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68. Madeline’s Dictionary; The Observable World
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
Olly and Maddy kiss until Olly’s stomach growls. Maddy suggests they get something to eat and pulls the blankets up to her chest. Olly walks around naked, grinning. Maddy feels like everything is different, but exactly the same. They’re both the same people, but Maddy also feels known. They go to a restaurant right by the ocean. As they eat, they sit close to each other and don’t stop touching and kissing. Maddy wonders why they keep laughing and wonders if it’s because the world seems extraordinary. When they’re finished, they head for the beach and sit in a secluded spot.
Maddy’s sense of feeling known speaks to how close she feels to Olly now, and how much she trusts him. This suggests that their sexual experience has allowed them to deepen their intimacy and trust each other even more with their bodies and their emotions, something that will show them what it’s like to be in a positive, healthy relationship.
Themes
Sitting on the beach, Olly tells Maddy that Olly’s dad apologized and cried after he hit Olly’s mom the first time. He says that Kara knew their dad was lying, but Olly and his mom believed he’d change. Olly’s mom encouraged Olly and Kara to forgive their dad. Olly says that his dad wasn’t violent for a year after this, but that he continued to drink and yell at all of them. Maddy asks why Olly’s mom doesn’t leave. Olly says he thinks that if his dad was violent more often, his mom would leave. As it is, his mom doesn’t think it’s that bad—and she always believes that Olly’s dad is sorry.
Given how Olly talks about his parents, it’s possible that he doesn’t trust his mom to care for him anymore—and given that Maddy has most often seem him defending her, it’s possible that their respective roles have shifted in the last few years. This suggests that Olly has had to grow up much too fast and take on extremely adult concerns, all without the adult guidance to figure out how to most effectively handle the situation.
Themes
Maddy reaches for Olly, but he pulls away. He says that Olly’s mom won’t talk about it anymore, but she used to say that Olly would understand once he was in his own relationships. She also says that love makes people crazy. Maddy asks if Olly believes this. Olly sidesteps, but says that he does believe it—he’s in Hawaii, even though he feels guilty for leaving his mom and Kara alone with Olly’s dad. Maddy says that she believes love makes people crazy, since she wouldn’t have left her house if not for Olly. Maddy tells Olly that he should leave home, since it isn’t safe. She realizes that Olly doesn’t understand this—like his mom, he’s trapped by memories of better times. She and Olly sit and watch the ocean.
Olly’s mom’s insistence that Olly would understand once he was in a relationship of his own suggests that in Olly’s mom’s mind, all relationships are somewhat dysfunctional or abusive—something that Maddy and Olly’s healthy and positive relationship shows clearly isn’t true. This shows how even when a person is able to exist in the world, as Olly’s mom does, it’s still possible for them to hold a view of what the world is like that’s just as narrow and misguided as some of Maddy’s views are.
Themes
