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Chapter 2
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 reflects that while Sylvia thinks of dance as a career, Asha understands that for Autumn, it’s a “heartbeat.” Autumn wishes she could talk to Asha more, but Asha walks away and Autumn feels sad again. Her only friend in this school is Sylvia, and her Dad and brother seem like they don’t care what happens to her at all.
Even though Autumn’s relationship with Sylvia is fulfilling, moments like these show that it’s not enough – she needs a community in which to feel at home, not just one person on whom to rely.
Themes
Shaking off his pensive mood, Chris increases his pace and leaves Claire behind. She focuses on her running again, trying to improve over her times from last season. All of her worries and fears for her siblings disappear, and she thinks only of the freedom of running. Suddenly, she feels that she’s exactly where she belongs.
Running gives Claire a sense of purpose because it provides her with a specific task. In contrast, she’ll spend much of the morning trying to confront the fact that, during the shooting to come, there’s nothing she can actually do to help those inside the school.
Themes
Tomás replaces the file, feeling that this whole excursion was stupid and there’s no way to help his sister. Fareed suggests they skip the rest of the day. Ever since Fareed arrived at Opportunity last year, he and Tomás have shared the “dubious honor” of being the school’s chief mischief-makers. Tomás says no; he doesn’t want Principal Trenton to call his Abuelo again, and he doesn’t want his Mamá to find out that he’s behaved badly.
Here, Tomás’s personal desires clash with his family obligations: he wants to break the rules as he’s always done, but because of his family circumstances he knows he must change his ways. Even before the shooting starts, Tomás is already grappling with the challenges of growing up.
Themes
Sylvia lightly holds Autumn’s wrist as they move towards the back of the auditorium, even though her girlfriend hates when they touch in public. She hates thinking about Autumn’s determination to leave town, especially when she doesn’t know what’s going to happen to her. Around her, other students are murmuring that the doors are locked; as the bell rings, Sylvia wonders if her twin, Tomás, is playing some kind of trick. One of the doors at the front of the room opens and a blond figure wearing a cap enters. All at once, everyone realizes that the figure entering the room is holding a gun. He tells Principal Trenton that he “has a question,” raises his arm, and fires.
Sylvia uses physical contact with Autumn to soothe her worries about the emotional distance she fears will accompany their graduation from high school. Her reference to Tomás here creates another parallel between him and Tyler, but the shooter’s entrance with a gun right now draws a clear distinction between Tyler’s character and that of her brother.
Themes
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In a blog, a girl named Mei muses that while “Opportunity always looks the same,” she enjoys the stability of her home.
Like Mei, the novel’s narrators all chafe at Opportunity’s predictability while also relying on it for security.
Themes
