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“I’ve barely been able to live with myself for surviving something my family didn’t.”
At the beginning of the novel, Rufus’s internal thoughts reveal his struggles with survivor’s guilt. As he’s beating Peck, Rufus grapples with the subconscious understanding that he is misdirecting his anger over the senselessness of his family’s death toward Peck. By hurting others, Rufus is expressing the anger he feels about the unfairness that his parents and sister died while he survived. Throughout the story, Rufus’s feelings over his own death are contradictory. While he feels guilty that his death will cause the Plutos pain and grief, he is unable to connect that pain is emblematic of the significance of his life. It is not until they all reunite at Clint’s Graveyard that Rufus truly understands how much he means to Malcolm, Tagoe, and even Aimee. He embraces the meaning his life has for them and is grateful he didn’t rob them of the opportunity to say goodbye.
“When someone puts their journey out there for you to watch, you pay attention—even if you know they’ll die in the end.”
Mateo’s focus on CountDowners at the beginning of the novel demonstrates the significance of each and every life. Even before Mateo becomes a Decker himself, he reads CountDowners regularly because he believes every life is worth attention. He continues this philosophy when he gives money to a homeless person. The quote is also an instruction to the reader to pay attention to each and every character in the story, emphasizing that their lives are important even though their fate is already known. The entire novel demonstrates the idea expressed in this quote since readers get invested in Mateo and Rufus’s journey even though, as the title warns, they both die in the end. The novel implies that all human stories are worthy of attention because all people, just like Rufus and Mateo, will eventually die.
"People matter more than stuff.”
As Rufus prepares for his funeral near the beginning of the novel, he reflects on how different his room in his foster home is from his old bedroom when he had his family. He doesn’t have all the luxuries he used to have, but he has something worth more than material possessions: Malcolm and Tagoe, his best friends. Rufus also thinks of how Malcolm lost his entire family and all their things in a fire, a tragic example of the value of relationships over possessions. Through Mateo’s example, Rufus gives a homeless man all the cash he has on him, showing his growing understanding of the significance of each and every life. Later, Rufus demonstrates that he’s learned the powerful lesson that people are more important than any material things when he gives away his bicycle. The moment is a turning point for Rufus, who is shedding his connection to the material world in favor of love and human connection.
