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Themes
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The 5th Wave, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave is about what happens to humanity after an alien invasion kills nearly all humans, leaving the ones left distrustful of fellow human beings. Near the beginning of the novel co-protagonist Cassie shoots a man with her M16, thinking that he was going to fire on her first. Although the man did point a gun at Cassie earlier, it turns out this time he was only reaching for a crucifix, suggesting that she may have killed an innocent man. The incident haunts Cassie, and yet it doesn’t resolve her trust issues: she still views all fellow humans as a potential threat, one she might need to shoot. Often, Cassie’s instinct to shoot is correct: in her world, sometimes it’s necessary to kill. But while Cassie’s killer instinct protects her, it also keeps her isolated from other humans she meets because she refuses trust them. As Cassie later learns, this lack of trust was always part of the aliens’ plan to subdue humanity by implementing the 5th Wave, with the few surviving humans killing one another off due to distrust. Trust, The 5th Wave suggests, is the very thing that holds society together.
The novel explores how belief is the ultimate form of trust. In some cases, this takes the form of religious belief. In contrast to Cassie’s killing of the Crucifix Soldier, her younger brother, Sammy, continues to say his prayers at night, even during the worst of the apocalypse. Unlike Cassie, he can remain hopeful and trusting, not just in God but in a better future for humanity. He takes Cassie’s word that she will come back to get him one day, and his belief is rewarded when she does exactly that. Still, the novel makes it clear that blind trust has its own pitfalls, as Sammy’s trusting nature allows him to get brainwashed into becoming a soldier for the aliens. Cassie’s skepticism protects her from that particular fate, and she ultimately helps Sammy snap out of his false beliefs and instead put all his trust in what really matters—the other surviving humans. Only by trusting one another and believing in a better future, the novel suggests, can Cassie and Sammy move forward toward rebuilding society.
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Trust and Belief ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Trust and Belief appears in each chapter of The 5th Wave. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Trust and Belief Quotes in The 5th Wave
Below you will find the important quotes in The 5th Wave related to the theme of Trust and Belief.
Chapter 1
Quotes
ALIENS ARE STUPID.
I’m not talking about real aliens. The Others aren’t stupid. The Others are so far ahead of us, it’s like comparing the dumbest human to the smartest dog. No contest.
No, I’m talking about the aliens inside our own heads.
The ones we made up, the ones we’ve been making up since we realized those glittering lights in the sky were suns like ours and probably had planets like ours spinning around them.
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Chapter 2
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Sometimes I think I might be the last human on Earth.
Chapter 4
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I went up to him before the last of the light was gone. Not to see if he was dead.
I knew he was dead. I wanted to see what he was still holding in his bloody hand.
It was a crucifix.
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Chapter 12
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The last time I saw him was through the back window of a school bus. His forehead pressing against the glass. Waving at me. And smiling. Like he was going on a field trip: excited, nervous, not scared at all. Being with all those other kids helped. And the school bus, which was so normal. What’s more everyday than a big, yellow school bus?
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Chapter 16
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“And Cassie? If someone tries to take that rifle from you, you tell them to bring it up with me. And if they still try to take it, shoot them.”
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Chapter 36
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“You want to compare yourself to an insect, Cassie? If you’re an insect, then you’re a mayfly. Here for a day and then gone. That doesn’t have anything to do with the Others. It’s always been that way. We’re here, and then we’re gone, and it’s not about the time we’re here, but what we do with the time.”
Chapter 44
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“Can we pray? Is that against the rules?”
“Sure you can pray. Just not out loud.”
Chapter 50
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“It’s about connection,” she says. She motions for me to sit down. She sits in front of me, takes my hands.
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Chapter 55
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“I had it all wrong,” he says. “Before I found you, I thought the only way to hold on was to find something to live for. It isn’t. To hold on, you have to find something you’re willing to die for.”
Chapter 57
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He whispers something. I bring my ear close to his mouth. “My name is Kenny.” Like it’s a terrible secret he’s been afraid to share.
His eyes roll toward the ceiling. Then he’s gone.
Chapter 60
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“Ben, we’re the 5th Wave.”
Chapter 66
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“You know we’re not coming back,” he says, and lights the match.
Chapter 80
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“I, um, I thought you might want this back.”
I pull out the battered old teddy bear and hold it toward him. He frowns and shakes his head and doesn’t reach for it, and I feel like he’s punched me in the gut.
Then my baby brother slaps that damned bear out of my hand and crushes his face against my chest, and beneath the odors of sweat and strong soap I can smell it, his smell, Sammy’s, my brother’s.
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Chapter 83
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I level the silencer at his chest as his hand emerges from the pocket.
The hand that holds a gun.
But my hand holds an M16 assault rifle.
How long is one half of one half second?
Long enough for a little boy who doesn’t know the first rule to leap between the gun and the rifle.
Chapter 90
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And then, instead of jumping onto the Humvee like a normal person, Ben Parish turns and races back for me.
I wave him back. No time, no time, no time no time no time no time.
Chapter 91
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I’m shaking. He must notice, because he puts his arm around me and we sit like that for a while, my arms around Sammy, Ben’s arm around me, and together the three of us watch the sun break over the horizon, obliterating the dark in a burst of golden light.
