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Chapter 29
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
Zombie prefers his new hospital wing, which smells better than the old one. Chris is gone. Zombie looks out his window and sees yellow school buses escorted by Humvees coming in. Zombie feels like the base must be a big target for the aliens and worries about how conspicuous it is.
The yellow school buses provide a hint of how Cassie’s story will intersect with Zombie’s. This contradicts Cassie’s earlier claim that she might be the last person on the planet.
Themes
Just when Zombie has given up all hope for the future, a man in uniform comes to visit him. He introduces himself as Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vosch, the commander of the base. He says Zombie had a very interesting Wonderland profile. He theorizes that the Others killed so many humans so quickly in order to destroy morale. He tells Zombie that he knows from his Wonderland profile that he ran away from Sissy when she needed him. Zombie says she’s dead now. Vosch says he knows Zombie himself is hopeless and wants to die, but Vosch can mold him like clay to make him into something new—Vosch’s masterpiece.
This passage has dramatic irony because although Zombie sees Vosch as a compassionate leader, Cassie’s side of the story has already revealed that Vosch is capable of taking part in a mass murder. In that context, this passage becomes more sinister. Although the novel as a whole explores the need to hold on to belief even when it’s difficult, this passage explores how faith and belief can become liabilities when placed in the wrong people.
Themes
