the importance of human connection
- both thrive on close relationships
- NLMG clones are reliant on one another for support, TWDSC relationships are tense and often destructive
- relationships between clones were engineered though the Exchanges
- defining point of their humanity was the forming of real lasting bonds of friendship
- Narrators relationship with margo is unhealthy and destructive
- human connection can act as a balm and salvation as well as a source of pain
- needs connections in order to survive
memories and the past
-past is both a place of refuge and pain
- Kathy’s past shapes who she is
- TWDSC the past is a burden, a murky world of chaos and misplaced nostalgia
- Kathy holds on to her past like a lifeline, exploring it in detail in order to piece together an identity for herself, Ruth and Tommy
- Ruth tries to distance herself from her childhood but ends up with Kathy on the eve of her completion
- Kathy ends with the acknowledgment that despite her initial wavering her memories are clear and powerful.
- TWDSC does not have many clear memories of his own past but the stories often reveal other character’s perspective of the past
- NLMG, is concerned with how characters use the past to anchor themselves and to account for their present lives
- TWDSC, holding on to their pre-collapse lives, the protagonist moves through the collection in an ever changing present, unburdened by his own memories.
-
Power and control
- neither protagonists are in control of their lives
