The Host Themes

The Host Themes

Identity

"Who am I?" is a difficult question for any person to answer. Human identity is a complicated thing. It's next to impossible to figure out if you have an alien species sharing your brain. In The Ho...

Love

We've heard that love knows no bounds, and The Host definitely tests this theory. How much does love depend on people's bodies? Their minds? Their souls? Their species? As a human, Wanda discovers...

Foreignness and The Other

You can't get much more foreign than an alien species taking over the planet. The creepy thing about these aliens, however, is how much like us they are. They take our bodies and pretend to be us,...

Community

Everyone longs to fit into a community. Except for Chevy Chase. He hates Community. In The Host, you'd think Wanda would have it made. She comes from a species that lives in perfect harmony with on...

Family

Families are made up of all sorts of people, and they don't have to be related to you by blood. Just look at Full House. There's a dad, some wacky uncles, two daughters, the Olsen twins, and Kimmy....

Compassion and Forgiveness

There are a lot of stories about people exacting revenge on those who have done them wrong. (When will they learn not to mess with Liam Neesen?) You don't often see the flip side of the coin: peopl...

Life, Consciousness, and Existence

As it says on the back of The Host: "Earth, it was fun while it lasted." Oh wait, that was a tagline to Armageddon. But it applies here as well. Both Armageddon and The Host have a few things in co...

Memory and the Past

We are all affected by our memories. Memories can be tied to smells, places, and people. But what if you had someone else's memories? Would that change who you are? In The Host, both Wanda has to d...

Prejudice

People are prejudiced for a variety of reasons. (None of them good ones.) They might be against someone of a different race, body size, or sexual orientation. Or they might be prejudiced against th...

Exile

Exile is pretty much the opposite of community. The aliens and humans in The Host might be playing well amongst themselves, but they're not exactly getting along with each other. The humans have ha...