Character Clues

Character Analysis

Social Status

Violet Markey is "cheerleader popular—one of those girls you would never think of running into on a ledge six stories above the ground" (1.17). Finch, on the other hand, is known around school as "Theodore Freak" (1.11).

While he's something of an outcast, it's worth noting that all the students are freaks in some way—even golden boy Ryan Cross. Violet observes:

No one will ever call Ryan Cross a freak or say mean things about him behind his back. He wears the right clothes and says the right things and is going to the right college after all of this is said and done. (48.95)

But he's a kleptomaniac. That just proves that you can't judge a book by its cover (although All the Bright Places' cover is pretty awesome, and so are the pages between the covers).

Sex and Love

Bad boy Theodore Finch has a reputation with the ladies. According to Suze Haines, "That's one guy who knows what he's doing" (5.20). He's sexually experienced—so much so that he's shocked to learn that Violet is a virgin. ("I can tell by the pull-away," he says [28.29].)

They take their time, but eventually the pair has sex. From that point forward, they seem to be on the same page.

Props

One of Finch's rules for wandering is to always leave a little souvenir wherever he and Violet go: "It's a way to prove we've been there," he says, "and a way to leave a part of us behind" (4.5).

It's always something of sentimental value. At Hoosier Hill, for example, they leave "some British coins, a red guitar pick, and a Bartlett High keychain" (11.108). After Finch's death, Violet finds items he left at the last places he wandered. At the final stop, he left an original love song.