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Chapter 17
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in It Ends with Us, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cycles of Abuse
Naked Truths
Good and Evil
Chosen Family
Summary
Analysis
As Ryle and Lily head to Allysa’s apartment to see Ryle’s mother, Lily gets increasingly nervous. Ryle has almost entirely moved in with Lily since they started dating. Lily worries that she will ask her questions about the Bible or thinks she is immoral for living with Ryle outside of marriage. Lily’s fears are unfounded, though; Mrs. and Dr. Kincaid pull Lily into a hug as soon as she meets them. Lily is happy to find that they are funny, kind, and normal people.
Having finally confronted the ugliest parts of her past, Lily proceeds into her future trying her best to feel unburdened. Meeting Ryle’s parents seems like a final obstacle in pursuing her future with Ryle. Lily is terrified they won’t accept her because she knows from experience how parents can break a relationship that once seemed unbreakable. Her fears are unfounded; Ryle’s parents accept Lily with the same enthusiasm with which Allysa and Marshall accepted her. They make her feel like she belongs, which is a feeling her own family never gave her.
Themes
After Ryle’s parents leave, Lily sits in bed with Allysa trying to feel Allysa’s baby kicking. The two women are bursting with excitement over the baby, who is due in just under three months. Allysa tells Lily that she can’t wait for Lily and Ryle to have a baby, too. Lily isn’t sure if Ryle will ever want children, but Allysa argues that if he changed his mind about relationships, he will likely change it about kids, too. Allysa asks Lily if she’d accept a proposal from Ryle. Lily responds that she would marry him right now, unaware that he has come into the room and overheard her. Then Lily and Ryle decide that they want to fly to Las Vegas with their families and get married immediately.
Lily basks in the joy of the family she has started to become a part of. The recent conflicts with Ryle make Lily hesitant to believe that he will want all the same things as her, especially children. Allysa’s earlier doubts, in contrast, seem erased; she is confident that loving Lily has changed her brother in ways she couldn’t have imagined. Allysa’s affirmation, paired with Ryle’s enthusiastic, pushes the worry out of Lily’s mind. For better or worse, she and Ryle choose to leave behind their old doubts and marry: the ultimate reconciliation.
Themes
