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 is in the middle of beating Peck, who stole his girlfriend, when Death-Cast calls. Mateo’s friends, Tagoe and Malcolm, stare with terrified looks. Rufus thinks of his parents and sister, who died in the Hudson River. He vows not to vomit. Rufus doesn’t pick up and Death-Cast calls again. Peck also looks terrified—He might get a call too. Malcolm tosses out the possibility that Peck might have a weapon and kill Rufus. He rifles through Peck’s backpack, dumping out some comic books, but there’s no gun. Tagoe rushes forward, answers the phone, and hands it to Rufus. A man named Victor tells Rufus that he’s is going to die in the next 24 hours.
The fear that all four of these boys feel speaks to the way that Death-Cast has changed how people think about death. Though sudden death is always a possibility for anyone, Death-Cast gives people a way to try and make meaningful choices during the short time they have left, as when Malcolm searches for a gun to make sure that Rufus isn’t going to get shot. Rufus thinking about his family’s deaths indicates that while he has friends, he’s alone in the world when it comes to family.
Themes
When Rufus corrects him that he only has 23 hours, Victor apologizes. Rufus tries to control his temper; he knows Victor is just doing his job, though he can’t fathom why anyone would work for Death-Cast. Victor runs through the forecast, classes and festivals, and restaurants with Decker discounts. Rufus interrupts and asks how heralds know who’s going to die. Victor insists he doesn’t know, but Rufus thinks this is silly. Rufus snaps that he’s 17 and will never get married or have kids. He asks if this makes Victor mad and asks Victor to be a person. Victor clears his throat and says that an hour ago, he informed a woman that her four-year-old daughter is going to die. She cried, but Victor still had to dispatch a cop in case the woman kills her daughter—which, he says, isn’t the most disgusting thing he’s done as a herald.
Victor delivers on Rufus’s request to be human. He makes it clear that while people like Rufus might resent him for doing his job and think that he’s heartless, people like Victor still suffer emotionally for doing this work. The very fact that Victor runs through classes and discounted restaurants suggests that industries have sprung up to cater to Deckers eager to live it up on their last day. Just as Victor and Rufus raise questions about the ethics of Death-Cast’s employment practices, this suggests that there may be predatory business preying on Deckers too.
Themes
When the call is over, Rufus prays that he doesn’t drown like his parents and Olivia. He walks back to Peck, slams him against the wall, and informs Peck that he didn’t win—Aimee didn’t break up with Rufus because of Peck. He destroys Peck’s phone for good measure and tells him to leave. Malcolm asks Rufus about Peck’s gang connections, but Rufus insists that Peck is the “gang reject” and can’t contact anyone anyway. Tagoe points out that Death-Cast can’t call Peck either. Rufus can’t stop shaking. He knows he could’ve killed Peck and he knows that he’d never be able to live with himself if he had—he already feels bad enough for surviving when his family didn’t. Rufus heads for his bike and tells Malcolm and Tagoe they can’t come with him, but they follow him home anyway. They’re Plutos—they stick together.
Just like Mateo, Rufus is already feeling regret for how he’s lived his life. He regrets living when his family died, and he regrets his choice to spend his last night beating someone up. However, Rufus does recognize that he had a choice to kill Peck that he didn’t take, something that gives him a degree of comfort. If Rufus can hang onto this thought, he could discover that he has choices about all sorts of things on his last day. Malcolm and Tagoe’s insistence that they stay with Rufus speaks to the strength of their friendship. They know that Rufus probably doesn’t mean what he says—he’d likely regret it if they left.
Themes
