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 thinks he’s lucky to have a Last Friend with his support network gone; he’s able to keep his family alive this way. He says that his mom woke up to the Death-Cast alert on May 10, while Rufus and Olivia were playing cards. Then, the herald asked to speak to Rufus’s dad—and then to Olivia. Mateo asks if Rufus was scared that he was on the list too, but Rufus checked the database: he wasn’t. Olivia could barely look at him, and Rufus spent the whole day missing his family. He and Olivia were super close—Rufus came out to Olivia first. Mateo brushes this off, and Rufus wonders if Mateo cares at all—but he knows they’re friends. Mateo asks if Rufus came out to his parents. Rufus says he did, and it made his mom sad that she’d never meet her future son- or daughter-in-law.
As Mateo and Rufus get to know each other, they both begin to recognize just how important it is to not be alone on their End Day. Alone, they wouldn’t be able to tell these stories to anyone who could really help them process their emotions. Rufus also gives voice to Mateo’s reasons for not telling Lidia about his impending death: Rufus spent his family’s last day missing them, and they weren’t even dead yet. In this way, death can sometimes make people feel even less connected.
Themes
Mateo tells Rufus he doesn’t have to continue, but Rufus continues the story. Olivia wanted to go to the family’s cabin in Albany. Rufus rode shotgun, figuring that increased their chances of surviving a crash, but their car flew off the slick road and into the Hudson River. Rufus admits that he sometimes forgets his family’s voices, but he’ll never forget their screams. Mateo comforts Rufus, assures him that he isn’t leaving, and suggests they go make a moment. Rufus agrees.
Rufus’s comment about never forgetting his family’s screams suggests that death can sometimes be more meaningful and easier to remember than life. The sound of his parents and sister dying is, in parts of Rufus’s subconscious mind, more worthy of remembering than what his parents sounded like during good times.
Themes
