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Part 2, Chapter 3: Five Months After
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Nineteen Minutes, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Victims vs. Perpetrators
Vengeance vs. Justice
Expectations and the Failures of Family
Lost Innocence
Appearances vs. Reality
Summary
Analysis
In the locker room, Matt forces Josie to get down on the ground, then positions himself in front of her. He tells her he loves her, and Josie starts crying, convinced that she’s about to die. Peter enters and points the gun at Matt; at this point Josie screams and, startled, Peter drops his backpack. A gun falls out and flies across the floor. Josie picks it up and points it at Peter. Matt urges her to shoot him, yelling, “Are you fucking stupid?” Peter tells Matt not to speak to her that way, but Matt ignores him, calling him an asshole and demanding that Josie shoot. She does—but instead of aiming at Peter, she shoots Matt in the stomach.
This passage contains the novel’s major twist—when faced with the choice of whether to shoot Peter or Matt, Josie shoots Matt. While at first her actions seems counterintuitive and inexplicable, recall the whole argument that Jordan and Dr. Wah have been making about Peter during the trial. It is arguably Josie, not Peter, who is suffering from battered woman syndrome and who kills her partner as a result.
Themes
Josie instantly runs to Matt, trying to stop the blood gushing from his wound. She demands that Peter help her, but when he walks over, he shoots Matt in the head. Peter asks her not to tell and Josie agrees.
Josie’s instant regret further confirms that she may have dissociated in the moment she shot Matt.
Themes
