The 5th Wave

Ben Parish is a charming, talented high school football player before the Arrival. He’s good-looking and often gets anything he wants with just a smile. When the Arrival happens, his family continues on as normal until the third wave. When they are attacked by a group of men, Ben promises his father that he will take care of his mother and sister Sissy. He fails and carries this failure—especially his sister’s death—with him for the rest of the novel, especially as a former golden child.

Ben is taken to Wright-Patterson Airforce base, and the Others use his guilt against him. They convince him that the Others solely exist outside the base, and that he needs to fight them to change the direction of the war. Ben believes in this mission, wishing to be proactive to make amends for his sister’s death. When he meets Nugget (Sammy), he finds someone to take his sister’s place, someone he can save.

Ben grows and changes during his training. He becomes two people: Ben, a remnant of the past, and Zombie, the tough soldier of the future. As basic training is designed to do, it breaks him down and builds him back up as a confident man and soldier. Ben is ready to kill the Others, but when presented with the possibility that he and his squad are being manipulated, he is open to discussion. In the face of undeniable evidence, he accepts the truth without arguing and does not allow himself to be pushed around by liars. Ben has matured enough that he starts to see through everything Dr. Pam and Vosch told him, but not so much that he easily lets go of his guilt when it comes to his sister and Nugget (Sammy). In a way, he still sees himself as a hero and puts himself in mortal danger to save Nugget (Sammy).

When the reader first meets Evan Walker, it is as his Other persona—the Silencer. The Silencer is an Other who has much to learn about human behavior. He has been watching Cassie for weeks but has not killed her for reasons he himself does not fully understand. When the Silencer finally shoots her, it is only to wound. He struggles to understand his own action, subscribing it to his human host’s ideal childhood. The Other is still human in some ways because the humanity of his host body has not fully receded.

As further evidence of his humanity, Evan rescues Cassie during a snow drift. He takes her to his family farm and cares for her despite being tasked to kill her. He is somewhat emotionless, never getting visibly angry with Cassie no matter what she does. Evan remains emotionless the few times he talks about his family and rarely sleeps. Cassie notices other things about him, like his soft hands unfit for farm work. It becomes clear that typical Others do not understand human emotion nor feel it. Contrary to this, Evan feels love for Cassie.

Evan represents an apparent “flaw” in the Others. He has been inserted into a human—the original Evan Walker—but does not lose his human characteristics. He does not seem capable of all emotions but feels love for Cassie, love that causes him to turn against his own people to help her save Sammy. At the end of the novel, Evan appears to have died to deliver a blow against the Others, and Cassie mourns for him. But she is also grateful to have had his help. Evan made a sacrifice for someone he cared about, a very human thing to do.