53 pages • 1 hour read
Neal ShustermanEverlost
Fiction | Novel | YA | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Friendship and Loyalty
One of the novel’s core themes is friendship and loyalty. The character who most exemplifies true friendship and loyalty is Lief. When Nick and Allie appear in his forest, Lief believes it’s in answer to his prayers. He has been alone for almost a century, so the opportunity to have friends affects him deeply. However, Nick and Allie feel they need to return home because they don’t understand where they are and what has happened to them. Their immediate departure saddens Lief, yet he still helps them prepare for their journey by helping them make shoes out of branches that will help prevent them from sinking into the ground as quickly. He also pleads for them to stay but doesn’t stop them from leaving. Lief won’t go with Nick and Allie because he knows his forest is safe and secure, especially from the McGill. However, Lief demonstrates the ultimate test of loyalty when he secretly follows his new friends to ensure their safety. He even saves Allie from sinking to the center of the Earth when she and Nick run into the Altar Boys. Had Lief not sacrificed his comfort and safety, Allie would have disappeared, likely forever. Through these selfless acts of loyalty, Allie realizes that after “all these years Lief had left his forest for them. It could not have been a choice he made lightly, and so she vowed to herself that from this moment on, she would look out for him in any way she could” (58). Lief’s sacrifice helps Allie see the value in his friendship, causing her to become yet another example of friendship and loyalty.
Allie fulfills her vow to Lief and further strengthens the theme of friendship and loyalty by looking after her brother and her friend as much as she can in this strange new world. She first fulfills her vow by saving Lief from the rut of playing endless video games in Mary’s tower. Allie says to Lief, “[Y]ou saved my life before we got here. Now it’s my turn to save yours. Don’t lose your soul to a Pac-Man machine” (116). Allie does the same for Nick, who likewise falls into a rut writing his name over and over so he that he will not forget who he is. Later, she shows that loyalty remains at the heart of her motivations for action when she risks her safety to confront the McGill and attempt to rescue Nick and Lief from the monster’s clutches. In addition to developing the nobility of Allie’s character, these events also serve the practical purpose of driving the plot forward.
Love’s Influence on the Afterlife
Another central theme in the novel is love’s influence on the afterlife. This theme is demonstrated mainly through the sentimental nature of the material objects that do manage to cross into Everlost. Anything that crosses over must be loved or lovingly prepared but meet a tragic end. For example, Speedo brings Mary a birthday cake that crosses into Everlost because a child pulled it off the table and because “mothers bake their love right into the batter” (40). Without love, the cake would not have passed into the spirit world. Other objects capable of crossing over are musical instruments and recorded music because people love both the instruments they play and the music they listen to. Even the historical objects mentioned in the novel cross into Everlost because they are loved. For example, the Sulphur Queen is described as follows:
[It was] the last of its kind. It was the final ship built by a failing shipyard, which closed down the day the Sulphur Queen first launched out of dry dock. The workers, knowing an era was coming to an end, built the ship with as much care as a team of shipbuilders could muster. Their love of this ship was welded into every rivet (160).
The combination of love that went into building the ship and its tragic ends allows it to cross into Everlost and become a part of that world forever.
Many objects enter Everlost because they are loved and deserve immortality in Everlost, and these objects help the Afterlights find peace and prepare themselves for the next stage on their journey to the afterlife. For example, Lief’s forest was once a beloved place that died due to a beetle infestation. Neal Shusterman describes it as follows:
[It was a] lush mountain forest that had once been the inspiration for poets. The place brimmed with such warmth and good feeling, it inspired countless young men to propose marriage beneath its canopy, and countless young women to accept (63).
Because the entire forest died tragically in the living world, it becomes a large dead-spot that the Afterlights can walk in without sinking. The forest also carries a sense of peace and patience, which helps Lief to likewise become peaceful and patient.
Death and the Afterlife
A final theme is what the novel teaches about death and the afterlife. One lesson that the story conveys about death and the afterlife is that neither one is something to fear. When Nick and Allie arrive in Everlost, they are overwhelmed by confusion and fear. While most Afterlights arrive in Everlost confused and afraid, many find peace and can move on once they know they have that option. Lief exemplifies this idea, as do the 1,000 kidnapped Afterlights. The fact that they go into the light so quickly after Nick figures out the purpose of the coins shows how ready they are to move on to the afterlife and emphasizes that moving on is simply the next natural stage in human existence: not something to fear or avoid. Thus this powerful message of acceptance is meant not just for the characters, but for the young-adult readers who may themselves be struggling with feelings of loss in their own lives. Shusterman further engages with this theme by showing various characters’ ambivalence toward this process. For example, Nick isn’t quite prepared to move on, yet he embraces Everlost’s purpose as a stopping spot on a soul’s journey to the true afterlife. Unlike Mary, he knows that Everlost is a place in which to visit and prepare, not to stay forever. Their difference in perspective on this issue is realistic to how the living view death. Some welcome it, and others are afraid of it. Thus, Shusterman provides a creative outlook on what happens after death and invites contemplation on the best ways to approach thoughts of the afterlife.
Another lesson the novel teaches about death and the afterlife is that neither a soul’s existence nor that of an object ends with death. For example, Nick and Allie still breathe and sleep once they arrive in Everlost, even though they don’t need to anymore. They do so to feel connected with the living world until they become comfortable with death and understand that they still have a purpose. Once they do, they can move into the afterlife and continue their existence there. Similarly, although the Dead Forest is dead in the living world, it is alive in the spirit world. The same is true for the Twin Towers, the Sulphur Queen, and the Hindenburg, all of which live eternally in Everlost despite their demise in the living world. Shusterman even describes the Everlost version of Pompeii as a “pristine city” and declares that the “library of Alexandria still houses the wisdom of the ancient world” (270). In a further reimagining of historic events, the author likewise includes the tragic Challenger and Columbia space shuttle disasters and celebrates their existence in Everlost in perfect condition. These examples demonstrate that an object still exists in a glorified form when it passes into Everlost.
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