This World We Live In

While the reader does not get the full backstory on Alex (unless they have read the previous book in the series, The Dead and the Gone), it becomes clear that he has endured more privation and more trauma than Miranda. He will likely never know the ultimate fate of his parents; he has already lost one sister, Bri (See: Background), and he has had to commit criminal acts to keep himself and Julie safe. Miranda, on the other hand, has been sheltered by Mom and Matt. Her life in Howell since the disaster has been markedly different from Alex’s experience in New York City and on the road. 

Alex radiates an intensity that eventually attracts Miranda. He is serious and smart; Julie jokes that, before the disaster, he intended to become president of the United States. Now, however, he is full of self-criticism and self-doubt. He confesses to Miranda that he used to be ashamed of his family’s poverty, so he decided to work to become self-sufficient: “And I felt proud. Proud I was smart. Proud that people noticed me, respected me. […] Proud that I was too good to end up like my parents” (108). He says this with self-loathing; now, he is more ashamed of these feelings than he ever was of his own family. In his despair, he has turned to religion, praying for Julie to be safe and committing himself to enter a monastery in order to devote his life to penance.

Still, he is a teenager, a boy of flesh and of blood, and his feelings for Miranda disrupt his plans. When the convent turns out to be deserted, he wants Miranda to travel with him and Julie to one of the safe towns. None of the adults think this is a good idea. Even mild-mannered Charlie warns Miranda that Alex is “[a] boy who’s been given so much responsibility, he thinks he must be a man” (209)—but he is not an adult, not yet. Nevertheless, Alex must eventually accept the death of his sister Julie and move on to yet another unknown. He has Miranda, and the Evans family, to accompany him—how far is left unclear.

Mom is both intelligent and practical, an accomplished writer and mother. In the first book in the Last Survivors series, Mom’s quick thinking and understanding of the scope of the disaster keeps the family alive; she raids grocery stores and hardware stores to amass enough supplies to survive the year. Here, she remains the authority figure and caretaker, though sometimes her thoughts remain stuck in the past: “‘It’s funny,’ Mom said. ‘The things we used to take for granted. Water. Power. Sunlight’” (6). Her nostalgia has a sharp edge to it as she considers the deprivations that her children now must face. The world of abundance is dead and gone.

Still, even as Mom tries to accept the many changes that this world brings with it, she cannot shake the traditional values and conventional morality with which she was raised. For example, when Matt and Miranda ask for her consent to look through more empty houses, she initially balks: “‘Taking things without permission,’ Mom said. ‘It’s as good as stealing’” (27). However, Miranda notices Mom working on the crossword puzzles that she had brought back from her first foray into the neighborhood; eventually, Mom acquiesces to many more outings.

Mom also balks at Matt’s marriage to Syl, a woman whom he met only days before their (unsanctioned) vows; she resists Jon’s attraction to Julie and Miranda’s growing love for Alex. She does not want her children to grow up. While this sentiment is not uncommon among parents, it is exacerbated by the post-apocalyptic circumstances in which the family finds itself. By the end of the book, however, in the face of even more tragedy, Mom rallies. She is resilient and determined: “‘We’re going to have to leave in the morning,’ she said. […] ‘It won’t be easy to leave. It will be harder for me than anything I’ve ever done’” (236). Nonetheless, she does it for her children, her family, and their future.

Matt, Miranda’s older brother, provides a foil for Miranda. Unlike Miranda, Matt has already transitioned from childhood to adulthood; he follows in Mom’s footsteps, displaying forethought, insight, and practicality. It is his idea to go with Jon to the river to catch shad. When he brings this up—“I’ve been thinking […] about a couple of things”—Miranda follows with her own self-critical thoughts: “I’d been thinking, too, about nail polish” (20). While Matt takes responsibility for the family, Miranda chastises herself for remaining lost in her self-absorbed and petty concerns.

Still, Matt displays an impulsivity at odds with his more practical self: He fights, almost physically, with Miranda when she challenges him, and he marries a woman he met only the day before. Matt’s patient adult demeanor is carefully cultivated, and he must work to restrain his impulsive nature. He also displays an aptitude for judgmental behavior, blaming his father for the divorce and accusing Alex of being “a parasite” (153). Despite the responsibilities he takes on, Matt is only of college age, facing a future that is as uncertain as everyone else’s. All his hard work and professional dreams have been decimated, and his frustration sometimes gets the better of him. Nevertheless, he tries to navigate this new reality with as much responsibility as he can, helping to care for his family, for his wife, even for Julie in the end.

Jon, Miranda’s younger brother and the protagonist of the fourth and final book in the series (The Shade of the Moon [2013]), possesses traits of both his older brother and his sister: He is practical and smart yet dreamy and angst ridden. In short, like Miranda, Jon often presents himself like a typical young teenager. His crush on Julie even leads him to do his homework without complaint and pray without his habitual disdain. 

Before the arrival of Julie, when Mom tries to cajole Jon into keeping up with his classwork so as not to be behind when schools reopen, Jon responds with clear-eyed reason: “That’s never going to happen […] [E]ven if schools do open up somewhere, they’re not going to open up here. There aren’t enough people left” (7). Though he is ultimately trying to avoid homework, his reasoning is sound.

Jon is also considerate. He finds a box filled with flashlight pens for Miranda, telling her, “Now you can write in your journal without using a flashlight” (27), and thus giving her more time with her thoughts and preserving precious batteries all at once. He respects authority and tries to help the family as well as he can, though his relationship with Julie causes tension. Both Mom and Alex agree that the two are too young to form such a romantic bond. Miranda, too, realizes that Jon—much like Miranda herself—is in an in-between state, no longer a child but not yet an adult. As she observes, “Jon’s been so strong the past year. He’s grown up so much. But there’s a part of him that’s still a kid” (189). In this world, the innocence of childhood has been mostly sacrificed to the demands of responsibility. Preserving the last bits of Jon’s childhood might be worth the effort.