Previous
Chapter 17
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in This Is Where It Ends, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gun Violence
Community and Tragedy
Family and Sibling Relationships
Change, Uncertainty, and Growing Up
Abuse
Summary
Analysis
Fareed instructs Tomás and Sylvia to find an open classroom and barricade themselves inside, after which they’ll use an emergency exit to climb onto the roof. They split off down the hallway, looking for an unlocked classroom, desperate to get out of the exposed hallway. Tomás thinks that there’s no one he’d rather be undergoing this ordeal with than Sylvia.
In a time of crisis, Sylvia’s presence provides courage to Tomás that nothing else can. Their growing confidence in each other provides a contrasting parallel to Autumn and Tyler’s fracturing relationship.
Themes
Autumn listens to the other students quietly conversing with the police. She returns to Matt as one boy announces that a SWAT team will be in the building soon. Matt smiles faintly, but blood is still oozing out of his shirt. Autumn suggests that he use his phone to call home, but just at that moment it lights up with an unknown number and he picks up.
Throughout the novel Matt is presented as especially vulnerable and innocent. His prolonged anguish and death in the next few chapters highlights the meaninglessness of gun violence, in that it often targets those who are least able to protect themselves and who have had little to do with the shooter previously.
Themes
Claire is relieved and terrified to hear her brother’s voice on the phone, which she’s borrowed from a kind stranger. Matt tells her softly that he hid under the seats and is fine. Claire promises him that the police are outside and that everything will be all right. Matt informs her that Tyler ran out of the auditorium, and Claire asks more questions about his whereabouts so she can notify the police. She hears another girl’s voice reassuring Matt that Tyler won’t come back, and recognizes Autumn. Autumn says she’s sorry for everything that happened, and Claire responds that she is as well. An officer approaches and asks to speak with Matt, taking the phone from Claire.
Here, phones represent the simultaneous closeness and distance that is present in various relationships throughout the community. Matt believes that his sister Claire can take care of anything, and his haste to call her demonstrates that faith, but their phone conversation merely emphasizes their physical separation and Claire’s inability to save Matt.
Themes
Sylvia can’t believe that she’s left Autumn behind in the auditorium. In a flashback, she recalls enlisting her family’s help to throw Autumn a surprise birthday party last year, since her Dad and Tyler had gone out of town and left her alone. They eat a delicious meal and share a movie marathon, and then Sylvia walks Autumn home, daring to hold her hand in the open air.
The novel often presents sibling relationships as inescapable—no matter how much Autumn dislikes her brother’s behavior, she can’t break free from loving him. This flashback suggests another mode of existence, in which one deliberately chooses a family that can provide support and acceptance.
Themes
Get the entire This Is Where It Ends LitChart as a printable PDF.
In the flashback, Autumn opens up enough to ask Sylvia for help preparing her Julliard audition, and Sylvia agrees. Autumn says fiercely that she wants to leave a legacy when she dies, not spend her life in a town where she doesn’t matter. Sylvia tells her not to worry, but she selfishly wants her to stay in Opportunity so they can be together. When they reach the house, Sylvia braves the neighbors’ disapproval to kiss Autumn on the lips.
Both Sylvia and Autumn have spent the last months worrying that physical distance will tear them apart, just as they worry about being separated during the shooting. However, the events of the shooting will actually reassure them about the strength of their bond and prepare them to meet future challenges.
Themes
On Twitter, Jay privately messages Kevin and confesses that he was planning to ask him to this year’s prom.
This poignant admission is a reflection of the multitude of possibilities lost with every casualty of the shooting.
Themes
