The Importance of Touch: AFive Feet Apart Analysis
The theme in Five Feet Apart is how important touch can be, and how we take it for granted. Stella Grant, the main character of Five Feet Apart has cystic fibrosis. People with cystic fibrosis can’t be within six feet of each other or else they could make their sickness work by spreading germs. One important symptom of cystic fibrosis is coughing, which is why they have to stay six feet apart. Stella, though, made friends with people that have cystic fibrosis. Imagine not being able to hug your best friend, or kiss your lover. Not being able to hold hands, comfort your friend who is in pain, those close moments in intimacy you won’t be able to have with those people. Stella couldn’t have that with her boyfriend, Will, because he had B. Cepacia. B. Cepacia is a serious disease that could spread to Stella, which would prevent her from getting the lung transplant that she needs. That means having to keep 6 feet from Will and wearing a mask so that he couldn’t get her even more sick.
We can relate to Five Feet Apart in one way, which was Covid-19 and having to quarantine or isolate ourselves in order to prevent the spread of sickness. Not being able to travel to see loved ones, care for the ones that are sick, or be close to others, most of these problems that we’ve dealt with are what Stella and Will go through. There was a cruel study done on babies a long time ago by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II. The rules were that the babies were fed and bathed, but not to be touched or loved. He was trying to find out how language was made and if the languages that these babies would use were used by Adam and Eve. He never found out about any languages that the babies used, since they had died due to the lack of care and love. In people, there is something called being ‘touch starved’ where they don’t receive any physical touch. This can cause depression and anxiety, since they’re not being loved.
Five Feet Apart shows the pain that Stella and Will go through, unable to touch each other due to their disease. Stella gets into how she’s not able to love Will in her intro, which sets the theme of the plot, “I never understood the importance of touch. His touch. Until I couldn't have it. So if you're watching this, and you're able, touch him. Touch her. Life's too short to waste a second.” What Stella is saying is that she eventually lost Will, and in the movie it’s left to the viewer to guess what happened to Will.
But, this book and movie also show how despite the rules, Stella is willing to take back just one foot of space since cystic fibrosis has already taken so much from her. Although Will and Stella have to stay six feet apart, the movie/book is titled Five Feet Apart. Stella finds a compromise to be just a bit closer to Will by using a pool cue which is five feet in length. This leads to the part of the movie where they’re on a date. It just shows what Stella is willing to sacrifice for Will, even if it means possibly catching B. Cepacia. Stella breaks even more of the rules later on in the movie, which also shows how much she loved. Will.
The importance of touch, how it can affect something as big as human life, and how it’s devastating not being able to show your love for someone in that way when you desperately want to. In Stella’s intro, she also says “Safety, security, comfort, all in the gentle caress of a finger. Or the brush of lips on a soft cheek. It connects us when we're happy, bolsters us in times of fear, excites us in times of passion and love. We need that touch from the one we love, almost as much as we need air to breathe.” Since the intro is meant to be Stella’s POV after Will, it shows how much she learned from him. How much she had learned after him.
