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
Death-Cast didn’t call Victor last night because he’s not dying, though employees learn of their impending deaths when administrators call them in for a private meeting. Victor is more depressed than usual, since Delilah tried to break up with him. He knows that she did this because he’s been in a funk since he started working at Death-Cast three months ago. He’s on his way to an appointment with the in-house therapist, partly because of his personal life and partly because his job is killing him—but the money and the health insurance are good. He enters the building with Andrea, who’s worked here since the beginning. Victor knows she needs the job, though she hates it.
Victor’s insistence that Andrea hates her job adds even more nuance to Andrea’s character. She’s not so different from Victor, and yet the way that she’s chosen to handle the stressors of her job is wildly different. Though this doesn’t excuse the awful way in which Andrea treats Deckers, it does offer hope that she was compassionate once. This, combined with Victor’s slipping mental health, drives home how difficult professions like this are for people. While Deckers have the opportunity to live for one day, heralds must live with death every day that they work.
Themes
As Victor and Andrea get in the elevator, Victor’s phone rings: it’s Delilah. She immediately asks Victor if Victor had someone harass her with an End Day call because he’s upset. Delilah promises that she won’t report him if he did. Victor can tell that Delilah isn’t messing with him. He asks where she is. When he learns that she’s at the Althea diner, he says he’s on his way. Delilah cries that she wasted her day, but Victor tells her she’s going to be okay. This is the first time he’s lied to a Decker. He races out his elevator, knowing Delilah could die any minute, and he speeds to Althea.
Because Victor has a close and personal connection with Delilah, lying to her comes easily—but it’s a kindness that he feels he has to do. Even if rushing to Delilah is hopeless and even if she’s still going to die, it’s important for both her and for Victor to believe that they’re doing everything they can to help each other in this tense moment. Lying may be morally questionable, but in this situation, it’s the only way that Victor can live with himself.
Themes
