They Both Die at the End

They Both Die at the End

by

Adam Silvera

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Themes and Colors
Mortality, Life, and Meaning Theme Icon
Human Connection and Social Media Theme Icon
Choices and Consequences Theme Icon
Friendship and Chosen Family Theme Icon
Business, Ethics, and Dehumanization Theme Icon
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.
Choices and Consequences Theme Icon

The existence of Death-Cast, a business that calls people and informs them that they’ll die sometime in the next 24 hours, poses a simple question to the novel’s characters and to readers: if someone knew it was their last day alive, what would they choose to do with it? Overwhelmingly, the novel proposes that while confronting one’s mortality may make a person’s choices seem more important than they ever were, this mode of thinking is actually a bit of a fallacy. People’s choices about who they want to be, how they want to live, and how they want to be remembered matter every day—not just on their final day.

When readers meet Rufus, he’s in the middle of violently beating up a teen named Peck, who recently “stole” Rufus’s ex-girlfriend Aimee. Rufus explains that while he fully believes that Peck deserves this, this violent, out-of-control person isn’t who Rufus really is—but Rufus is only able to give voice to this after he receives the call from Death-Cast. Death, Rufus believes, makes his choice to beat up Peck uniquely consequential. Receiving the call makes it clear that beating someone could be Rufus’s last act, something he emphatically doesn’t want. Rufus would much rather be remembered as a friend, a photographer, and a cyclist. Mateo, too, feels as though his choices matter more once he receives his call. Suddenly, his short life largely spent on CountDowners, a platform that allows Deckers to livestream their End Day, feels like a waste of time—time that Mateo actively chose to waste based on the assumption that he’d have time later to become the version of himself he’d rather be. Taken together, Mateo and Rufus’s pre-call experiences and thought processes make it clear that when faced with the possibility that any choice could be one’s last, it’s easier to make judgments about the relative morality or quality of one’s decisions.

However, the novel goes to great lengths to show that the reverse is also true: when people don’t fear dying at any second, their choices might seem to carry no weight—when in fact, this may be an illusion. Though at times the novel leaves room for this to be a good thing, on the whole it suggests that this mindset is something to treat with caution; no one is invincible, and even if the consequence of a given choice might not be death, it might still be undesirable. In the world of the novel, funerals take place before a Decker dies so that they can connect with family and friends one last time. But before Rufus’s funeral, Peck calls the police to report Rufus for assault; the police arrive during the funeral itself. Unspeakably angry about the fact that Peck would ruin Rufus’s End Day and possibly land him in jail, Rufus’s friends Tagoe and Malcolm get physical with the cops and end up in jail. They are, however, successful in creating a diversion so that Rufus can escape. Part of Tagoe and Malcolm’s boldness is due to the fact that they didn’t receive a call from Death-Cast; they can rest assured that they’re not supposed to die. They know they’re not going to die in jail, that the cops aren’t going to shoot them, and that the cop car isn’t going to crash on the way to jail. Though there are certainly consequences to their actions—an arrest and possible criminal record, which could complicate the rest of their lives—in their mind, this price is well worth it to give Rufus his End Day in the city rather than in a smelly jail cell.

Peck’s gang, however, takes this several steps further: rather than decide that dying today is enough of a comeuppance for Rufus, Peck digs out his gun and decides to seek Rufus out and kill Rufus himself. As the gang gleefully runs through the streets, the narrator shares that “Death-Cast did not call this gang of boys today, and they’re living as if this means their lives can’t be over while they’re alive.” In other words, there are other ways that a person’s life can end, even if he or she doesn’t physically die. Knowing that one isn’t supposed to die today isn’t a free pass to make cruel, violent, or dangerous decisions—and choosing to act in such a way has dire consequences for everyone, not just the person making the decision.

By showcasing a variety of decisions of varying degrees of good and bad, They Both Die at the End drives home the idea that every decision a person makes matters. It shouldn’t matter whether a person knows they’re going to die today or not; that’s no excuse for making objectively bad decisions, and it shouldn’t be a person’s only excuse for making good ones either. However, people have the power to make these choices regardless—and each individual will have to live, or force others to live, with the consequences.

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Choices and Consequences ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Choices and Consequences appears in each chapter of They Both Die at the End. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Choices and Consequences Quotes in They Both Die at the End

Below you will find the important quotes in They Both Die at the End related to the theme of Choices and Consequences.
September 5, 2017: Mateo Torrez, 12:22 a.m. Quotes

The number one person I’ll miss the most is Future Mateo, who maybe loosened up and lived.

Related Characters: Mateo Torrez (speaker)
Page Number: 9
Explanation and Analysis:
Rufus Emeterio, 1:05 a.m. Quotes

I’m trying to stay shut ‘cause I don’t wanna take my problems out on some guy doing his job, even though I have no idea why the hell anyone applies for this position in the first place. Let’s pretend I got a future for a second, entertain me—in no universe am I ever waking up and saying, “I think I’ll get a twelve-to-three shift where I do nothing but tell people their lives are over.” But Victor and others did.

Related Characters: Rufus Emeterio (speaker), Victor
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Rufus, 1:18 a.m. Quotes

I don’t wanna think about any of that, I just wanna get to Aimee and say goodbye to the Plutos as the friend they know I am, not the monster I was tonight.

Related Characters: Rufus Emeterio (speaker), Aimee Dubois, Malcolm Anthony, Peck/Patrick Gavin, Tagoe Hayes
Page Number: 32
Explanation and Analysis:
Mateo, 1:52 a.m. Quotes

But I was wrong, go figure. This is exactly the person I always wanted to be—loose, fun, carefree. No one will look at this photo and think it was out of character, because none of these people know me, and their only expectations of me are to be the person I’m presenting myself as in my profile.

Related Characters: Mateo Torrez (speaker), Rufus Emeterio
Related Symbols: Photos
Page Number: 46
Explanation and Analysis:
Mateo, 4:58 a.m. Quotes

“I think we made his day by not pretending he’s invisible.”

Related Characters: Mateo Torrez (speaker), Rufus Emeterio, The Homeless Man
Page Number: 126
Explanation and Analysis:
Mateo, 6:14 a.m. Quotes

This is Penny’s beginning. And one day she’ll find herself on the terrible end of a Death-Cast call and it sucks how we’re all being raised to die. Yes, we live, or we’re given the chance to, at least, but sometimes living is hard and complicated because of fear.

Related Characters: Mateo Torrez (speaker), Lidia, Penny
Page Number: 150
Explanation and Analysis:
Mateo, 7:22 a.m. Quotes

I believe him. He’s not monstrous. Monsters don’t come to your home to help you live; they trap you in your bed and eat you alive. “People make mistakes,” I say.

“And my friends are the ones being punished,” Rufus says. “Their last memory of me will be running out the back door from my own funeral because the cops were coming for me. I left them behind... I’ve spent the last four months feeling abandoned by my family dying, and in a split second I did the same damn thing to my new family.”

Related Characters: Mateo Torrez (speaker), Rufus Emeterio (speaker), Aimee Dubois, Malcolm Anthony, Peck/Patrick Gavin, Tagoe Hayes, Vin Pearce, Rufus’s Parents, Olivia
Page Number: 173
Explanation and Analysis:
Rufus, 7:53 a.m. Quotes

I don’t know if he’s playing it off like he doesn’t know this from my Last Friend profile or if he’s impacted by this piece of history between me and my sister or if he overlooked this on my profile and is some ass who cares about who other people kiss. I hope not. We’re friends now, hands down, and it’s not forced. I met this kid a few years ago because some creative designer somewhere developed an app to forge connections. I’d hate to disconnect.

Related Characters: Rufus Emeterio (speaker), Mateo Torrez, Dalma Young, Olivia
Page Number: 176
Explanation and Analysis:
Mateo, 11:32 a.m. Quotes

“I think we’re already dead, dude. Not everyone, just Deckers. The whole Death-Cast thing seems too fantasy to be true. Knowing when our last day is going down so we can live it right: Straight-up fantasy. The first afterlife kicks off when Death-Cast tells us to live out our day knowing it’s our last; that way we’ll take full advantage of it, thinking we’re still alive. Then we enter the next and final afterlife without any regrets.”

Related Characters: Rufus Emeterio (speaker), Mateo Torrez, Andrea Donahue
Page Number: 214
Explanation and Analysis:
Deirdre Clayton, 1:50 p.m. Quotes

Deirdre reaches deep within herself, far past the place where lies and hopelessness come easily, and even beneath the very honest truth where she’s okay with the impacting the relief that comes with flying off this roof. She sees two boys living and this makes her feel less dead inside.

Intent may not be enough to cause her to actually die, she knows this from the countless other mornings when she’s woken up to ugliness, but when faced with the chance to prove Death-Cast wrong, Deirdre makes the right decision and lives.

Related Characters: Mateo Torrez, Rufus Emeterio, Deirdre
Page Number: 248
Explanation and Analysis:
Officer Andrade, 4:32 p.m. Quotes

Graham is always on Andrade’s mind, and today is no exception, with these foster kids in the holding cell who are acting out because their brother is a Decker. You don’t need matching DNA for someone to be your brother, Andrade knows this. And you definitely don’t need the same blood to lose a part of yourself when someone dies.

Related Characters: Rufus Emeterio, Malcolm Anthony, Tagoe Hayes, Officer Andrade, Graham
Page Number: 291
Explanation and Analysis:

Andrade is doing his damn best to get that snuff channel terminated by the end of the year. No way in hell he can share a beer with Graham in heaven without getting this job done. Andrade wants to focus on his real work, not babysitting. That’s why he has their foster parents signing release forms this very second. Let them go home with firm warnings so they can sleep.

And grieve.

Maybe even find their friend if he’s still alive.

Related Characters: Rufus Emeterio, Malcolm Anthony, Tagoe Hayes, Officer Andrade, Graham, Jenn Lori, Francis
Page Number: 292
Explanation and Analysis:
The Gang With No Name; 5:36 p.m. Quotes

Death-Cast did not call this gang of boys today, and they’re living as if this means their lives can’t be over while they’re alive. They run through the streets, not caring about traffic, as if they’re invincible against speeding cars and completely untouchable by the law.

Related Characters: Rufus Emeterio, Howie Maldonado, Peck/Patrick Gavin, Kendrick O’Connell, Damien Rivas
Page Number: 315
Explanation and Analysis:
Mateo, 5:48 p.m. Quotes

“What am I going to do without you?”

This loaded question is the reason I didn’t want anyone to know I was dying. There are questions I can’t answer. I cannot tell you how you will survive without me. I cannot tell you how to mourn me. I cannot convince you to not feel guilty if you forget the anniversary of my death, or if you realize days or weeks or months have gone by without thinking about me.

I just want you to live.

Related Characters: Mateo Torrez (speaker), Lidia (speaker)
Page Number: 322-23
Explanation and Analysis:
The Plutos, 6:33 p.m. Quotes

You may be born into a family, but you walk into friendships. Some you’ll discover you should put behind you. Others are worth every risk.

Related Characters: Rufus Emeterio, Aimee Dubois, Malcolm Anthony, Peck/Patrick Gavin, Tagoe Hayes
Page Number: 334
Explanation and Analysis:
Mateo, 7:34 p.m. Quotes

“I always wanted to stumble into someone like you and it sucks that I had to find you through a stupid app.”

“I like the Last Friend app. [...] I think the app puts you out there more than anything else. For me, it meant admitting I was lonely and wanted to connect with someone.”

Related Characters: Mateo Torrez (speaker), Rufus Emeterio (speaker)
Page Number: 340
Explanation and Analysis: