The Dead and the Gone

A third theme present in the novel is the power and influence of money. Alex attends a private school filled with wealthy students. He knows that he is different—he attends the school on scholarship, as his father is a manager of an apartment building—and he also knows that his classmates take their ease for granted. This becomes very clear when most students leave New York and get to a safer location. Those who don’t want or can’t afford to leave are left behind to slowly starve. The wealthier students are also able to get food more easily, and their parents are safe and alive. Kevin in particular shows Alex just how true this is. His father owns a trucking business, a surprisingly profitable business with so many people trying to leave the city, and his mother copes with the situation by drinking. When Kevin trades his “body shopping” finds, he does so for vodka for his mom; he stands in the food line to get food for Alex but not himself. Kevin also lives in a Designated Residential Unit (DRU) for the wealthy, set up to keep essential personnel more comfortable until they can leave the city. While Alex freezes in his apartment, Kevin’s family enjoys a home set at a balmy 65 degrees, clearly illustrating the differences between the wealthy and the poor.

Alex notices another big difference between the lower and upper classes occurs when he walks downtown to meet with Mr. Flynn:

[T]he people he saw walked with purpose. They were the important people, he realized, the ones with connections, the ones whose families were safe. Everything about them was cleaner, even their face masks. And they still had flesh on their bodies; not a single one was a walking skeleton (227).

Alex then wonders what it would be like to not be scared, dirty, or hungry—experiences those with money clearly don’t share (at least not to the same extent). Later, when Alex gets to the Port Authority with his sisters to get on the convoy, a police officer tells him that New York in under quarantine, stopping the convoys temporarily. The cop tells him, “Yeah, there’ll be another one. They run every two weeks, and if that one can’t go out, then the one after that will take care of you and your family […]. For people like you, there’s always a way out” (266). Even the mere appearance of wealth makes a difference in who survives and who dies.

Alex’s most poignant revelation about the power of wealth occurs when he’s talking to Mr. Flynn, who explains to Alex that New York is simply on life support until the city removes the important people and artifacts. The city will then die, regardless of who’s left in it. Mr. Flynn explains, “Originally, the plan was to move New York City out to Nevada. The rich and the mighty, not people like you and your sisters” (231). While Mr. Flynn doesn’t appear to agree with this mentality, his statement shows that the city does not consider the Morales family essential or important enough to save. Instead, the city leaves them to survive as best they can. Thankfully, Mr. Flynn respects Alex enough to give him his own family’s unused passes, but the fact that Alex goes to Mr. Flynn in desperation raises the question of how many families without these connections must make it out on their own. What’s ironic, of course, is that wealth cannot prevent death. The first time Alex goes body shopping with Kevin, they come upon a well-dressed and wealthy man. Kevin says, “Well, I guess death comes to all of us sooner or later” (157). Money might make the situation more comfortable for some, but money cannot solve all problems—a reality tragically exemplified when Kevin himself dies while body shopping with Alex.