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3. Brthdae Uish
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Everything, Everything, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Coming of Age
Trust and Lies
Family, Abuse, and Bravery
The Value of Experience
Summary
Analysis
Maddy is reading on her white couch when Carla arrives the next morning and wishes her happy birthday in Spanish. Carla knows exactly how Maddy and Mom celebrated, and declares that it’s sweet how close Mom and Maddy are. She notes that Rosa, her 17-year-old daughter, will barely talk to her. Maddy thinks that she can’t imagine being like that with Mom. As Carla moves to take Maddy’s blood pressure, she asks why Maddy is reading Flowers for Algernon again—it always makes her cry. Maddy says that she’s certain that one day she won’t cry when she reads it, and hopes that maybe things will change someday. Maddy tells the reader that Flowers for Algernon is about a mouse named Algernon, who dies.
While Maddy may be aghast that Carla and Rosa aren’t on the best of terms right now, their relationship also reflects the fact that Rosa has the ability to move away from her mother and begin to develop her own identity, something that, in this case, comes with some strife and struggle. Maddy’s inability to imagine what this is like speaks to her belief that nothing will ever change in her relationship with Mom—and suggests that Maddy’s identity is wrapped up entirely in her relationship with her mom.
Themes
