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Chapter 45
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
Nugget continues coming over to Zombie at night to say his prayer. Zombie is surprised at how quickly Nugget adjusts to camp life, although he did get scared during his first air raid drill. When Nugget causes the whole group to fall behind time on the air raid drill, Tank gets mad at Zombie, saying they should have just left Nugget behind. As Tank gets angrier, pointing his rifle at Nugget, Dumbo warns Zombie that Tank is beginning to resemble Dorothy, a recruit who snapped and started shooting her fellow recruits.
Not long ago, Sammy was a regular five-year-old boy holding a teddy bear. That fact that even he eventually gets used to his harsh military training demonstrates how quickly people adjust to new circumstances—particularly when they have no other choice. The code name Dorothy could be a reference to the Wizard of Oz, suggesting someone who acted irrationally, as if she went off to a land of fantasy. But the name could also suggest someone who saw behind the curtain and realized that things aren’t what they seem to be, raising the question of whether Dorothy was as crazy as her reputation suggests.
Themes
Tank says things are hopeless—the aliens know where their base is and only haven’t struck it yet because it doesn’t matter. Finally, he lets his guard down, and the other recruits tackle him to get his rifle away. Zombie wonders if maybe Tank has a point about their cause being hopeless.
Tank’s mental breakdown seems to coincide with him losing hope in the future. As this passage shows, when Tank gives in to hopelessness, it causes him to turn against the people around him, showing why it is dangerous to lose hope.
Themes
