know anything and setting out logical next steps. In this way, she’s preparing Maddy for adulthood and showing her how to deal with surprises like this.
Themes
