Chapter 8: Jordan Aarón Vargas — Summary and Analysis

⚠️ Spoiler Warning: This guide contains detailed spoilers for the entire novel. Proceed only if you've finished reading or are comfortable knowing the plot.

Summary

Chapter 8 is presented in an unusual form: the text of a published obituary for Jordan Aarón Vargas, one of the five college friends bound by the pact. The chapter opens with the announcement that Jordan, a veteran public relations executive, died on a Friday after a battle with cancer at the age of fifty-one. The news was released by his husband, Jordan Tosic, through the PR firm the two ran together.

The obituary then traces Jordan's professional life. He worked on campaigns for several Tony-winning theatrical productions, including Once, A Gentleman's Guide to Love and Murder, and the revival of Anything Goes, as well as countless independent films, books, corporate clients, and theater companies. The obituary notes that Broadway producers, filmmakers, actors, clients, and reporters all valued working with him and sought his professional and personal guidance. He was known for his sharp eye, creative campaigns, and skill in crisis management. He belonged to the Public Relations Society of America and the Broadway League and served twice on the board of directors of the Human Rights Campaign.

The obituary then recounts his origins: Jordan was born in Bogotá, Colombia, and immigrated to the United States at age eight. He studied at the University of New Hampshire before transferring to the University of California, Berkeley, where he graduated in 1995.

A significant portion of the obituary is devoted to Jordan's personal life and values. He was known for his love of theater, his work with numerous charities, and the unique pact he entered into with four college classmates. After the death of their friend Alec Swigert before graduation, the five banded together with a promise to throw one another living funerals so that none of them would ever be left to wonder what impact they had had on the others. Their mission, as the obituary states, was to leave nothing left unsaid.

The obituary closes by listing his survivors: his husband, Jordan Tosic; his parents, Carmen and Miguel Vargas of Portsmouth, New Hampshire; his brother, Luis, and niece, Camila, of Framingham, Massachusetts; and his dear friends and fellow pact members, Naomi Ito of Los Angeles and Craig Scheffler and Marielle Holland-Scheffler of Boring, Oregon. In lieu of flowers, Jordan Tosic asks that people honor his husband by telling a loved one the positive impact they have had on their life, so that they are never left to guess. He promises they will be glad they did.

Key Events

• Jordan Aarón Vargas dies on a Friday after a battle with cancer at age fifty-one.
• His husband, Jordan Tosic, releases the news through the PR firm they co-owned.
• The obituary recounts Jordan's career in public relations, including campaigns for Tony-winning productions, films, books, and corporate clients.
• The obituary details Jordan's immigration from Colombia at age eight and his education at the University of New Hampshire and UC Berkeley.
• The pact is explained: after Alec Swigert's death before graduation, the five friends promised to hold living funerals for one another so no one would wonder about their impact.
• Jordan's survivors are listed, including his husband, parents, brother, niece, and the other pact members.
• In lieu of flowers, Jordan Tosic requests that people tell a loved one the positive impact they have had on their lives.

Character Development

Jordan Aarón Vargas is characterized almost entirely through the obituary's formal language, yet the portrait is vivid. He emerges as a man who fused professional excellence with personal warmth — someone colleagues turned to for both career and personal guidance. His membership in professional organizations and his two terms on the Human Rights Campaign board signal a commitment to community and activism. The obituary's emphasis on the pact reveals his deepest value: he did not want to die wondering what he had meant to the people he loved, and he did not want them to wonder about their meaning to him.

Jordan Tosic appears as a devoted husband who carries forward his partner's mission. By releasing the news through their shared firm and by framing the request in lieu of flowers around telling loved ones their impact, he extends Jordan's philosophy beyond the funeral itself.

The other pact members — Naomi Ito, Craig Scheffler, and Marielle Holland-Scheffler — are named as survivors, underscoring that the friendship forged in college remained central to Jordan's life until the end.

Themes, Symbols, or Motifs

Leaving nothing unsaid is the chapter's governing idea. The pact's stated mission appears directly in the obituary, and the request in lieu of flowers turns that mission into a public call to action: rather than sending flowers, mourners are asked to speak affirmation to the living.

Legacy and impact run throughout. The obituary itself is a record of impact — of a career, a marriage, a friendship, and a family. The request in lieu of flowers reframes legacy not as something accumulated but as something spoken and received.

The living funeral motif is inverted here. The pact was designed to celebrate friends while they were alive, but this chapter presents the formal obituary that follows an actual death. The obituary's content — especially its explanation of the pact — ensures that even in death, nothing is left unsaid.

Immigration and identity appear in the brief account of Jordan's birth in Bogotá and his immigration at age eight, grounding his American success story in a specific origin.

Theater and activism are woven through his career and his board service, connecting his professional life to his values.

Why This Chapter Matters

Chapter 8 is the first chapter in the novel to present a pact member's death directly, and it does so through the formal genre of the obituary. This choice matters because it shows the pact's philosophy surviving its creator: the obituary itself embodies the mission of leaving nothing unsaid by naming the pact, explaining its purpose, and asking the wider public to participate in its spirit.

The chapter also deepens the reader's understanding of the pact's stakes. Jordan's death is not hypothetical — it is the real, documented end of one of the five friends. The request in lieu of flowers transforms the reader into a potential participant in the pact's ethos, since anyone reading the obituary is invited to tell a loved one their impact. In this way, the chapter extends the novel's central idea beyond the five friends and into the world.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why do you think the author chose to present this chapter as an obituary rather than as a scene of the friends gathering?

The obituary form allows the novel to show the pact's philosophy operating in a public, formal context. The obituary names the pact, explains its purpose, and carries its mission forward through the request in lieu of flowers. It also gives the reader a complete, documented portrait of Jordan's life — career, origins, family, and friendships — in a single authoritative document, which a scene of the friends gathering could not provide.

2. What does the request in lieu of flowers reveal about Jordan's values and the pact's purpose?

The request — that people tell a loved one the positive impact they have had — extends the pact's core idea beyond the five friends to the general public. It reveals that Jordan valued direct, spoken affirmation over material tributes, and that he believed no one should be left to guess their own significance. The promise that the speaker will be glad they did suggests the request is as much a gift to the living as a tribute to the dead.

3. How does the obituary connect Jordan's professional life to his personal values?

Jordan's career in public relations — built on creative campaigns, sharp judgment, and crisis management — was fundamentally about communication and shaping how people are seen and understood. That professional skill mirrors the pact's mission of ensuring people know their impact. The detail that his husband released the news through the firm they ran together further blurs the line between professional craft and personal devotion, showing that Jordan's work and his values were inseparable.

Navigation

• Previous chapter: Chapter 7 Summary
• Book hub: The Celebrants