Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Nineteen Minutes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Victims vs. Perpetrators
Vengeance vs. Justice
Expectations and the Failures of Family
Lost Innocence
Appearances vs. Reality
Summary
Analysis
Sterling High has been transformed. A plaque on the outside of the building reads, “A SAFE HARBOR.” Later today, on the one-year anniversary of the shooting, there will be a memorial ceremony. All students wear IDs around their necks, which doesn’t make much sense considering “the threat was always from the inside.” Josie was charged as an accessory to second-degree murder; she accepted a plea of manslaughter and was sentenced to five years. Now that she goes to visit a daughter of her own in prison, Alex decides to become a public defender again, feeling a sense of kinship with her clients.
The beginning of the final chapter does not provide the reader much solace. Josie is in prison, which—considering the fact that she was the victim of abuse—is arguably not a fair sentence. Meanwhile, Sterling High has changed drastically in the wake of the shootings, but the pointless ID cards suggest that there is still a lack of understanding of the true causes lying behind the shooting.
Themes
In Sterling High, there are ten chairs bolted to the floor as a memorial to Peter’s ten victims. Alex is pregnant; she and Patrick are at the school for the ceremony. She observes how the school doesn’t look the same as it used to, and Patrick reflects that this is “necessary.” They look out at a soccer match being played on the field. The minutes click past, minutes when, one year ago, Peter was committing the shooting. Alex looks at the leaves blooming on a nearby maple tree and takes Patrick’s hand.
Ultimately, the lesson of the end of the book is that life involves neither happy endings nor straightforwardly terrible ones. Instead, no matter what happens, life just keeps going one way or another.
Themes
