Discussion Topic
Elements in Five Feet Apart that explore themes of love and death
Summary:
Five Feet Apart explores themes of love and death through the relationship between Stella and Will, two teenagers with cystic fibrosis. Their love story is complicated by the need to maintain physical distance to avoid cross-infection, highlighting the tension between intimacy and mortality. The novel poignantly addresses how love persists even in the face of life-threatening illness.
What figurative language in Five Feet Apart explores the themes of love and death?
Love, illness, and the threat of death are three prominent themes in Five Feet Apart, which is about two teenagers, Stella and Will, who meet in hospital and fall in love, both while suffering from life-threatening cystic fibrosis.
A metaphor is a figure of speech that uses a word that cannot be literally applied to the situation at hand. For example, early in the story, Stella describes the process of trying to get enough air into her lungs "through the sea of mucus." While the mucus in Stella's lungs is obviously not a sea, the metaphor paints an appropriate picture of Stella's struggle to breathe, and this metaphor helps the reader to understand the challenges that later exist between her and Will.
A great example of a simile can be found when Will is telling the readers about his first impression of Stella, the girl he will fall in...
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love with. He states that her bubbly nature in greeting everyone makes it look "like she's putting on her personal Thanksgiving Day parade." A simile is a comparison that uses the word "like" or "as."
Symbolism is used throughout this novel to explore the theme of love, with Stella's reclaiming of the one foot that means the two must be "five feet apart" at all times symbolizing her rebellion against her disease and everything that it has stolen from her and Will.
Imagery, as the name implies, is text that creates a vivid picture in which the reader can immerse his her her senses. When Will is giving Stella lifesaving mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, Lippincott refers to the "warm, flowery scent of her perfume." This is a form of imagery designed to ignite the reader's olfactory sense.
What film techniques in Five Feet Apart explore themes of love and death?
In the film Five Feet Apart, director Justin Baldoni used several film techniques to explore the themes of love and death. In terms of the theme of love, Baldoni utilized specific lighting choices and props to symbolize the characters’ tender emotions. He also directed the actors to express the characters’ feelings with their facial expressions instead of dialogue in particular scenes. For example, consider the intense emotions that are clearly evident in the scene in which Stella and Will sit by the pool. Because they are not allowed to touch each other, they each touch separate ends of a pole to symbolize their desire to touch one another’s bodies. In this scene, Baldoni chose to focus the camera’s shots on the actors’ hand movements and facial expressions. These choices emphasize the strong feelings the characters feel for one another.
Also, consider the way that Baldoni uses the symbol of light in several scenes throughout the movie to symbolize the romantic spark between Stella and Will. For example, the two of them sneak out one night, because Stella wants to see the city lights. Then, later, when Will decides to separate from Stella, he sets up a beautiful light display to show her that he is leaving her because he loves her. Again, the actors’ expressive facial expressions in this scene, highlighted by the curated soft lighting, reflect the tragedy that often accompanies authentic love.
In a similar way, Baldoni’s use of light also explores the theme of death. Consider Stella and Will’s conversation about what death is like. “Maybe it’s just a big sleep,” Will says. “Lights out. Done and done.” Here the notion of “lights out” suggests that death means that the love and emotions people feel in life (which Baldoni represents with light) are extinguished.