The Infinite Sea

“The world is a clock winding down. I hear it in the wind’s icy fingers scratching against the window. I smell it in the mildewed carpeting and the rotting wallpaper of the old hotel. And I feel it in Teacup’s chest as she sleeps.”

Cassie considers their situation in the hotel in terms of a metaphor, comparing their lives to a “clock” that has almost finished counting down. She personifies nature itself, emphasizing the impact it will have on their chances of survival, while also noting the decaying of the hotel and Teacup beside her. These three things—nature, manmade objects, and people themselves—all deteriorate as humanity reaches its end.

“Fire will consume the things we made from wood and plastic and rubber and cloth, then water and wind and time will chew the stone and steel into dust. How baffling it is that we imagined cities incinerated by alien bombs and death rays when all they needed was Mother Nature and time.”

Cassie extends the metaphor of the clock, then discusses the idea of time in a literal sense. While they face an existential threat of the Others destroying humanity, she notes the underlying fact that time itself will end up killing them, even if the Others don’t. She emphasizes the impact of natural elements like the wind, water, and fire destroying everything that humans once made.

“Think fast. Don’t panic. Like chess. Weigh the odds. Measure the risk. I have two options. Stay put until something develops or night falls. Or get out of these woods, fast.”

Ringer’s narration is permeated by her calm, calculated thinking. Here, she considers what to do when she finds the dead soldier against the tree. Central to her motivation throughout the novel is the idea of “risk.” With everything that she does, she calmly considers all of her options before making her move. This idea is represented through the motif of chess, as she considers each move as part of the larger picture.

“The trees are crowded with crows. Shiny black heads, blank black eyes, their hunched-shouldered silhouettes reminding me of little old men on park benches. There are hundreds of them perched in the trees and hopping about the ground.”

As Ringer realizes that someone is watching her in the woods, she notices the crows around her. Their presence creates a sense of danger and being watched, a fact emphasized through the diction in her description. She notices their “shiny black heads” and “blank black eyes” as they stare at her from the trees, drawing on cultural traditions that associate crows, ravens, and the color black with death and ill omen.

“I grab the collar of her shirt and rip downward, exposing her torso. I wad up the remnant and press it just below her rib cage, against the bullet hole weeping blood. She jerks at my touch with a strangled sob.”

As Ringer realizes that she shot Teacup, she desperately checks her wounds to see if she can be saved. The diction here, describing the wound as “weeping,” personifies her injury to impress upon the reader the tragic nature of the scene. Additionally, Ringer’s desperation is reflected in the words “grab,” “rip,” and “jerk,” words that convey just how much Ringer is impacted by what she has done.

“[Teacup] looks so beautiful, not even real, nestled in a bower of snow, her dark hair shimmering like onyx, her expression in sleep the indescribable serenity of an ancient statue.”

When Ringer believes that Teacup is going to die, she describes her in reverential terms, emphasizing the value that she holds for Ringer. She uses the word “onyx,” which connects her death to the chess pieces that Ringer so often discusses. In this way, Teacup is seen as both a pawn and a human: For the Others, she is simply a pawn that can be used to get to Ringer, while for Ringer she is an invaluable friend and ally.

“Burrowed in the bed next to his, another solemn, pint-sized soldier staring at me, the seven-year-old they call Teacup. The one with the adorable baby-doll face and haunted eyes who doesn’t share a bed with a stuffed animal; she sleeps with a rifle.”

Teacup, another younger child that connects to the novel’s motif of childhood innocence, is described by Cassie for the first time in a way that emphasizes how much childhood has changed in the apocalypse. At only seven years old, she is already a “soldier” who sleeps with a gun. This fact is juxtaposed with how she looks, small and “baby-doll” in her features.

“It’s all connected. The Others understood that, understood it better than most of us. No hope without faith, no faith without hope, no love without trust, no trust without love. Remove one and the entire human house of cards collapses.”

Cassie uses a metaphor to describe their situation in the hotel, comparing humanity to a house of cards. These thoughts emphasize the theme of The Value of Hope in Seemingly Hopeless Situations as well as the true weapon that the Others have. Their goal is to systematically destroy any hope for the human survivors, causing the rest of humanity to “collapse.”

“She stood up and disappeared from view again. When she came back, she was holding a frying pan. She sat next to him, placing the pan on the ground between them. She was studying him with the same haughty indifference as the crow.”

These thoughts occur to Evan when he wakes up and sees Grace, who cooks him food and tends to his wounds. Though the novel frequently parallels characters’ experiences, especially of tending wounds and healing, it is clear that Evan’s experiences with Grace juxtapose his experiences with Cassie. In particularly, the use of “haughty indifference” to describe Grace and the comparison to the crow underscores how little Grace cares about him. Rather than helping him out of love, she is doing so out of duty as a fellow Silencer.

“Now he was trapped, pinned down with no way out, and Evan realized in that moment how promises can be kept in the most unexpected of ways: He’d found Cassie by becoming her. Wounded, trapped beneath a car, unable to run, unable to rise, at the mercy of a faceless, merciless hunter.”

When Evan is trapped beneath the car, it marks a moment of change for his character. The “promise” he refers to is finding Cassie in the literal sense. However, in this moment, he realizes that he has “found” her in an emotional sense: For the first time, being trapped as she was, he understands her panic and her fear. Instead of seeing her with the cold detachment of most Silencers, he now feels as though he can truly understand her humanity.

“My spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal.”

Evan says these words to Grace when they first meet at the fair when they are younger, after she asks what he is thinking on the show grounds. It is a quote spoken by God in the Bible, Genesis 6:3. In God’s eyes, the limited lifespan of humans will allow them to repent for their sins and devote their lives to him before reaching the Kingdom of Heaven. This allusion lends insight into Evan’s feelings when he was younger, before becoming a Silencer, which in turns lends insight into Grace’s thoughts. In their eyes, they are better than humans, with their responsibility being to cleanse the Earth of them for the Others to inhabit it.

“He fought to keep [Cassie] alive while every night he left to kill the rest. Why should one live though the world itself will perish? She illuminated the lightless—her life the lamp, the last star in a dying universe. I am humanity, she had written. Self-centered, stubborn, sentimental, childish, vain. I am humanity. Cynical, naïve, kind, cruel, soft as down, hard as tungsten steel.”

As Evan flees Grace, he remembers the words that Cassie wrote in her notebook: “I am humanity.” These words become his mantra, encapsulating the book’s argument for Compassion as a Defining Element of Humanity. Humanity is not a matter of birth or genetics but of chosen values. Even if he is an Other, Evan can choose to be human. He is prepared to fully align himself with Cassie, turning his back on the Others, trying to kill Grace, and returning to Cassie.

“Covered in scabs and open sores and layers of dirt and grime, whittled down to her bones by the horrible cruelty of indifference and the brutal indifference of cruelty, she was one of us and she was all of us. She was the Others’ masterwork, their magnum opus, humanity’s past and its future, what they had done and what they promised to do, and I cried.”

The moment where Cassie and Ben find Megan, then Cassie is forced to strip Megan to search her body for implants, is filled with despair and sorrow. The literal wounds that Cassie finds on her body are a metaphorical representation of what humanity itself has been through. Even the youngest and most innocent of them—a child like Megan—has been damaged beyond repair by the Others.

“Stay here, we’re done. Bug out, we’re done. We’re like five-year-olds playing chess with Bobby Fischer.”

When they discover the incinerator inside Megan, Evan explains that it is likely a test to see if he is with them; these words are Ben’s response. He makes a reference to Bobby Fischer, often considered one of the best chess players of all time. Ben’s words convey his growing understanding of what Ringer, who is at the base, is also realizing at the same time: They are in a metaphorical game of chess with the Others, and they are outmatched.

“[Sam] asked for the gun back. I reminded him that having the gun didn’t help so much the last time: He’d emptied the magazine without even nicking the target. I tried to give him Bear. He rolled his eyes. Bear was so six months ago.”

When Sam asks for a gun after Megan’s arrival, Cassie instead tries to give him his Teddy Bear, which he refuses to take. Sam’s bear is an important symbol in The Fifth Wave that represents Cassie’s promise to find and protect Sam. Now, the symbol is discarded, emphasizing Sam’s forced maturation as he faces the brutality of the new world. Instead, he desires a gun, the only form of true protection.

“That’s a terrible thing, an awful burden to put on someone. You make your whole existence dependent on another human being and you’re asking for a world of trouble. Think of every tragic love story ever written. And I didn’t want to play Juliet to anybody’s Romeo, not if I could help it.”

As Cassie considers how tightly wound her life is with Evan’s, her thoughts explore the theme of Love as Both Bond and Weakness. Here, she alludes to Romeo and Juliet (1595), a tragedy by William Shakespeare. Protagonists Romeo and Juliet come from feuding families yet fall in love. At the end, seeing no other way out, they both die by suicide. This allusion encapsulates the relationship that Evan and Cassie have. They come from opposite sides of the ongoing war yet find love in each other. These words create a sense of foreboding around their relationship, giving the impression that they will meet the same, sad fate because of their intertwined love.

“I’d let my guard down. I’d forgotten how cruel the Others could be. Not enough to punch a hole through my heart with a bullet. No, first you have to pummel it and stomp on it and crush it in your hands until the tissue oozes from between your fingers like Play-Doh.”

After Grace tells Cassie that Sam is dead, Cassie realizes that she was lying just to taunt her, something the Others do repeatedly as a form of psychological warfare. This simile, which compares the Others controlling them to a child playing with Play-Doh, lends insight into just how helpless Cassie feels. The Others have sowed such mistrust and doubt within the remaining humans that they feel as though they are helpless, inanimate objects like Play-Doh.

“The plastic sandwich bag that he found just outside the hotel doors didn’t crinkle. It was much softer. There was no noise when he pulled it from his pocket. The bag slid out silently, as silent as he had been after he was told to shut up, shut up, shut UP.”

In Poundcake’s second and final point-of-view chapter, he crawls into the hotel lobby, then pulls the bag with the incinerator out of his pocket. The scene is compared to the small cake he found when searching for food for his mother and brother, which is also a “bag” in his pocket that did “crinkle.” This moment brings Poundcake’s story full circle, as he spends his final moments bringing justice to Grace in return for the Others who destroyed his life.

“Is the food real? Is the kid who brings the food real? The uncertainty of my own experience is crushing. I am drowning in an infinite sea. Sinking slowly, the weight of the lightless depths forcing me down, forcing the air from my lungs, squeezing the blood from my heart.”

After Ringer is shown the history of the world, she struggles to grasp what is real. Her words reference the title, the “infinite sea,” which describes how she feels under the constant struggle of fighting the Others. She is feels as though she is underwater as she is under constant psychological attack from the Others, stuck alone in a metaphorical sea.

“[Razor] leans against the wall, crosses his arms over his chest, and hums ‘Follow the Yellow Brick Road.’ I shake my head. Amazing. It isn’t that the lies are too beautiful to resist. It’s that the truth is too hideous to face.”

As Ringer tries to get Razor to believe that Vosch is bad, he hums the song “Follow the Yellow Brick Road” in response. This song is from the 1939 musical film The Wizard of Oz. In it, Dorothy wakes and finds herself in the magical kingdom of Oz. She seeks advice from the munchkin people, who break into song while advising her to “follow the yellow brick road” to find the Wizard of Oz for help. Ultimately, the Wizard proves to be a fraud and is unable to help Dorothy at all. Razor’s humming of the song lends insight into how he feels as Ringer tries to convince him of the truth: He sees Ringer as the Wizard, trying to lead him down a path of lies.

“It’s so ridiculous and childish that I would have smiled if I still smiled.

‘He’s safe!’ Razor bellows.

No. Not childish. Childlike. Eyes fever bright, voice rising in excitement, he’s ten again. Not all things are lost, not the important things.”

This scene, where Ringer and Razor play chaseball, serves as a reminder that the two are still children, despite the horrors they have experienced. This moment juxtaposes the reality of the situation they are in, as Ringer is a prisoner and Razor a brainwashed guard.

“I will keep her final promise to Claire, the beast who stripped her naked and baptized her in the cold water that still roars in the broken shower. I will keep Marika’s promise. Marika is dead, and I will keep her promise.

‘My name is Ringer.’

I pull the trigger.”

When Ringer kills Claire, it marks a change in her character, a fact that is reflected in the discarding of her old name. Now, she has moved beyond her humanity, as she has an augmented system and is stronger than any other human. Her exclusive use of “Ringer” moving forward is a metaphorical representation of that change, as she has now fully embodied the soldier and is prepared to do what she must to help humanity.

“I kiss him again. Our bodies pressed close. His cold face cradled in my colder hands. I can smell the bubble gum on his breath. The Earth is my charge. We are two pillars rising from an undulating sea of dazzling white. Limitless. Without borders, without boundaries.”

These words call back to Ringer’s previous feelings of being lost in an “infinite sea” (207). After she kisses Razor and escapes the base, she feels as though they are both “pillars” out of that sea, providing her with hope and a way out. These words mark a change in Ringer’s character as she finally values love and human connection.