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89. Flowers for Algernon
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
Another week later, Mom knocks on Maddy’s door. Maddy ignores her. She feels resentful as Mom knocks again, as she doesn’t feel that Mom understands her crime. Maddy finally flings open the door and says it’s not a good time. This clearly hurts Mom, but Maddy finds that she’s always angry and wants to hurt Mom. In a small voice, Mom says she got Maddy something. Maddy wants to make the conversation end, so she takes the gift and asks if Mom thinks gifts will help. Mom turns away, but says she still loves Maddy and knows Maddy loves her. She implores Maddy to forgive her and not waste her life.
Even though Maddy has every right to be extremely angry with Mom, Mom also has a point: Maddy wallowing in her anger and her sense of betrayal is no way to live, just as Mom wallowing in her grief over losing her family was no way to live and even led to effectively imprisoning her daughter to deal with the negative emotions. In this sense, both Mom and Maddy have wasted their lives on negative emotions. Now, they have the opportunity to experience better, happier things that will allow them to develop and improve.
Themes
