Bloom

Anaya, Petra, and Seth have recurring dreams in which they’re running, swimming, or flying, respectively. Their dreams, which began prior to the dramatic present, seem to predict their physical transformations. Dr. Weber suggests “a genetic component to how we dream. Certain images, hardwired into our brains” (204). If she’s right, these dreams reveal Anaya, Petra, and Seth’s connection, through a sort of collective unconscious, to the cryptogens. For Seth, these dreams “somehow gave him a sense of home,” as if they’re “waiting for him to come back” (98). These feelings suggest the teens’ connection to the cryptogens is not necessarily a hostile one, despite their battle against the plants’ invasion of Earth.

Dreams are often seen as manifestations of the mind’s subconscious desires. Despite their conscious desires for normality, in their dreams the teens embrace their changed bodies. They exult in what their transformed bodies allow them to do. Before they can accept being alienated from their peers and families in their waking lives, they do so in their dreams. They surrender to their connection with the cryptogens, as if tapping into a collective unconscious, supporting the book’s contemplation of Alienation From One Group as Belonging to Another.

Anaya, Petra, and Seth all undergo physical transformations as the invading cryptogenic plants trigger dormant sequences in their DNA. These changes to their bodies symbolize the physical and biological changes adolescents experience as part of puberty. They make the teen protagonists feel uncertain about what’s happening to them, afraid that they won’t fit in with their peers, and even ashamed. When Anaya’s leg hair grows long and thick in just a few hours, she tells Petra, “I can’t remember it ever being this thick. I’m pretty freaked out” (185). In response, Petra says, “There’s something happening to us. We’re changing” (186). They adapt, though, eventually coming to recognize the benefits of their transformations. Anaya feels strong instead of feeble, no longer needing to live in a bubble and able to help people in need. Petra gets to swim again. Seth has the ability to protect the people he’s come to care for, and he’ll likely be able to fly someday soon. The connection formed between the three teens through the shared experience of their physical transformations develops the book’s theme about Alienation From One Group as Belonging to Another.