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Chapter 19: Stella
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Five Feet Apart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Sacrifice
Death, Grief, and Guilt
Risk and Consequences
Survival, Terminal Illness, and Hope
Hardship and Family Dynamics
Summary
Analysis
Will’s mom visits for his 18th birthday. He watches as she argues with Dr. Hamid about the results of the drug trial—it hasn’t helped so far. Will reminds his mom that since he’s an adult now, he’s not going to any more hospitals after this trial is over. His mom is angry and tells him that she just wants to keep him alive. Will yells that she only sees his sickness and doesn’t even know who he is, what his hobbies are, or what he likes. When she leaves, Will unwraps her gift and finds that it’s an original signed copy of one of his favorite political cartoons.
Will feels that his mom is selfish because she forces him to undergo drug trials when all Will wants is to live a normal life outside of the hospital. But seeing his mom’s gift makes Will realize how well she actually does understand him. Will and his mom simply have different views around his sickness and treatment, and this complicates their relationship.
Themes
Will spends the rest of the day feeling guilty. He realizes that his mom just wants to have more time with him and that he’s the one who’s been selfish. Late in the day, Will wakes up from a nap to see a text from Stella. He opens his door to find a yellow balloon with a clue attached to it. Stella’s clues lead Will on a scavenger hunt all around the hospital and eventually to the cafeteria. He finds Stella, Poe, Jason, Hope, Camila, and Mya all waiting for him. Will is thrilled. Poe cooks for everyone, and they all eat together as they tell stories and laugh.
The hard work that Stella put into the scavenger hunt shows how deeply she has come to care for Will. Stella, Poe, and Will are breaking the hospital rules by hosting this gathering, but they deem the risk worth the potential consequences if it means they can enjoy closer human contact for once. Cystic fibrosis limits all of their lives so extremely that sometimes it’s worth breaking a rule if it allows them to have fun and socialize.
Themes
