The Themes In The 5th Wave By Rick Yancey

There are many themes in Rick Yancey’s The 5th Wave. One theme that is very important in the novel is the idea that love can drive people to go on past their limits. This is shown in the way that many of the characters are driven to keep surviving for the people they love. Another shows that war cannot change who you really are in your core, as many characters’ actions prove throughout the book. In addition, the concept that people are defined by the choices they make is brought to the attention of the reader many times through the many series of choices the characters are forced to make. The idea that love can drive people to go on past their limits is prominently displayed in The 5th Wave. There are many instances in which the characters

Many characters go through changes, but they do not truly change on the inside. For example, Cassie is very different before the Arrival than after. Before the Arrival, Cassie was more quiet and not as outspoken around the people at her school and everywhere, but after she is a lot more outspoken and brave. However, she was always passionate about her family and loved them deeply, as she shows in flashbacks to before the Arrival. In the flashbacks, she describes how her mom and dad named her Cassiopeia because they thought the name was pretty, not for the constellation, and how she and her father were alike in the ways that they liked history and to read. She says this with love and nostalgia, as she realizes the world is most likely never going to be the way it was, and this shows how much she really cared about them. She believes that in the end, family and those you love is crucial to survival. In addition, Ben thinks he has changed through the training at Camp Haven, but he was mostly the same person on the inside. He was a big flirt in high school and still is after the Arrival, as he presents in how he tries very, very hard to get Ringer, a girl in his squad that he likes, to smile. He is very persistent in his charms and quirks in trying to get her to smile for a long time, just the way he would have as the high school football star he used to be. Even through everything he went

There are many times that the characters are forced to make life-changing choices. In the beginning of the book, Cassie comes across a man in a soldier’s uniform with a large abdominal wound while she is searching for supplies in a gas station. She does not know if he is human or not, so she has to choose to trust him, shoot him, or leave him. This choice is very reflective on who she is as a person, as whichever one she chooses can change what kind of person she is. If she decided to trust him, she could be betrayed and he could kill her, but if she left him there and he was a human, she would have to live with the guilt forever. If she shot him, she would not have to worry about trusting him, but then she would have either killed another human or an alien, which could make her a murderer or fighter. In the end, she kills him, so she does not have to trust him, displaying how resolved she was not to trust anyone that she would rather kill than take the chance and trust someone that could end up betraying her. In addition, when Cassie was under the car after she was shot, she had a choice to stay with no other possible outcomes other than death, or leave and most likely die. She made the choice to get up as there was still a chance she could get back to Sammy, whereas there would be no chance at all if she stayed under the car. This choice shows how selfless and determined Cassie is