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Chapter 12
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
The survivors at the refugee camp often wondered why they were the ones to survive. Supplies were dwindling, and they risked starving even without the Others intervening.
This passage shows the mental and physical challenges of surviving during an apocalypse. The suffering people have endured makes them less likely to want to put in the effort to keep surviving.
Themes
One day, Crisco found Cassie while she was trying to be alone in the woods. He told her about how they should fire a theoretical weapon called Fermi’s steam cannon at the Others. Crisco asked Cassie what she’d do if she only have 20 minutes left to live, then teased her that she’s probably a virgin. She got angry and hit Crisco, but Crisco said that at least Cassie is lucky that everyone she ever knew isn’t dead. Cassie took pity on Crisco and helped clean up the blood from the wound she gave him.
Although Crisco is rude and obsessed with worthless material possessions, this passage humanizes him by showing that the ways he acts out may be a response to the tragedies that he has suffered. While the novel shows how hardships can bring about resilience, it also shows how sometimes tragedy breaks people down and brings out their worse qualities as they try to cope.
Themes
