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Chapter 39
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
After the procedure, the doctor tells Sammy they have to do one last test to see if the implant worked. Sammy sees memories of his past, including his crib, his teddy bear, and his mom standing over him. In just 90 seconds the doctor, who turns out to be Dr. Pam, has “mapped” him.
The fictional “mapping” procedure could be taken as an analogue for real-life ways of sorting children into different groups, like standardized testing or aptitude tests (particularly since Sammy arrived at the camp on a school bus). Dr. Pam claims to know everything about Sammy from the mapping process, but given that procedure only takes 90 seconds, it’s unlikely that that’s true.
Themes
