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69. This Time
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 spiral pattern, Maddy recounts her dream of running away from home with the boy she loves. She sees the ocean and falls asleep in a noisy room with him. In her dream, she dreams the same dream. Maddy wakes up slowly and feels as though she’s on fire. The sheets are sweaty, and she shivers. Everything hurts, but her head hurts the most. She can’t sit up and thinks she’s dying. As soon as she thinks Olly’s name, he wakes up and turns on the lamp. He looks terrified as he calls an ambulance. Maddy isn’t sure if he’s talking about her but wants him to stop crying—he’s going to be fine. She hears him say something about Mom and she hopes that Mom is coming. Maddy’s heart stops and starts again.
Again, notice that Maddy isn’t necessarily thinking about herself—she wants Olly to stop crying because he’s going to be fine, which suggests that she’s been conditioned to believe that she doesn’t need to think about her own thoughts and emotions as much those of people around her. Though this happens while Maddy is seriously ill, it does reflect that she’s been brought up to think this way and this is part of the reason why she hasn’t, until now, tried to break free and think of herself.
Themes
