Hardship and Family Dynamics Theme Analysis

Stella’s relationship with her parents changes after her sister Abby’s death, the event that is the catalyst of their divorce. Though Stella is still a teenager, she becomes fully responsible for herself as her parents become emotionally unavailable, and she takes on a caretaker role to her parents as well. She feels a constant responsibility to look out for them and ensure their wellbeing. Over the course of the novel the dynamic shifts back, as Stella’s parents recover and adapt to the loss of their first child, and they become responsible parents again who can provide comfort and stability to Stella. Stella also processes the loss of her sister over the course of the novel, and she is eventually able to comfortably reminisce with her friends and family about Abby.

Will’s relationship to his mother is also strained at the start of the novel. Will thinks that his mom is obsessed with curing Will’s disease for her own selfish reasons, and he doesn’t believe that she genuinely cares about or even knows him. Will unleashes his true feelings about his mom when she visits for his birthday, but shortly after she leaves he discovers that she had brought him a thoughtful birthday present of his favorite cartoon—a gift that only someone who pays close attention to him would get. Will realizes that though his mom could do better in many ways, he had a shortsighted view of her himself, and he has not always been the most loving son. Will eventually reveals to Stella that his dad left when he found out Will was sick. Will claims to be unaffected by his dad’s absence, but Will knows that his dad leaving has impacted his mom and made her even more overbearing about Will’s disease. By the end of the novel, Will and his mom are closer than ever before. The novel portrays both Will and Stella’s family lives as strained yet dynamic and flexible, suggesting that hardship within families—like death, separation, and terminal illness—may cause friction, but it can also motivate a family to become adaptable and even to bond over shared struggle.