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Chapter 34
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
Evan leaves the farmhouse at night to hunt and gives Cassie her first real meals in a long time. Cassie says that she’s surprised Evan has stayed in the same place the whole time. He says he was taking care of his younger siblings after his parents died of the plague. His girlfriend also died, and Cassie is the first person Evan has seen since the death of his younger sister. In their absence, he has kept up a routine in order to feel more human.
The novel explores how each character has their own way of trying to hold on to humanity during the apocalypse. For both Evan and Cassie, the answer seems to be family. In Evan’s case, his actual family isn’t alive (and Cassie herself can’t be sure about Sammy), so what becomes important instead are the reminders of family that remain, like Evan’s farmhouse or Sammy’s teddy bear.
Themes
