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October 2004
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Still Alice, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ambition and Success
Loss of Identity
Illness, Marriage, and Family
Alzheimer’s, Quality of Life, and Happiness
Summary
Analysis
Alice now struggles to follow the plot of movies but enjoys watching the video interviews her family made for her. One day, after watching one, Alice suddenly realizes she should be at her office. She frantically grabs her things and goes to the door to leave but is surprised to see a big hole in front of the door. She can’t remember when or how it was made, but then Anna calls and tells her she’ll be over later to bring her dinner because John is away. Alice agrees and hangs up the phone, deciding to go to her study rather than the office.
Alice has experienced what it is to forget what word is used to identify an object already (such as when she couldn’t identify “cream cheese” during breakfast with Lydia and John at Chatham), but her inability to recognize what to most would be obvious as a rug shows that she is now losing her ability to recognize what objects are. In this case, this inability leaves her imprisoned in her own home because she’s afraid of falling into the “hole” by the door.
Themes
Alice sits alone in her study waiting for Anna, but soon realizes she is “sick of just sitting and waiting.” She gets online to “find her new colleagues”: other people with early-onset Alzheimer’s. She only finds forums and resources for caregivers online, so Alice decides to call Denise Daddario and ask if there’s support for people her age with dementia. Denise tells her there are no support groups for patients but offers to see Alice herself. Alice declines and hangs up.
The lack of support groups for people with early-onset Alzheimer’s highlights one of the unacknowledged attitudes towards people with dementia. Alzheimer’s patients are seen merely as incapacitated, not as people who might appreciate support and a connection with other people who know what they are going through in the same way their caregivers do. For Alice, this means she has nothing with which to replace the loss of her work identity and colleagues.
Themes
Alice wakes up from a nap when she hears the door open. She goes out to see who it is and sees Anna “standing on the hole!” Confused, Alice bends down to feel the hole and realizes it’s her hallway rug. Anna asks her what she’s doing, but Alice is “too tired to endure the humiliating answer to Anna’s question.” Instead, Alice yells at Anna to leave her alone and tells her to get out of her house. Angry and hurt, Anna struggles to achieve “calm resolve” and tells Alice that she’s staying, and that she will eat dinner and then go to bed. Furious at the situation, Alice grabs the rug and throws it out the door.
Alice is a proud person, and the humiliation and frustration she feels with herself is taken out on Anna because she is the one who catches Alice in this embarrassing situation, much like the time John found Alice after she wet herself in their summer house because she couldn’t find the bathroom. This situation also forces Anna to take on a more maternal role towards Alice, once more reminding them both that Alice will soon be in a state of total dependence on her own children.
Themes
When Alice takes her “butterfly” quiz on her BlackBerry, she can no longer provide her full address or the day of Anna’s birth, but remembers what month it is and that she has three kids.
Alice is failing to provide even half the answers to her quiz, but at this point it is clear that she has either forgotten that she planned to end her life when she reached this point or that she is still not ready to follow through on her plan even though she is declining more and more each day.
Themes
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