Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon Book Analysis

“Everything, Everything” written by Nicola Yoon, is a story that follows the life of an 18-year-old girl who isn’t able to leave her house due to SCID (Severe combined immunodeficiency), also known as “bubble boy disease”, a fatal condition that causes her to be vulnerable to severe infections. Banksy is a world-renowned graffiti artist that gained popularity in the late 1990s. One of his most popular works, “Yearning”, depicts a young girl reaching out for a red heart-shaped balloon. The story “Everything, Everything” and the art piece “Yearning” are quite similar in their messages and their creators’ purpose.

In “Everything, Everything”, Nicola Yoon establishes the theme that being alive is not the same as living. In the story, Maddy’s nurse (Carla), allows Maddy’s crush (Olly) to visit her despite Maddy’s mother prohibiting her from all physical contact with anyone except for the nurse and herself. Eventually, Maddy’s mother finds out about the visits and fires Carla. On her way out, Carla says to Maddy: “Life is a gift. Don’t forget to live it.”. This helps develop the theme since after Carla told Maddy this, she questioned how happy she was with her life being utterly serene. Another moment that added to the theme occurred when Maddy was getting ready to leave her home for the first time and had doubts. To reassure herself, she announces, “There’s more to life than being alive.” Despite Maddy being afraid, she eventually mustered up the courage to leave, considering she was tired of her completely static life.

Nicola Yoon makes use of many types of figurative language to convey her message. However, metaphors and hyperboles are the most recurring. During one of Olly and Maddy’s visits, Olly questioned Maddy about why she cannot leave her house. Maddy replies, “My head would explode. Or my lungs. Or my heart.” This portrays Maddy’s fear of experiencing the earth because of her sickness. Once Maddy escaped to Hawaii with Olly, she describes their emotions as “Our joy is infinite.” This is the first time in the book where Maddy has been genuinely content with her life. Before she made her escape to Hawaii, she felt as if she had nothing unique about her.

“Everything, Everything” makes for an interesting read because of its prominent use of imagery. Visual and smell imagery is the most frequently used in the story's entirety. When Maddy meets Olly in person for the first time, they hang out in a room of hers that imitates the outside world. Maddy paints it as, “The room’s decor is like a movie set of a tropical rain forest. It’s filled with realistic and lush-looking fake tropical plants. Banana and coconut trees laden with fake fruit and hibiscus plants and fake flowers are everywhere.” This represents Maddy’s dream of exploring the real outside world. After realizing that she’s in love with Olly, Maddy leaves her house for the very first time in 18 years. She explains her senses as she inspects the things she has never encountered before. “I’m in Olly’s garden. The air is full, ripe with scent—flowers, earth, my expanding fear.” Maddy is terrified of the outside world but refuses to be trapped inside her house her entire life because she has recognized that she cannot be truly happy without Olly.

The most obvious piece of symbolism in “Everything, Everything” is Maddy’s room. On the first page of the book, Maddy describes her room as “In my white room, against my white walls, on my glistening white bookshelves, book spines provide the only color.” Maddy’s room symbolizes her innocence and the extreme simplicity of her life. However, Olly wears all black every day. Black signifies mystery and rebellion. After Maddy meets Olly, her urge to explore the world grows. It’s like yin and yang and explains Maddy’s infatuation with Olly. 

In 2002, Banksy painted the art piece “Yearning”, which displays a girl extending her hand out for a balloon that’s just out of her reach. Despite its literal visual, the image may hold a much deeper and metaphorical meaning. 

The artwork has many distinguishing characteristics. Banksy uses colors, shapes, and shading of the piece to express his message. The image is monochrome and has the slightest amount of detail. However, the little girl’s bright red balloon in the center of the piece stands out from the rest of the painting. The art comprises two simple shapes, a silhouette of an extremely young girl and a heart. The outline of the girl is reaching towards the heart-shaped balloon. Banksy’s shading in this image is intense. The profile of the girl is nearly all black. 

The title “Yearning” goes hand in hand with the visual that the piece provides. On the surface of the image, a little girl is holding out her hand in an attempt to get a hold of a balloon. The balloon may fascinate the girl because it is the only colorful thing in the artwork. Some would say that she is longing for the balloon. 

The brightly colored heart-shaped balloon most likely depicts hope. If you combine that aspect along with its bland black-and-white surroundings, it may portray a light shining in the darkness. When a situation seems unendurable, there is always a sliver of hope that is pushing you forward. 

It is apparent that the message, there is always hope, is depicted by a single red balloon in an image of completely homogenous colors. The young girl represents childlike optimism, believing that a situation will get better no matter what. 

The theme, “being alive is not the same as living.”, in “Everything, Everything” corresponds with Banksy’s artwork “Yearning”, which displays a young girl reaching out for a heart-shaped balloon that is barely out of reach. It is evident that in the book, Maddy’s main goal is to be with Olly as he is one of the few things that make her truly happy. This is comparable to the young girl and the balloon. Everything in the girl’s universe is drab, it is completely monotonous, the only thing that is captivating in the art piece is the brightly colored red heart-shaped balloon. Olly is Maddy’s balloon. Another thing that is similar between the two works is the environments in which Maddy and the girl exist. Pre-Olly Maddy lived in an all-white sterilized room for 18 years of her life, nothing was interesting about her surroundings. This compares to the young girl and the balloon since she subsists in a black-and-white world until the balloon appears. 

Nicola Yoon makes use of symbolism, figurative language, and imagery to communicate her theme. Bansky utilizes shading, colors, and shapes to express his message. At one point in the story, Nicola Yoon uses a metaphor to demonstrate Maddy’s shocking realization, “Before him, my life was a palindrome—the same forward and backward, like "A man, a plan, a canal. Panama," or "Madam, I'm Adam." But Olly's like a random letter, the big bold X thrown in the middle of the word or phrase that ruins the sequence.” This corresponds with the single brightly colored red balloon which broke the pattern of the monochrome setting in “Yearning”. During Maddy’s escape to Hawaii, she has a near-death experience. She describes it using touch imagery, “Someone has put me in a hot oven and locked the door. Someone has doused me in kerosene and lit a match. I come awake slowly with my body on fire, consumed in flames.” This connects with the extreme shading of the little girl in the art piece. It may signify anxiety. Maddy’s sanitized colorless bedroom symbolizes her purity. Similarly, the silhouette of the little girl in the art piece represents innocence.

The titles “Everything, Everything” and “Yearning” may seem like they have nothing to do with each other. However, the meanings between these titles are extremely similar. The title for “Everything, everything” connects to the part in the story where Maddy re-reads “The Little Prince” and concludes that “Love is worth everything, everything.” On the other hand, “Yearning” could be interpreted as yearning for love since a heart is the focus of the piece. Both titles touch on the topic of love. 

Banky’s hopeful heart-shaped balloon, his drab backdrop, and his optimistic outline of a young girl help develop the message of his piece. Nicola Yoon uses metaphors and hyperboles to convey Maddy’s journey from being afraid of the outside world to being courageous and taking risks so that she can genuinely enjoy her life. Yoon’s attempt to develop a fearful ambiance for “Everything, everything” corresponds with Banky’s use of a dim color pallet and excessive dark shading. The balloon and the girl represent cheerfulness and desire, this fits with Maddy’s intended character development. Instead of being a pessimist and assuming the worst, she becomes willing to take risks because of her dream to be with Olly.