Analyzing 'Everything, Everything': Illness Representation in YA Fiction, Study Guides, Projects, Research of Physics

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EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING

TEACHING ‘SICK LIT’: WHEN ‘EVERYTHING’ FALLS SHORT

By: Brooke Harvey

INTRODUCING EVERYTHING

Paperback March 7, 2017 Maddy, an 18-year old living with SCID, is confined to her home and round-the-clock care and testing by her physician mother and Carla, her in-home nurse. In quarantine, her only escape to the outdoors is through blogging and wayward ocean dreams. Until Olly moves in next door. This boy-meets-girl YA novel is about more than a teenage meet-cute: it speaks to the boundaries of bodies, space, and relationships, what it means to be an outsider, and how one lives with illness.

Love Sickness: Infecting Romeo & Juliet

“A Tale of Two Maddys” Teaching Idea: R&J (I.III) “She’s upset with the change she didn’t see coming. I resent and understand it at the same time. She’s had to control so many things to keep me safe in my bubble” (114). “Isn’t growing apart a part of growing up? Don’t I get to have even this bit of normalcy? Even so, I feel guilty. She’s devoted her entire life to me. Who am I to throw that away at the first sign of love?” (115).

Teaching Sick Lit with Everything,

Everything

Genre: Typically YA Fiction wherein illness (usually terminal) thwarts teen romance, or at the very least the life of a charming, but relatable protagonist whose wit and vintage Levi’s provide mere distraction from the grievous deep end of ‘adult’ problems into which the sick teen is thrown. Illness is seen as an instigator of the meet-cute. …sound familiar?

Teaching Sick Lit with Everything,

Everything

Falling Short: Once Maddy escapes to the ocean with Olly, we learn the truth. Out of grief, her mother (Pauline) claims that Maddy has SCID. Fear makes her want to protect her daughter from further harm, so she decides that Maddy has a disease which requires constant quarantine as a way to do so. She doesn’t look sick, and she isn’t.

Everything, Everything that is wrong:

ü Reinforces victim-blaming ü Reflects a lack of agency ü Reinforces visibility as a requisite of illness ü Propagates disease as something one must long to escape ü Continues to harm via ‘happily-ever-afters’ ü Reductively portrays medical expertise ü Presents illness as a choice for those with wealth and status

Life is (Long Enough) Spoiler Reviews

Activity:

• Example of constrained writing (word limit, language register, emojis)
• ‘Study Guide’ for lower grade reading lists
• Can extend to TV shows, Instagram accounts, food menus, etc.

“There are entire worlds that exist just beneath our notice of them.”

- Nicola Yoon