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Rufus, 5:59 p.m.
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
Dalma isn’t dying today because she didn’t receive a call from Death-Cast. If she was going to die, she’d spend the day with her half-sister and maybe a Last Friend, since she created the app. She tries to convince her half-sister, Dahlia, that she doesn’t really want to work for Last Friend. Dahlia asks how the meetings with Facebook went, and Dalma replies that Twitter might launch the new feature next month. The new feature would allow Last Friend users to prepare their final tweets and statuses so their online legacy isn’t just a viral video of a dog.
Given that Dalma created the Last Friend app, it’s reasonable to assume that she understands the power of friendship and of connection. It’s important enough to her to dedicate her life to helping people find friendship in their final hours—and it’s something that she’d spend her final hours doing, too. The new feature would help people to reach online friends in addition to in-person ones, depending on their final update.
Themes
Dahlia says that her last message would be a Moulin Rouge! quote. Dalma has thought often about what she’d choose. She knows that Last Friend is a great resource, even though a serial killer murdered 11 users last summer. She’s been tempted to sell the app—but moments like earlier, when she saw the two girls on the train and one admitted that she did Last Friend graffiti, give her hope. Before Dalma can tell Dahlia what her last message would be, two teen boys race past. She doesn’t know who they are or how long they’ve been friends. Dalma says that her last message would be to tell others to “find [their] people. And to treat each day like a lifetime.”
Though Dalma has to deal with the guilt and a sense of responsibility for creating the platform that enabled the serial killer to find victims, she also cannot entirely control how people interact with the app. This is one of social media’s shortcomings, but it doesn’t mean that social media is entirely bad. It still brings people together, and it still adds meaning and purpose to people’s lives.
Themes
