Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in They Both Die at the End, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Mortality, Life, and Meaning
Human Connection and Social Media
Choices and Consequences
Friendship and Chosen Family
Business, Ethics, and Dehumanization
Summary
Analysis
Rufus, Malcolm, and Tagoe bike carefully past a Decker-friendly club called Clint’s Graveyard. They reach their foster home, a battered duplex that manages to feel like home despite the health posters on the bulletin board. They go to their room on the second floor. Tagoe tells Rufus that he’s come a long way, and when Rufus asks, he goes to wake up Jenn Lori and Francis. Malcolm suggests that they could hide Rufus, but Rufus reminds him that no one can escape. Malcolm and Tagoe leave Rufus alone. Rufus looks around, notices the blanket that Aimee left behind, and thinks that this feels like home. It’s nothing like the bedroom he had growing up, but he knows now that people matter more than things. He looks at his printed Instagram photos. Most are of his friends.
Again, when Rufus describes his bedroom, it’s clear that his friends are the most important things in his life—he doesn’t place much focus on the room itself or the things in it. Instead, he focuses Malcolm, Tagoe, and Aimee themselves—and the objects (like the blanket and the photos) that remind Rufus of his friends. By looking at all the pictures of happier times, Rufus can remind himself of how lucky he is to have friends like this; the very fact that he chose to print these photos speaks to the depth of their relationships.
Themes
