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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
Mateo is done cleaning, and he tries to come up with the inscription for his headstone. He only has eight words. One option is “What a Waste of Life.” He decides that he has to do better, so he decides on “Here Lies Mateo: He Lived for Everyone.” Mateo thinks that that’s a promise to the world to do better. He vows not to drag Lidia into his End Day; he’ll visit her, but he won’t tell her the truth. He decides he needs a coach or a friend, so he decides to download the Last Friend app, which gives any Decker a friend in their last hours. He specifies that it’s not the same as Necro, a disturbing hookup app that charges $7.99 a day. Sometimes Last Friends are great; some post beautiful eulogies. However, one Decker recently befriended a serial killer on Last Friend.
Even though Mateo is still hanging out on the internet, he’s doing something extremely important: he’s promising himself (and the world) that he’s going to make the most of his last day. Downloading an app like Last Friend forces Mateo to admit that he’s lonely and needs more people in his life, especially on his final day. However, the mention of the serial killer who’s using the app makes it clear that befriending people in this way isn’t without risks. It may not financially exploit Deckers like the Necro app does, but there are still issues with how people use it.
Themes
Mateo decides the app would be good for him, though he can’t decide how sad it would be to die with someone who doesn’t care much about him. He checks his bank account: he has about $2,000. Then, he downloads Last Friend. He fills out his profile and notes that Dad is in a coma, that he loves the Scorpius Hawthorne book series, and that he wants to find a new version of himself on his End Day. Mateo selects a photo of himself in a Luigi hat, which he won for entering an online Mario Kart contest. The Mateo in the photo looks like exactly who Mateo wants to be: happy, fun, and carefree. No one on the app will know that Mateo isn’t really like that.
The profile picture that Mateo chooses allows him to give himself a tangible goal: be the kind of person who looks happy and wears silly hats. At this point, putting up this photo on a social media platform gives Mateo the opportunity to practice being that kind of person in a small way, even if he’s not that way in real life. His concerns about meeting someone who doesn’t care about him are legitimate, and again speak to the issues surrounding sinister people who use (and abuse) social media.
Themes
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