The Celebrants

Because the action of the book takes place primarily through group interaction—with all the central characters interacting during the funeral weekends, and Jordan and Jordy interacting during the interludes—the majority of exposition, plot movement, and characterization takes place through dialogue. Excepting a brief interlude that describes the morning that they found Alec dead on the dorm lounge floor, the circumstances surrounding his death are all described in dialogue: the group’s discussions of how much he would have disliked the funeral and whether they really knew him. In this dialogue, Rowley provides characterization of the other individuals in their group and of the relationships between them, while simultaneously providing the reader information about the plot. For example, the possibility that Alec has died by suicide rather than an accidental drug overdose is described through dialogue. When Chris expresses a wish that Alec knew how much he was loved, Marielle replies: “You think he didn’t?” with her hackles up “in the way they often were when she came to Alec’s defense” (33). Craig replies: “‘I know he didn’t.’ The rest of his observation went unsaid: if he had, he wouldn’t have been so cavalier with his own life. ‘Wait. You think he did this on purpose?’ ‘You don’t?’” (34). Rowley therefore provides information about Marielle and Alec’s relationship and how the rest of the group viewed it, while introducing ambiguity about Alec’s death. The question of exactly why Alec died remains ambiguous throughout the novel, highlighting the complexities of active suicide attempts and passive or “cavalier” behaviors that are potentially suicidal.

Building on Jordy’s comment in the Part 1 interlude that Alec was the embodiment of their younger selves, Part 2 focuses on Alec as a representation of their youth and their first understanding of mortality. The contrast between Jordy’s understanding years later and the ways the members of the group discuss Alec just after his death emphasizes how significantly the characters’ view of mortality has changed. In Part 2, Rowley represents a youthful perspective on mortality, with characters feeling adrift when Alec’s death shatters their previous feelings of invincibility: “Alec was beauty and permanence, marble and stone, meant to stand and draw admirers for centuries. But the truth was he was fragile too, more than they were, even, as he lacked the cynicism they all sometimes wore as armor” (25). Rowley develops art as a symbol for representation as opposed to reality throughout the novel, and this passage describes the friends’ view of Alec as sculptural through the use of word choice of beauty, the reference to the material of marble, and the idea of being admired. The image of Alec as a sculpture has a dual meaning, as it both suggests his friends’ view of him as being strong and unbreakable and connotes having been frozen in his youthful aspect forever after his death.

Rowley contrasts mortality and invincibility in the Part 2 interlude in which the Jordans discuss trips that they may want to take before Jordan’s death. Having thought that he would be more inclined to travel when faced with death than he is, Jordan reflects on the fact that “[e]veryone was on the same ticking clock. They might fool themselves into thinking that more time affords them opportunities to do more things, that the future is open-ended. But the world is simply too big. We weren’t meant to see everything” (62). The image of the “ticking clock” illustrates the mortality that confronts the characters and reflects the significance of temporality in the novel’s structure. The temporal distance between the action of Alec’s funeral—from 1995 to 2023—highlights how significantly the group members have changed in 28 years, particularly regarding their attitude toward their own mortality.

The characters consistently employ dark humor regarding death and dying throughout the novel. When Marielle first suggests the pact, the evening after Alec’s funeral, Jordan jokes: “Maybe there’s a punch card. Tenth funeral is free” (46). During the interlude section, Jordan gives Jordy a gift of a Ouija board “so we can continue the conversation after I’m gone” (63). These macabre statements about death illustrate The Role of Dark Humor in Coping with Mortality. Throughout the novel, dark humor functions as both a defense mechanism when characters are required to confront their own and their friends’ mortality and as a way of connecting with each other and finding comfort despite traumatic circumstances.