Alyssa Sherwin

Mrs. Jenkins

EBA Honors English 10

08 Jan. 2019

The Fifth Wave ​Theme Analysis

The power is out, the streets are flooded, people get infected, silencers are trying to kill

you, your military turns the human population against you. How do you survive? ​In Rick

Yancey’s dystopian novel, ​The Fifth Wave,​ he uses the division of classes and government

control to warn his audience about the threat of putting all of their trust in the government.

Within the exposition, Cassie Sullivan describes her normal day at school. She’s texting

her best friend, dreaming about her school crush, and has everything together with her life: “I

was sitting in third period texting Lizbeth the last text I will ever send. I don’t remember exactly

what it said… A day for doodling and dreaming and wishing you were anywhere but Ms.

Paulson’s calculus class” (Yancey 29). Cassie then explains that nothing dramatic happened; the

lights just blinked out. This was the first wave! The everyday lives of people was affected by

eliminating their power. Without an energy source, people could not use cars, phones, or any

other source of technology to obtain help from other people; they were on their own. The author

included this in the novel because it visualizes, in depth, that this was only the beginning.

Cassie and Ben, ​who are the two protagonists​, have a problem with trusting others during

this time of crisis and go through many conflicts within themselves. Cassie is more of an

overthinker who has a hard time trusting because of the attack on her world: “The first rule of
surviving the 4th Wave is don't trust anyone. It doesn't matter what they look like” (8). Ben is a

teen in the “army” preparing for a battle against the others. Cassie is someone that starts to

overthink at the slightest sign of emotion and has a hard time trusting just anyone, ​which is

difficult for a lot of people at this time of crisis​. Cassie would represent someone who has trouble

trusting others and Ben would represent a zombie. After the first attack, Ben lost all emotions

and had a hard time finding a meaning in life. Even though trust and emotion was lost, they still

had the common sense and mental strength to continue on and survive the “waves”. In this novel,

we see two different types of characters who respond differently to critical situations: people

who are overthinkers​ and people ​who are numb​. Cassie is more analytical, while Ben is more

numb and emotionless during this time. These characters inform the readers about the different

ways people respond to stress. Even though everybody responds differently, we all need to find a

way to resolve stressful situations.

When Cassie and Ben both get back to the base to save Sam, Cassie’s brother, they find

that without help from others it is challenging. Cassie gets help from Evan, ​who was one of the

“others”​, to destroy the base that the aliens are at. Putting your full trust in everyone can surprise

you in the end and reveal the truth. Everyone thought the government officials were training kids

to fight against the others: “The last remnant of the world I knew ripped apart on a sunny, warm

Sunday afternoon… Then the school buses pulled into view. Three of them, bumper to bumper,

Packed with kids. Nobody expected that” (76). Instead, the kids were trained by the

“government” to defeat the human population: “ … ​we’re​ the 5th Wave” said Ringer, another

teen with Ben, (309).​ ​Evan was the one who protected Cassie and helped her defeat all of the

“others,” - the government - at the end of the novel.

 In the dystopian novel ​The Fifth Wave​, Yancey uses the division of classes and

government control to warn the audience about the dangers of putting all trust in the government.

The government in this book was not the actual government; they were government figures with

the “others” inside of them. The “others” made kids turn on the human population and kill them.

This novel made me realize how much we trust the government. We think everything they do is

beneficial to us or they are always helping us, but in reality they could be hurting us. There are

points when we have to act on our own and not trust the government for everything.