67 pages • 2 hours read
It Ends with Us
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Themes
The Cyclical Nature of Domestic Violence
It Ends with Us foreshadows Lily’s experience with the cycle of domestic violence by introducing the readers to Ryle Kincaid as he is going through one of his rages and repeatedly pummeling a chair. Watching him, Lily thinks of her father, whom she despises for having been abusive to her mother. She will make this connection again after she and Ryle are a couple and he assaults her. At that point, Lily will begin to see herself as her mother, toward whom she’d long harbored resentment. Lily will come to recognize that like her mother, she finds herself wanting to excuse Ryle’s behavior and believing that it will improve, despite evidence to the contrary.
Lily discovers that the cycle of domestic violence sustains itself through self-delusion and fear: the self-delusion that the perpetrator will stop, and the fear of breaking the relationship. In Lily’s case, her fear is brought to the forefront once she learns that she’s pregnant with Ryle’s child. She doesn’t want her child to grow up in a broken home, but neither does she want to bear Ryle’s abuse, or for her child to witness said abuse the way Lily witnessed her mother’s. To break the cycle is not only to take a stand for her own self-worth, but also to allow her child to have a positive relationship with her father.
The Necessity of Support
The experiences that Lily and Atlas undergo emphasize the need for support during challenging times. Atlas meets Lily when he starts living at an abandoned house after fleeing his home. While Lily helps him through food, blankets, and even having her sleep in the floor of her room, it’s their friendship that sustains both of them. Atlas has been shunned by his peers for his poverty and Lily mentions that her father’s abuse of her mother has made it so she’s been isolated from her schoolmates. Atlas’s feelings of abandonment are so strong he was considering suicide before glimpsing Lily through her bedroom window. In return for her care, Atlas provides comfort to Lily during her father’s rages, and even stops her from taking a knife and escalating a situation. After they meet again, Atlas once more provides support for Lily through picking her up after Ryle assaults her, going with her to the hospital and giving her a place to stay.
The necessity of support is not just underscored through the romantic relationship between Lily and Atlas. It is also perceived through Lily’s relationship with Allysa and Lily’s relationship to her mother. While knowing each other a relatively short time, Allysa and Lily prove to be confidants. Allysa even cautions Lily about her brother and his interest in casual relationships. Meanwhile, Lily comforts Allysa while she admits she’s been trying to get pregnant and celebrates when she does. Lily keeps the abuse a secret from Allysa, worried that she will convince her to stay with Ryle. Once she gives her the details, however, Allysa herself tells Lily to leave Ryle. Her mother’s support unfolds similarly. Lily is concerned her mother will want her to stay with Ryle, given how her mother stayed with her father, but her mother instead encourages her to make her own way.
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