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Chapter 8: Will
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
When Stella wakes up the next day, she notices that the skin around her G-tube is infected. If it doesn’t clear up with medication, she will need surgery. Stella meets her mom in the hospital cafeteria for lunch. She doesn’t mention the infection so that her mom doesn’t worry. Over lunch, Stella’s mom cries as she tells Stella how happy she is that Stella beat the odds and is living through adolescence. Stella thinks about how her lung function is at 35 percent, and she resolves that she has to keep herself alive until she gets a lung transplant, for her parents’ sake.
A G-tube, short for gastronomy tube, is a tube that is surgically attached directly to the stomach. Some cystic fibrosis patients receive nutrients and medicine through G-tubes because their bodies don’t efficiently absorb nutrients from the food they eat. It's becoming more and more clear why Stella is so preoccupied with her treatments—her parents truly do seem to depend on her since Abby’s death and their divorce. Stella’s health is worse than her parents think it is, and keeping the truth from them means that they can’t support and reassure her. Stella doesn’t think her parents are capable of being emotionally present for her at this time, so she deals with her health problems alone while also trying to support her parents.
Themes
Stella and Will go to the gym together. They both struggle—Stella pedals a stationary bike while Will walks on a treadmill across the room. After, they head to an empty room in the gym so that Will can draw Stella. Stella goes through her “master” to-do list with Will. “Sistine Chapel with Abby” is on the list, but it’s not crossed out yet. Will says he wants to travel the world someday without being in hospitals the whole time. He compliments Stella’s eyes. Stella reflects on how they will never be able to close the six feet of distance between them.
Will and Stella struggle to do low-intensity exercises at the gym because they both have very weak lungs, but the activity is good for them. Stella hasn’t visited the Sistine Chapel with Abby because Abby has passed away, but Will still does not know this. As Stella and Will’s feelings for each other grow stronger every day, Stella begins to resent how cystic fibrosis prevents her from living a normal life.
Themes
Later, Stella scrolls through more posts of her friends in Cabo. She opens a folder of pictures and videos of Abby, and watches a video of Abby bungee jumping off a bridge. In the video, Abby holds Stella’s favorite stuffed animal and wishes Stella happy birthday. Stella spills a drink and leaves her room to get a mop. In the hall, she accidentally wakes Barb, who was asleep in a chair. Barb opens her arms and Stella climbs into her lap, which she used to do when she was a young child.
When Abby was alive, she was Stella’s biggest supporter, and she engaged in extreme sports like cliff jumping so that she could experience all that life had to offer, since Stella couldn’t. Abby always recorded her adventures for Stella. Watching the recordings makes Stella emotional, as Abby ended up dying in a cliff diving accident. Stella climbing into Barb’s lap shows that the hospital staff has become like her family, and also illustrates the importance of human touch, which Stella can’t have with Will or even Poe.
Themes
