The Value of Experience Theme Analysis

At the beginning of the novel, Maddy has no experience with the outside world; she hasn’t left her house since she was an infant. Because of her illness, Maddy’s “experiences” with the outside world are ones she gains vicariously through movies, the internet, and her beloved books. While Maddy initially believes that this kind of experience is all she’ll ever be able to safely have, her budding romance with Olly leads her to question whether her life and health are actually more important than what she might gain by experiencing the outside world firsthand. Through Maddy’s trip to Hawaii and her later discovery that her SCID diagnosis is illegitimate, Everything, Everything insists forcefully that gaining experience is worth the risk to one’s innocence and safety—and at times, denying a person experiences actually does more harm than anything else.

When the reader first meets Maddy, it’s clear that she has worked hard to come to terms with all the things she’ll never be able to experience in real life. Instead of dwelling on this, Maddy turns to books and very consciously enjoys them in the same way she might otherwise enjoy these experiences firsthand. Because of this, Maddy is able to vicariously experience life “Outside” and uses her imagination to enjoy everything from kissing to the ocean and having real friends. This doesn’t mean, however, that Maddy has never wanted to see what life is like Outside: in a diary entry from when she was eight years old, she wrote about a family with children around the same age who moved in next door. Seeing them made Maddy desperately want to go outside and play with them, something she was never able to do. This was a major formative experience for Maddy, as it impressed upon her that wanting to experience life Outside would never bring her anything but heartache. Vicarious experiences through books and movies, meanwhile, allow her to safely engage with the outside world both emotionally and physically.

Maddy’s world begins to open up when Olly and his family move in next door, in the same house where the children lived when Maddy was eight. Maddy is immediately curious about Olly, but she also proceeds with caution as they begin emailing, instant messaging, and getting to know each other—her last experience taught her that there’s no way getting close to Olly will ever end well. Despite these reservations, Maddy soon discovers that everything Olly can tell her about, as well as Olly himself, is intoxicating. He can tell her, for instance, what it’s like to swim in the ocean, and once the school year starts, he makes a point to send her pictures and messages detailing exactly what his school day is like. This, combined with the experience of having a real, live boy whom she’s attracted to visit her regularly, forces Maddy to question whether it’s really in her best interest to actively deny herself even the desire for real experiences. After Maddy and Olly kiss for the first time, Mom eventually finds out what’s been going on. She fires Carla and bans Maddy from communicating with Olly. At this point, Maddy begins to truly take Carla’s advice—that love is worth the risk and potential pain—to heart. She comes to the conclusion that her life isn’t worth living if she doesn’t get to experience at least some of what the world has to offer before she dies, which leads her to secretly apply for a credit card and purchase plane tickets for her and Olly to visit Hawaii.

Being in Hawaii is a transformative experience for Maddy, and for the most part, it helps her come to a better understanding of herself and of the world around her. She and Olly snorkel, jump off cliffs, and have sex—all things that make Maddy feel more whole, human, and alive. With this, the novel suggests that experiences like these are what make life work living. Disaster strikes after only a day on the trip, however, when Maddy becomes deathly ill. For the few months that it takes her to recover, Maddy cuts things off with Olly and tells herself that she doesn’t regret what she did—but it’s not worth it to try again. However, things begin to change when two months later, the doctor who treated Maddy in Maui writes and shares that from what she could tell, Maddy doesn’t actually have SCID. Instead, she allows that while Maddy did experience a serious heart problem, what happened to her is something that could’ve happened to anyone. This leads Maddy to discover that Mom fabricated Maddy’s SCID diagnosis after the tragic deaths of  Maddy’s dad and brother.

Through this, and Maddy’s appointments with specialists in the weeks after the discovery, the novel reveals the true and very basic value of life experiences and the consequences of attempting to protect someone the way Maddy’s mom tries to protect Maddy. Because Maddy has spent her entire life in a sanitary environment, her immune system is like that of an infant—she doesn’t have the ability to fight off the sorts of viruses and bacteria that healthy people’s immune systems learn to guard against as children. In this way, Mom actually made Maddy less safe and less prepared to handle everything the outside world has to offer, even if her intentions were good. With this, Everything, Everything insists that while books and movies may teach valuable lessons, those lessons are no substitute for real experiences. People’s emotional development, growth, and overall health depend on experiencing the world firsthand, whether that means simply stepping outside or traveling hundreds of miles.