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Chapter 5: 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
The day after Will is on the roof, he exits his room to see Stella across the hallway. She stays far away from him and wears multiple pairs of gloves and masks. Stella demands to see Will’s treatment plan, and he has to search his room to find it. Stella is frustrated to find that he has drawn comics all over the paper, and she knows that Will has not been doing his treatments properly. Stella urges him to take his treatments seriously, and they argue briefly. Angered, Stella walks away. Will follows her.
Stella later explains that she feels guilty about Abby’s death, and this is why she places so much value on her own life. It seems that her guilt carries over to others, too, and plays a part in how hard she works to protect Will’s longevity. Her care for him may also simply be a sign that she likes him, despite how much he frustrates her.
Themes
Will follows Stella to the neonatal intensive care unit. Through a window, they watch a premature baby struggle to breathe as it’s hooked up to various machines. Stella remarks that the baby is fighting for its life by instinct. Will tries to cut Stella off, but she continues, saying that Will must follow his regimen. Stella explains that she has “control issues,” but Will can tell that there is a deeper reason she’s so concerned with his treatment. They make a deal that Will will follow his treatment plan if he can draw Stella. He calls her beautiful.
Stella uses the premature baby as an example to illustrate to Will that he should want to survive as long as possible—that life is intrinsically worth fighting for. The deeper reason Stella cares about Will’s treatment is that she feels responsible for the lives of people around her since Abby died. Stella feels partially responsible for Abby’s death, even though Abby died in a random accident.
Themes
When Will gets back to his room, he meets Poe for the first time. They sit in the doorways of their rooms and talk. Will explains that he’s at Saint Grace’s hospital for a drug trial for B. cepacia. Will recalls when he first contracted the bacteria. He was coughing a lot one morning, and his mom rushed him to the hospital. Will’s mom has always been overly cautious about his health since he has cystic fibrosis, but this time she was right that there was a problem. As soon as he was diagnosed with B. cepacia he was taken off the list for a lung transplant. Will tries to hide his disappointment as he explains this to Poe.
Poe and Will must speak to each other from their respective rooms because cystic fibrosis patients have to stay six feet away from each other at all times, as they are highly susceptible to carrying and catching infections. Will typically acts like he doesn’t care about living a long life, but when he tells Poe about his conditions it becomes clear that his feelings about having a terminal illness are more complicated than he lets on.
Themes
As Will and Poe talk more, Will can tell that Poe and Stella are very close. He wonders if they have ever had a romantic relationship. Poe says they couldn’t, because cystic fibrosis patients can’t touch each other. Will dismisses this—he’s had a lot of sex since he’s been diagnosed, though he doesn’t ever have romantic feelings for girls because he moves hospitals frequently. Will is jealous as Poe describes how much he loves Stella, but eventually Poe reveals that he’s gay. Will is relieved.
At this point, Will doesn’t admit to himself that he has romantic feelings for Stella, but it is clear that he does. Since he doesn’t usually have strong feelings for girls, his connection to Stella seems to be special. Will’s dismissal of Poe’s concern speaks to Will’s attitude of completely ignoring the precautions he’s supposed to take to protect himself and others from B. cepacia.
Themes
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