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Chapter 13: Stella
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Five Feet Apart, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Sacrifice
Death, Grief, and Guilt
Risk and Consequences
Survival, Terminal Illness, and Hope
Hardship and Family Dynamics
Summary
Analysis
Will heads back from the pre-op room still dressed in scrubs. He stops when he sees Stella’s parents. They’re arguing over trivial things. Barb enters, and she chastises Stella’s parents, telling them to act like adults since Stella is fighting for her life for their sake. Will thinks about how hard it must be for Stella’s parents to lose a child and then each other. Will’s own dad left when Will got sick because he couldn’t deal with having a terminally ill son. Will reflects that Stella has been taking care of her parents and him. He considers that he should start taking care of himself since he’s almost 18.
Stella’s family dynamic is seriously disrupted by both her cystic fibrosis and Abby’s death, but finally, Barb points out to Stella’s parents that they are neglecting their responsibilities as parents of a chronically ill child. Barb’s words spark action in Stella’s parents and also in Will. Will finally sympathizes with Stella and understands why she places a high value on longevity and taking care of her health. In fact, Barb’s words even prompt Will to look inward and realize—for the first time— that he does want to strive for longevity. Will’s feelings for Stella contribute to his newfound desire to live longer, so that he can spend more time with her.
Themes
Barb sees Will and angrily drags him back to his floor. She reiterates that him being physically close to Stella could kill her. Barb tells Will that when she was a young nurse, two young cystic fibrosis patients—Trevor and Amy—fell in love. Amy had B. cepacia and, because Barb let them get close to each other, passed it on to Trevor. Trevor lived only two more years, and Amy lived for ten more. Will understands that Stella catching the infection from him would be the worst outcome he can think of.
Barb has always been stricter about the hospital rules than the younger nurse, Julie. Now, it is clear why that is—Barb feels guilty due to letting past patients take risks, and Barb learned that, when it comes to cystic fibrosis, many risks are not worth the consequences. Of course, Barb’s feelings of guilt are not completely justified—just like Stella’s. It’s not Barb’s fault that two patients died of cystic fibrosis, and it’s not Stella’s fault that Abby died.
Themes
