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Chapter 23
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
In a flashback, Sylvia recalls the day that Autumn came to school wearing the bracelet that Tyler gave her. Autumn says the gift is a sign that “someone understood what dancing meant to her,” and Sylvia goes home sadly to her mother, feeling left out by Autumn’s new closeness with her brother. She tells Mamá that she’s recently submitted her college application, which pleases her mother since she doesn’t want Sylvia to stay home and take care of her. She tells Sylvia not to forget the stories of her heritage or the family she came from; when Sylvia apathetically promises she won’t, her mother scolds her for her tone, and Sylvia is happy to get a glimpse of the ferocity that vanished with her mother’s illness. Now, she asks Fareed how she will break the news of Tomás’s death to her mother.
In a way, Sylvia’s feeling of exclusion mirror Tyler’s mindset as Autumn becomes more involved with her girlfriend. However, rather than stewing in her anxieties like Tyler does, Sylvia talks to her mother, reminding herself of her place within a supportive family network. Her mother’s remarks about her strong heritage reassures Sylvia that she’s capable of handing change in the present. While Tyler displays a pathological resistance to the changes involved in growing up, Sylvia models a way to confront these challenges successfully.
Themes
Many of the surviving students find their parents waiting for them outside, and Claire is heartened to see the happy reunions; they make her feel as if Matt might walk out of the school at any moment. Suddenly she sees CJ leading a group of students; hugging Claire, CJ berates herself for not having done more to stop Tyler. Claire responds that she did everything she could, and reassures her that her brother Steve is waiting for her. In relief, CJ starts sobbing.
In wishing they could have singlehandedly stopped the shooting, Claire and CJ implicitly wish to simplify the problem of gun violence, framing it as a conflict between good and bad people rather than what it really is: a social problem whose causes must be addressed on a broader level.
Themes
Autumn tells Tyler that she has always loved him and only ever wanted to be a normal family. He says that this is what he wanted as well, but that his sister has never understood that “the world is against us.” With police footsteps now audible, Tyler sits down on the floor and takes off his watch. Fearing for her life, Autumn pleads with Tyler not to kill a member of his own family, but her brother just says that family no longer means much to him, and mockingly asks “who will mourn” her.
On the face of things, Autumn and Tyler are articulating the same regret for destroyed family relationships. However, Tyler’s bizarre statement that “the world is against us” shows that he thinks of personal relationships as fundamentally combative—a way to “get even” with the world—rather than as supportive connections that can also be tied to broader communities.
Themes
Angry, Autumn snaps that the police are coming and Tyler has accomplished nothing. Tyler turns the gun on her with a mischievous smile and shoots; through a haze of pain she sees him turn the gun and shoot himself, saying: “I just don’t want to be alone anymore.”
Paradoxically, in his wish to bring people’s attention to his loneliness, Tyler has made himself more alone and reviled than ever.
Themes
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CJ tweets that daylight feels “too bright.” She’s disillusioned with the entire world, but she knows she’s lucky because her brother is alive.
CJ’s pensive tweet contrasts with her tough demeanor in front of Claire. Social media helps her air the feelings that she doesn’t feel comfortable expressing in person.
Themes
