In William Kennedy's Ironweed, there is a thin line between the living and the dead, where it seems that in 1930's Albany the bums are physically alive, but spiritually dead, and the only way to find salvation is to physically die. Then and only then will the bums be content and joyful, and their lives will be complete. Rudy, Helen and Francis all show this through the way they all die in the end, leading unhappy depressing lives, but once they die, they become peaceful and at rest with their own lives.

The first one to die is Rudy, he is told by a doctor that he's going to die of cancer. "`He says to me you're gonna die in six months. I says I'm gonna wine myself to death. He says it don't make any difference if you wined or dined, you're goin'. Goin' out of this...