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Chapter 3
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
A male who seems to be about 18 (a little older than Cassie) is bleeding heavily. He still points his gun at Cassie and tells her to drop her weapon. But then he drops his own gun, too weak to hold it. He tells Cassie that he’s dying. Cassie wants to see both his hands empty, but he says he can’t move his one hand or else his guts will fall out. Cassie makes him show her the hand. When he does, she sees something shiny and shoots the boy, thinking it’s a gun. It turns out it’s actually a crucifix.
This chapter illustrates the dangers of Cassie’s distrustful way of looking at the world. A crucifix is a representation of the cross that Jesus died on. In the New Testament, Jesus is an innocent victim who gets killed by people who don’t understand him—in a similar way, the young man in his passage is an innocent victim. Cassie’s distrust of others is supposed to protect her, but it leads her to unintentionally harm others.
Themes
