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The Forest for the Trees
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Things We Didn’t See Coming, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Morality and Survival
Apocalypse vs. Routine
Body as Currency vs. Body as Liability
Wealth, Privilege, and Value
Care and Companionship under Crisis
Summary
Analysis
The narrator is trying to repair a roof, but his 14-year-old companion Jeph won’t help him, preferring instead to joke that “given the shape” of his body, the narrator needs exercise. Jeph’s rudeness drives the narrator crazy, but he also understands that as the only surviving child in a community with 27 adults, Jeph always gets away with it; even the elders don’t seem to object. The narrator studies Jeph’s face, with his dyed jet-black hair and his cool, cruel blue eyes.
The narrator has shifted worlds again, apparently leaving Margo and Juliet behind. Though it is not specified what killed the other children in the community, Jeph’s focus on the narrator’s body suggests that another epidemic (or perhaps a recurrence of the first one) is making its rounds.
Themes
The narrator hears a sound in the woods and tenses. Jeph mocks him for his worry, saying that the narrator will develop ulcers. The narrator thinks worry is “in the job description,” and he wonders if Jeph’s bad manners come from his strange life or from watching movies on his handheld device. Jeph is in the middle of a puberty-related growth spurt, and though he is sexually hungry all the time, he boasts that he is able to masturbate to “the bliss of the night sky” instead of pornography.
Jeph’s teenage rudeness (not to mention his obsessions with sex and video games) are another way in which the strangeness of the world is, in fact, familiar; Jeph’s bratty attitude is almost comfortingly adolescent. Interestingly, the narrator’s anxiety seems to grow with each chapter; this startled man is a far cry from the nonchalant thief of the earlier sections.
Themes
Jeph wonders if the narrator has ever slept with a man, taunting him with homophobic slurs. Despite his snark, though, the narrator has to admit that Jeph is a good worker—in just a short time, he has gathered all the wood the community needs. On the way back, Jeph argues that the narrator should carry the wood because he needs to strengthen his bones and muscles. The two do not talk on the way back, and the narrator muses that Jeph is probably thinking about how to get more food at mealtimes: “he is, after all, a growing boy.”
The homophobia Juliet was trying to avoid seems to persist in Jeph’s taunts. It is unclear whether Jeph’s fascination with the narrator’s body is born from some secret knowledge, or whether Jeph is merely curious about what lies in store for him after he goes through puberty. Again, Jeph’s status as a “growing boy” is one of the few forms of normalcy that the narrator still has access to.
Themes
Now, Jeph and the narrator are on dinner prep together. The narrator was technically hired by this community to do security, but Jeph’s care somehow became his responsibility, too. Jeph never takes an interest in any of the work the narrator gives him, and he doesn’t want to talk about his parents’ deaths, just 18 months ago. Unlike the narrator, Jeph hates the community’s commitment to “plain living” (without high-tech drugs). As Jeph points out, that commitment is why only half of the community has survived.
Just as the narrator found Margo’s stoicism to be more than he could take, this once-proud survivalist is disturbed by Jeph’s seeming lack of emotion over his parents’ death. The vulnerability of bodies is more deeply felt here than it has been in any of the novel’s previous eras, as people scramble to protect themselves not only from accidental diseases but from suspicious medicines.
Themes
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Jeph, noticing a freckle on the narrator’s face, suggests that he should get it looked at. For his part, Jeph feels very healthy, though he knows he might get some arthritis when he’s older, like his father had. In passing, Jeph mentions that the narrator has a “body full of problems”—and when the narrator presses on this phrase, Jeph looks away.
Jeph has clearly come into firsthand contact with illness and death, so his emphasis on the narrator’s failing body is not to be taken lightly. Still, Jeph’s eye for detail—from the narrator’s aching bones to this strange freckle—is unusual, and the narrator appears to suspect Jeph’s observations.
Themes
Jeph is polite at dinner, but as soon as the others leave, he is back to his lewd self. To get some peace, the narrator sends Jeph on a walk around the edge of the camp. Now, the narrator can start digging through Jeph’s stuff. This is risky, as it’s a violation of the group’s rules, which could subject the narrator to a spiritual investigation. But in a secret compartment of Jeph’s desk, the narrator finds what he suspected: an assay Jeph has run on him, without his knowledge or permission.
This community seems almost cult-like in its refusal of medication and its devotion to spiritual improvements. This passage also introduces an important term in “assay,” which is a test that summarizes one’s medical past and predicts all future health conditions. Given how private this information would be, it makes sense that Jeph’s secret assay on the narrator constitutes a massive betrayal.
Themes
The assay shows a variety of diseases: a melanoma (probably benign), degeneration in the narrator’s bones, and ulcers soon to express themselves. Worst of all, it shows a number of post-viral systems: sterility, impending erectile dysfunction, and vision loss. The assay also details the narrator’s past sexual experiments with men. In its final sentence, the assay show that everything, besides the sterility, is treatable.
Now, it becomes clear where Jeph found evidence for all of his speculations about the narrator’s body and sexual past. Upsettingly, in a time fraught with anxiety about vanishing resources and various kinds of personal and political insecurity, the narrator’s own body has become the fastest-draining resource of all.
Themes
Gripping the assay as if it is his “new bible,” the narrator returns to his bedroom, near Jeph’s in the central sanctuary. The narrator, who thought he had escaped the virus, wonders when he was infected—was it that day in the desert? He worries that his fear will alert animals to his presence, and he wonders if he should consult the elders.
The virus causing most of the narrator’s worse conditions is the same virus he and Margo survived together—though perhaps both of them got it, from the sick man at their camp, they just never showed any systems. The reference to the Bible again hints at the specifically Christian ideology that has been woven throughout this society’s various changes.
Themes
At the same time, the narrator knows that the elders might not allow him to get treatment; after all, they have forbidden assays for a reason. Given that he gave all his money over to the community, he could almost certainly not pay for his own treatments. The state will only jump in for emergency care, not for preventive help. That means he has only one option—relying on Jeph’s savings to get him to a clinic.
The state invented practical union contracts specifically so that it could place the burden of care on individuals, not on the government. The fact that the government will only pay for emergency care echoes a common critique of the American healthcare system, which prioritizes funding emergency rooms over regular check-ups and preventive care.
Themes
The next day, as Jeph works with the narrator to build a clay door, the narrator circles back to his medical troubles. Jeph expresses that everyone in this community is here by choice, but that isn’t true for the narrator: having signed the community’s covenant, he has put them in charge of healing him however they see fit, forfeiting many of his assets in the process.
Even in this seemingly bucolic community, material wealth is the key to safety and comfort. Jeph’s sense of agency comes in part from his youthful naivete, but also from the fact that he—unlike many in the community—has a great deal of individual wealth (inherited from his parents).
Themes
Jeph wonders if the narrator is not “man” enough to stay, wondering why everyone in the community (including the narrator) seems to lie each other; “you’re supposed to be somebody I look up to,” Jeph complains. They work on the door together, and the narrator wonders if Jeph’s help is in part a way of humiliating him. Finally, with disgust, Jeph asks the narrator what he's going to do about the assay.
Jeph’s desire to have a role model in the narrator perhaps mimics the narrator’s own complex relationship with Dad, who introduced the narrator to immoral (but useful) “defensive thinking.” But just as the narrator became (at least temporarily) disillusioned with Dad’s frightened approach to the world, Jeph now experiences the same thing with the narrator.
Themes
Originally, the narrator hadn’t wanted to bring Jeph along, but Jeph—who has all his dead parents’ money—has another plan. Jeph wants to see the city, and he promises to frame this whole thing to the elders as teenage disobedience, the narrator merely Jeph’s chaperone on his journey to see another way of life. They’ll return with food and meds, and though the elders will complain, they will love the new supplies.
Even the morally stringent elders see their principles break down when faced with material opportunities for food and medication. Jeph’s commitment to having a coming-of-age ritual shows that he, too, longs for the world of the past—even if he was never really alive to experience it.
Themes
As they drive away, Jeph takes in the farms, guarded by sentries holding guns. The narrator asks why Jeph got his assay done, and though Jeph claims it was an act of concern, the narrator knows that Jeph did it for control. Jeph presses the narrator to let him drive, and remembering that his life is in Jeph’s hands, the narrator relents. They speed closer to the city; Jeph is driving like he’s in a video game. The narrator considers bringing Jeph to a flesh club or the markets, but he decides to steer them straight to the clinic.
If bodies can be a liability, then knowledge about bodies—either one’s own or someone else’s—can be a valuable tool of control (as Jeph has discovered). As the world gets more and more dystopic, the few impractical routines that remain center on entertainment (video games), sex (flesh clubs), and capitalist exchange (the markets).
Themes
The short-skirted woman at the clinic is skeptical that Jeph and the narrator, both unwashed, can afford treatment. But Jeph’s money is clearly real, and in an instant, the narrator is snapped up by a series of specialists. They “twist” his bones, “zap” his insides, and give a variety of “transdermal” medicines. When the narrator leaves, he sees a man with a damaged hand arguing with the staff—he cannot afford treatment. Jeph could pay for it, but he refuses.
Juliet’s stores of wine, grassy lawns, and fresh vegetables demonstrated how much access to simple pleasures is. now determined by wealth. But this scene suggests that, in the novel, inequity is felt most of all in healthcare: the narrator’s treatments take only a few minutes, but a man without money is denied this simple care just because he does not have enough funds.
Themes
After Jeph crudely flirts with the receptionist, who has given him “a little fix for his puberty,” the two head back on the road. In the car, Jeph boasts that his money will allow the narrator to outlive all the other elders, even to take over the community one day. Jeph wants to pick up a mother and daughter pair of hitchhikers (“one for you, one for me”), but the narrator refuses, prompting Jeph to call him a “virgin.”
Jeph’s rabid desire again echoes a younger version of the narrator, who had similar thoughts about Jenna and the receptionist at the country hotel. Now, however, the narrator is skeptical of such lustful thinking. It is also worth noting that this futuristic system of medication further disrupts the rhythms of normal life, as puberty is now considered something to be “fix[ed]” instead of experienced.
Themes
As they get closer to the buildings, the narrator starts to feel claustrophobic, despite the mass of air-filtration plants on either side of the road. Jeph wants to stay longer, but the narrator forbids it—until Jeph threatens to tell the elders that the narrator “forced” him to come to the clinic and stole his parents’ money. In fact, Jeph threatens, if he wants to stay in the city indefinitely, there is nothing the narrator can do to stop him.
Jeph’s cruelty can be read as a personality trait, but it can also be seen as commentary on the stakes of survival: as a vulnerable, orphaned teenager in an already vulnerable world, Jeph’s scheming might be a necessary tool to get him what he needs.
Themes
Quickly, the narrator pockets some of Jeph’s money, without the teenager noticing. The narrator feigns itchiness, blaming the medication, and he convinces Jeph to take over driving. Then the narrator jumps out of the car into a ditch, leaving Jeph to figure the car’s machinery out for himself. For a few minutes, Jeph pleads with the narrator to return. But then Jeph turns the car back into drive and heads deeper into the city, and the narrator is alone again.
Just a few days ago, the narrator was dismayed by the state of his body—but now, the narrator uses his health for treachery, another proof that the body can be either a liability or a tool. Jeph’s driving into the city in a stolen car is a near-exact echo (and reversal) of the narrator’s decision to drive further into the country after his grandparents died.
Themes
