Identities in The 5th Wave are super-unstable. The human characters, especially Cassie and Ben, feel disconnected from the happy high school students they were before the attacks. On the alien front, the Others look just like humans, so it's hard to discern who's who. Plus, Evan switches sides, going from Cassie's hunter to her protector in a matter of moments.
As the humans struggle to figure out who they can trust, we readers experience a similar feeling. The author drops a lot of hints about Evan's alien identity, but we don't know for sure until he admits it to Cassie. We watch Vosch murder Cassie's dad, but he provides a semi-believable excuse for that behavior later in the novel.
The point is, identities in The 5th Wave aren't set in stone. They're always subject to change—which can be good or bad.
Questions About Identity
- Who do you think changes the most over the course of the novel? Explain your answer.
- At what point did you realize that Evan was a Silencer? Tell us about the moment that tipped you off.
- Why do you think Vosch lies to Ben and the other child soldiers about his alien identity?
Chew on This
War changes who you are, whether you want it to or not.
Cassie and Ben think that the war has changed who they are to the core, but we can see that many of their most essential personality traits seem to be intact.