Character Analysis
Rojack is convinced that he's head over heels in love with Cherry. Do you buy it, though? We don't. But while he's done some seriously despicable things over the past several days, Rojack still believes that Cherry represents a chance at a fresh start.
We are right and Rojack is wrong, though, and his assessment of a romance with Cherry couldn't be further from the truth. As we see time and time again, Rojack doesn't have the best relationship with the female gender as a whole, believing wholeheartedly in every half-baked misogynistic idea he's ever heard. So although he thinks he loves Cherry, the truth is that he's actually in love with the idea of Cherry
Legally Blonde
To Rojack, Cherry isn't an individual—she's a blonde. He spends a passage describing how Cherry "looked at different instants like a dozen lovely blondes" (4.7), most notably the voluptuous Marilyn Monroe. Later, he calls her "an embodiment […] of greed, green-eyed, brown-skinned, flaming golden blonde" (4.6). Although Rojack fancies himself an intellectual, he's become so warped by pop culture that he can't even look at a lady without comparing her to every smoking hot movie star he's ever seen.
It's not like Rojack becomes more empathetic as time goes on, either. Think about when Cherry opens up to him about her sister—instead of comforting her, Rojack thinks about how he "wanted sex now, not for pleasure, not for love, but to work this tension" (5.13). Rojack is so narrowly focused on his own satisfaction that he doesn't even consider what Cherry might want out of their relationship. Who's the greedy one now, Rojack?
Sweet Cherry Pie
Despite this, Cherry's humanity comes bursting through every page. She's not a perfect person by any means, having done some seriously bad stuff in her life. But we can tell that she was once an idealistic person—she even naively believed that "something would get better" in the whole country if "Shago and [she] could make it" (7.141). We're not saying she deserves a Nobel Prize or anything (a genius she clearly is not), but she's certainly a far cry from Rojack's portrayal of her.
Sadly, this isn't the first time that Cherry has been in a situation like this. She's been objectified by men her whole life: by her brother, by her dad, and, now, by Rojack. Rojack convinces himself that he's different than these other dudes because he truly cares for Cherry, but we know for a fact that this isn't true—he may love how Cherry makes him feel, and he may love how Cherry looks, but there's nothing to indicate that he actually loves Cherry for the person that she is. Or that he's even interested in getting to know her.
This is hammered home by Cherry's sudden death. Rojack was foolish to think that they could make things work—after all, violence seems to follow him wherever he goes. Plus, for guys like Rojack, pretty blonde girls are dime a dozen. Perhaps most importantly, though, in a book that's all about one man's endless impulsive indulgences, Cherry dies shortly after experiencing her first orgasm—something she's always suspected will happen. In other words, Rojack's pleasure is fatal for other people, while Cherry's is fatal for herself.