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Chapter 22
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
Autumn’s appearance startles Tyler, but she ignores him to bend over Tomás and close his eyes. Standing up, she tells Tyler that the police are downstairs; his time is up. She tells him that she always looked to him for support in her dancing, especially after their Mom died. She was planning to wear a bracelet he bought her to her audition. It’s not her fault that he chose to be alone.
In their previous confrontation, Autumn presented herself as subservient to Tyler, begging him to listen to her and stressing her love for him; now, she’s firmly aligning herself with Tomás and showing Tyler how completely he has squandered Autumn’s love for him.
Themes
Students exiting the school bring reports of the dead with them, and Claire listens to officers repeating the names, even though she’s not supposed to. She feels that there are no words to describe this awful waiting period, just “fingers that entwine” and “arms that link in solidarity.” Even though the officers tell parents to go to an improvised processing center at a nearby church, no one leaves the school. Claire thinks about the town’s role in providing a communal “home” for everyone.
Again, Claire’s portrait of communal solidarity—from the physical closeness of waiting parents to their refusal to leave school grounds—shows that she’s far more grounded and invested in her community than she was at the beginning of the novel.
Themes
Inside the classroom, Sylvia can hear Autumn telling Tyler that the police have arrived, and knows that the ordeal is over; if only Tomás had waited, he would be alive as well. Suddenly Fareed drops through the window; when he sees Sylvia’s face he hugs her silently. As Sylvia cries, he repeats his father’s advice after they immigrated to America: even though you can’t always keep your loved ones close, if you “cherish the memories…you’ll always be at home.”
In a way, Fareed’s advice puts into words the lesson all the narrators have learned about growing up: in order to become adults, they have to accept that their relationships will change and evolve, even as these bonds remain important. However, because of Tyler’s drastic actions Sylvia has to accept not just change but the end of her most important sibling relationship.
Themes
