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43. Mirror Image
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 shows the reader her weekly calendar. Mom held interviews for a new nurse, and Nurse Janet is scheduled to start on Monday. One night, after a game of Honor Pictionary, Mom gathers their drawings. Their laughter is forced, but Mom says she’s had a good time with Maddy. Maddy says nothing, but thinks that spending time with Mom is the only good thing that’s happened. Mom says that she hired a nurse and asks Maddy if she understands why she’s doing what she’s doing, which includes taking away the internet and canceling Maddy’s in-person lesson with Mr. Waterman. Maddy admits that she misses Carla, but Mom says she’d be a bad mom if she let Carla stay.
Maddy’s aside that it’s been good to spend time with Mom can be interpreted as Maddy’s optimism and her genuine love of her mom, but it also suggests that Maddy doesn’t see what Mom did in terms of banning Olly as especially bad or surprising. This shows that Maddy still doesn’t legitimately believe that she has a life as an independent adult in front of her. Instead, she still feels as though she has to play by Mom’s rules and receive care from her for the rest of her life.
Themes
When Maddy says that Carla was her friend, Mom angrily spits that it was Carla’s responsibility to keep Maddy safe, not introduce her to teenage boys or give Maddy false hope. It hits Maddy that Carla’s gone, and she’ll never see Olly or kiss him again. Mom asks Maddy to tell her about Olly. Maddy tells her everything and Mom says he sounds wonderful. Maddy asks for her internet privileges back, but Mom refuses—she doesn’t want Maddy’s heart to break. Thinking of Carla, Maddy notes that love can’t kill her. Mom says that’s not true and asks where Maddy heard that.
Mom’s insistence that Carla was wrong about love not being deadly suggests that in her mind, love is deadly. This likely came from losing her husband and son and suggests that she’s still not entirely over the accident—and that she’s possibly trying to protect Maddy from experiencing any similar heartbreak, even though Carla proposes that heartbreak is a normal and expected part of growing up.
Themes
