58 pages • 1-hour read
The Survivor Wants to Die at the End
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Symbols & Motifs
Content Warning: This section of the guide features discussion of death by suicide, suicidal ideation and/or self-harm, mental illness, child abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, substance use, and addiction.
Time
In the world of Death-Cast, time is a motif marking beginnings and endings, and it speaks to the theme of The Tension Between Free Will and Determinism. Each chapter in the novel begins with a notation of the precise time, local time zone, and the date if more than 24 hours have passed. All the events in the story occur between July 22 and July 30, 2020. The hours between midnight and 3:00 am hold special significance because heralds make their End Day calls during this period to accommodate the three-hour difference in time zones across the continental United States.
While people without suicidal tendencies dread receiving an End Day call, Paz has a perverse love-hate relationship with time. This is because he sees death as an escape that will free him from the misery of his life. At the beginning of the novel, he waits eagerly until midnight, hoping that he will receive an End Day call. By 3:00 am, he spirals into depression when the call doesn’t come. The cycle begins each succeeding night with hope followed by despair.
Alano has a similarly unusual reaction to time. Like Paz, he sees death as his only escape when the pressures of his life become too great. As the novel ends, both boys learn to embrace time constructively as a promise that they will share a future together, rather than using it to mark their distance from death.
Intrusive Media
The media is everywhere in the novel. It is a motif representing communal judgment and relates to the theme of Resisting Social Pressure. While everyone in the novel’s world has some social media presence, both Paz and Alano are celebrities. Paz was already known as a child actor in a Harry Potter-like film franchise before he killed his father, while Alano is the heir to the Death-Cast empire. Although both have their admirers, they are more prone to receive criticism and abuse, not only from social media but from the media in general.
Much of the public views Paz as a murderer because of the Death’s Dozen docuseries, which skews the facts of his trial to portray him in a negative light. Alano is targeted by surviving family members of the Death’s Dozen, who send him threatening messages. When one attacks him, the story is covered widely in the press. During the altercation between Paz and Alano at Universal Studios, the media captures Paz raising his fist to strike Alano. Later, Paz gloomily looks through his social media feed to find hundreds of derogatory comments about his behavior. Both boys fear being caught on video in the Present-Time shop when it is vandalized by a Death Guarder.
The media encourages snap judgments that always carry negative consequences for Alano and Paz. As Paz says, I’m up against a world that doesn’t know me but hates me anyway” (614). In the world of the news media, sensationalism sells, whereas truth is irrelevant.
Star Rug
The star rug doesn’t appear until midway through the novel. It symbolizes hope for the future and relates to the theme of Love as a Reason to Live. During Paz’s initial encounter with Alano, the boys visit the Hollywood Walk of Fame, where Paz laments that his career as an actor is washed up, and he will never live to see a star of his own on the pavement. Alano counters this gloomy prediction by buying Paz a throw rug with a large gold star in the center. He intends this to nudge Paz away from thoughts of past failures to thoughts of future success.
The appearance and disappearance of the rug from the story mirror Paz’s emotional state at the time. When Alano first presents him with the rug, Paz is full of hope. Later that day, he feels anxious and depressed, getting into an argument with Alano and Rio. When he leaves the group, he neglects to take the rug home with him.
Later, racked with guilt for his bad behavior, Paz self-harms by cutting his foot, the part of his anatomy that would maintain contact with a rug. When Alano comes to visit, he brings the rug with him, and Paz gratefully accepts it. The following morning, when Paz can’t find Alano and begins to spiral, his foot connects with the rug, reassuring him that Alano still cares. Alano believes in Paz’s star power, which makes it possible for Paz to believe in himself again, too.
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