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Chapter 32
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
Cassie wakes up from a fog in an unfamiliar bed, wondering if she’s still alive. She sees the teddy bear beside her on a pillow. She hears footsteps coming up stairs and wonders where her pistol is. A handsome young man in a red plaid shirt comes into the room. Cassie pretends to sleep, but the man, calling her by name, says he knows she’s awake. He says he saw her driver’s license and introduces himself as Evan Walker.
This chapter and the subsequent ones change the status quo for Cassie, who is suddenly no longer alone. Although Cassie has finally met another human who doesn’t seem to be trying to kill her, she still struggles to trust him, noting that he has taken her pistol and seems to have been looking through her things.
Themes
Evan says that Cassie is in his sister’s bedroom. Everyone else in Evan’s family has died. He found Cassie based on the buzzards circling over her. Cassie realizes that she’s connected to an IV, which Evan said he had even before the plague. Evan says he removed the bullet from Cassie’s leg and asks who shot her. Cassie says she doesn’t know but explains about the Others, who pretended to be soldiers and rounded up the kids in her refugee camp.
In another parallel in the novel, Evan and Cassie are each united by the fact that they have lost a sibling. While Cassie tries to deal with Sammy’s absence by dedicating herself to try rescuing him, Evan can’t help his dead sister, so instead he focuses on trying to help Cassie as if she were a family member.
Themes
Evan is surprised when Cassie mentions Sammy being taken to Wright-Patterson. He heard the base was destroyed by something called a “green bomb,” but he doesn’t know what that means or why it’s green. Cassie asks how long she’s been at Evan’s place, and he says a week. He tells her she was lucky that the bullet missed her knee—she didn’t need amputation.
The novel jumps around in time, with Part 1 having extensive flashbacks and now Cassie losing a week dure to her injury. This instability reflects the uncertain world that Cassie and the other survivors live in after the alien invasion destroyed their lives.
Themes
