Much of the novel focuses on Stephen’s struggle to balance his desire to survive as an individual against his desire to find and support a community. Through Stephen’s character arc, the novel interrogates the seeming contradiction between these desires, emphasizing the challenges that both individualism and communalism may lead to. Characters like Jenny experience communal rejection and choose individualism to survive, while characters like Jackson choose empathy and try to see others—even those outside their community—as humans in need of support. Ultimately, the novel concludes that community, empathy, and cooperation are the only ways that humanity can continue to thrive.

While the novel does suggest that an individual, isolated life has its benefits, those benefits mostly take the form of pure physical survival. Stephen’s grandfather’s choice to trust no one keeps his family alive, while the choice to pursue community and to help others leads to Stephen’s father’s death. However, the individualism Stephen’s grandfather espouses shuts one off from human connection and, in this sense, leads to extinction: If Stephen’s father had heeded his father’s recommendation that they leave behind a dying woman—Stephen’s mother—Stephen himself would never have been born. Moreover, Stephen struggles to trust and value others as a result of his grandfather’s lessons, which significantly impacts his quality of life.