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Chapter 73
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
Cassie fakes an injury in front of one of the buses heading to the camp. Parker is on the bus, and Cassie silently panics, because he’s seen her before, and she’s supposed to be dead. But holding Sammy’s teddy bear, she looks younger.
Cassie’s ability to look younger than her age (both because of her new haircut and because of the teddy bear) is a reminder of how she’s at a transitional time in her life, when she’s taking on more new adult responsibilities by the day but when a part of her is still a child.
Themes
Cassie goes through the same welcome process at the base as Sammy. Dr. Pam puts a chip in her and prepares to do the Wonderland procedure. While Dr. Pam is bending over, Cassie smashes the doctor’s head down to try to knock her out. Cassie then pulls the tracker out of her neck with her nails.
By now, the procedure with Dr. Pam has already played out two times before (first with Ben, then with Sammy). Cassie, however, refuses to buy into Dr. Pam’s authoritative manner and disrupts the whole process. Cassie’s ability to pull out her tracker with her bare nails shows her primal determination to do what it takes to survive.
Themes
Cassie finds a computer that should be able to give her Sammy’s number. But when that doesn’t work, she goes to Plan B—using the silver device in Dr. Pam’s hand, which could accidentally kill Sammy if she hits the wrong button.
The fact that Cassie has a Plan B shows how much she has prepared for this moment. Still, Cassie faces an unfamiliar military base full of unfamiliar technology like the silver device, showing how there are some things she can’t plan for.
Themes
