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Chapter 58
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
Ben goes with Ringer back to the debris of the tanker truck. Ringer asks how it’s possible to tell if you’re “going Dorothy,” since a crazy person doesn’t realize they’re crazy. Ben is surprised how unnerved she seems. Poundcake opens fire, and Ringer and Ben run separate ways, but Ringer slips on some ice. Ben considers what to do for a moment before stopping to get her and take her to cover.
Ben thought that Ringer was the most competent and level-headed of his squad mates, but she ends up being the first to question whether she is losing her sanity. This again reflects how training doesn’t necessarily line up with the real world, an idea that applies not just to warfare but to the process of growing up and going out into the real world in general.
Themes
Ben takes Ringer to a building that looks like it used to be a boutique. Ringer has been wounded on the neck, but it turns out to be superficial. Ben notes that the sniper seems to have bad aim. He reminds Ringer that because the sniper didn’t light up green, they don’t have authorization to kill. Ringer says all that matters is that the sniper is shooting at them—so she’ll shoot back.
Yet again, the clear rules that Ben and Ringer learned during their training about who is or isn’t an enemy prove to be ineffective on the actual field of battle. Ben’s hesitance to shoot someone, even someone shooting at him, shows his cautious and trusting nature, while Ringer’s resolve to shoot anyone who shoots at her, even without official authorization, shows how she is more reckless.
Themes
Ringer questions their whole mission, including whether Wonderland is really an alien invention that humans discovered. All of a sudden, Ringer asks Ben to use her knife to cut the chip implant out of her neck. Ben wonders if she’s “going Dorothy.” Ringer wonders what if their bosses are the real aliens, not the people in green. Ben refuses to cut her chip out, so she says she’ll do it herself. Ben grabs the knife and throws it away.
Although the novel has given hints that Ben and Ringer’s bosses may be in league with the aliens—or may be aliens themselves—Ringer is the first character to openly voice this theory. The chip implants in the neck suggest that Ben and Ringer’s bosses want to control them like machines, and so Ringer’s attempt to get rid of the chip is an attempt to get back her humanity.
Themes
Ben is afraid of the way Ringer is acting, and he’s worried she’ll shoot him. He reveals his real name to her, but she doesn’t give him hers. Ringer gives more reasons to take out the tracker and at last convinces Ben to remove hers with a knife. He does so, then is shocked when her head lights up green.
Although this passage isn’t necessarily romantic, it is intimate in a way. Ben trusts that Ringer is telling the truth, while Ringer trusts Ben with a knife at her neck. The fact that Ringer suddenly lights up green (for infected) seems to suggest that Ben has been tricked, but the cliffhanger chapter ending leaves things uncertain, capturing the uncertainty the characters feel after making themselves vulnerable.
Themes
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