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Chapter 11
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The 5th Wave, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Trust and Belief
Survival and Perseverance
Warfare and Dehumanization
Family
Summary
Analysis
As Cassie continues to travel in the present, she thinks more about Sammy. The last time she saw him, he was going away in a school bus. By that point, Cassie and her surviving family members had made it to a refugee camp and been there for a couple weeks. The camp was about 20 miles from where they lived. There, they met a 13-year-old who went by Crisco and liked to collect old valuables like jewelry as a type of trophy. Crisco believed the barter system was coming back.
The barter system is trading goods and services directly, rather than by using money as currency. Although the novel suggests that holding on to a sense of humanity might mean holding onto the past, there’s also an implication that Crisco does things the wrong way, holding on to greed and materialism. This is why the valuables are described as “troph[ies].” Until the barter system actually comes back, the valuables are useless.
Themes
Hutchfield was the one in charge of the camp. He was a big former marine with a shaved head. When Cassie, her dad, and Sammy first arrived, Hutchfield was suspicious of them, but he ultimately let them in.
Hutchfield is the first of many characters in the novel who represents military-style discipline as a form of leadership. Although it seems at first like his toughness is a necessary adaptation to the dire conditions on Earth, the novel goes on to question whether this style of leadership is really for the best.
Themes
