Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in It Ends with Us, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cycles of Abuse
Naked Truths
Good and Evil
Chosen Family
Summary
Analysis
A few days later, Lily arrives home to find Lucy in tears. She tells Lily they need to talk. Lucy explains that she and Alex are getting married, and she wants to break her lease to move in with him. She expects Lily to be furious, but Lily is secretly thrilled to have her own space. Now that she and Ryle are trying to make things work, privacy is even more important to her. Lucy leaves to tell Alex the good news.
Now that Lily’s life is filled with people she cares about—mainly her friendship with Allysa and her new relationship with Ryle—her long-held annoyance with Lucy lessens. While news of Lucy’s engagement might have aggravated Lily’s feelings earlier in the novel, her own happiness makes it easier to be happy for Lucy.
Themes
Lily hasn’t heard from Ryle since they agreed to try dating. Instead of breaking and being the first one to reach out, Lily looks through her diary to distract herself. In the letter she reads, Lily wrote about the day she asked Atlas where his name came from. He didn’t know, so Lily wondered aloud if he could ask his mother; Atlas told her that wasn’t possible any longer. Lily realized that she knew nothing about his family She was still too afraid to ask. Mostly, her were overwhelmed by her concern for his safety as winter approached. The days were growing colder.
When things with work and Ryle are good, Lily doesn’t go delving into her past. It is only when she is bored or stressed that she returns to her diaries. This diary shows how Atlas and Lily’s friendship began to blossom. The stage they are at in the entry Lily is reading parallels the stage she and Ryle have reached in the present. In both her past and present relationships, Lily has grown to care deeply for the other person while still knowing that there is a significant amount she doesn’t yet know about them.
Themes
Lily’s next letter to Ellen describes how she and Atlas had dug up the garden in anticipation of the coming snow. After finishing their work, Atlas had asked her what made her want to garden. His interest in her passions made her realize that she’d never had a friend like him. Her parents didn’t let her have people over in case her father lost his temper, and she had never slept over at a friend’s house either. Though Atlas was the closest friend she had ever had, how little they actually knew about each other bothered Lily.
Lily’s journals further demonstrate how her past relationship mirrors her current relationship. Just as Atlas took an interest in teenage Lily’s hobbies, Ryle supports Lily’s career dreams. Lily’s reflection in her diary about not being able to form intimate friendships because her parents never let her have people over helps explain why her close bond with Allysa as an adult is so meaningful to her.
Themes
Lily responded to Atlas, explaining that her grandmother had sparked her desire to grow things. What had held her interest, however, was the way plants grow or die in direct response to how well they are cared for. Atlas replied that plants and humans are the same that way. Kids who have loving parents thrive, while kids whose parents neglect them wither and end up homeless. The sadness in his words hurt Lily. Longing to make him feel better, she pointed out an oak tree nearby, explaining that some plants like trees survive on their own against all odds.
Lily’s interest in gardening illustrates her nurturing, inquisitive nature. Lily’s plants help her to understand that care leads to thriving—meanwhile neglect leads to withering. Atlas understands immediately the implied metaphor in Lily’s discussion of caring for plants; he too feels that his parents denying him love has contributed to his current struggles. Teenage Lily has a clearer picture of who Atlas is, and she reflects that image back to him: she sees him as a survivor who is strong even though he didn’t get the care he deserves. This comparison imbues the tree with significance for both Lily and Atlas, which is worth noting as their story continues to unfold.
Themes
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Atlas was encouraged by Lily’s comparison, and he responded that she and he were just the same, too. He got up to leave, but Lily told him he should shower because the compost he helped her with had manure in it. At the mention of manure, the two got into a compost fight. Atlas rubbed Lily’s arms with the manure, and she was surprised at how deeply it turned her on. When he finally showered, Lily was left to wonder what he meant by saying they were the same.
Teenage Atlas and Lily have the ability to effectively support and encourage each other because they’ve both endured trauma from their parents. While those experiences have made them both more mature than they should need to be, their manure fight shows that they can also bring out each other’s playful side. Their ability to connect in these ways continues to deepen their bond, but this entry shows that a romantic connection is also developing.
Themes
In the present, Lily moves on to the next entry in her diary. In it, she recounted for Ellen an altercation that happened between her parents earlier that day. Her mother parked in her father’s garage spot to unload groceries while it was snowing. When he came home to find her there, his anger flared. Lily walked out to help her mom carry things in and was shocked to find him choking her. She tried to pull her father off her mother. He threw Lily off, knocking her head against the concrete before drove away. Her mother apologized to Lily even though she did nothing wrong. She also asked Lily to lie and say she slipped when they got to the hospital. Lily had hoped that her mother would leave her father now that he hurt her too. Instead, Lily became convinced that nothing would change her mother’s mind.
This journal entry recounts one of the only instances in which Lily’s father directed his abuse at Lily. That Lily’s mother asks her to lie is significant in two ways. At the time, it showed Lily that her mother was never going to stand up to Lily’s father, even if he is endangering Lily. This entry thus reveals how Lily’s lingering resentment toward her mother came to be. It also explains why, as an adult, being transparent and truthful matter how painful this may be—is important to Lily in her close relationships. As a child, she had to cover for her father against her own self-interest, and she has no intention of continuing that pattern in her present.
Themes
The morning after, Lily had tried to hide her stitched up forehead from Atlas. When their hands touched on the bus, Lily felt how cold he was. She had forgotten to take him blankets the night before, distracted by her father. Lily tried to warm Atlas’s hands up on the bus, growing more upset that her father’s episode prevented her from ensuring Atlas would be okay in the snowstorm. He didn’t notice Lily’s forehead until their ride home. Atlas didn’t believe her when she said she fell. Instead, he showed her the cigarette burns on his arms to explain he knew what abuse looked like. When they had gotten to their neighborhood, Atlas walked home angrily before she could give him the blankets.
Lily’s and Atlas’s issues escalated the night before, and so they each need each other in different ways the next day. Lily tries to hide her injury because she has spent her whole life trying to cover up her father’s abusive episodes at her mother’s request, and she is more concerned with caring for Atlas’s needs than her own because she’s grown used to taking care of her mother. Atlas, however, sees the truth without needing Lily to tell him because of his own history with abuse—and because of his attentiveness to Lily.
Themes
Later that night, Lily had waited until her parents fell asleep to sneak next door with blankets for Atlas. She had been surprised to find the abandoned house somehow colder than the outdoors. Lily insisted Atlas come home with her. From her spot on the bed and his on the pallet she made for him on the floor, the two talked about how Atlas ended up homeless. His mother’s new husband had kicked him out, and after a friend moved away, he didn’t have anywhere to stay. He had six months until he planned to join the Marines, so he was just trying to survive until then.
As terrible as Lily’s run-in with her father was, the commonality it seems to have opened the door for Lily and Atlas to share their most painful truths, and in doing so, they become equals. This journal shows how Lily and Atlas’s relationship increasingly becomes one of reciprocal care, and as they grow to trust each other, they reveal even more of themselves to each other.
Themes
Lily had asked Atlas why he didn’t get help, but he explained that he was over 18. This limited his options. There were no nearby shelters, and his mother couldn’t get in trouble since he was a legal adult. So far, he’d been unable to find a job. Atlas’s situation gave Lily a new perspective on the realities of homelessness. She also became enraged at the selfishness of rich people like her father. He refused to help others because he believed it was their fault for being poor.
Even though Lily and Atlas both have a difficult home life, they suffer different consequences. Lily, being younger and coming from a home with higher social status, has privileges that Atlas lacks. Knowing and caring for Atlas puts this into perspective for Lily in a way that alters her view of wealth and status permanently.
Themes
