Life and Death

The title of the story, "The Way We Live Now," refers to the lifestyle of a group of friends and of a wider community of people like them who have made a fundamental change in their attitudes and worldviews in light of the AIDS epidemic. The characters reflect on their growing intimacy with death, as their friend's health declines and other friends fall ill from the disease.

It is significant that Sontag chooses to end the story with the words "he's still alive," countering expectations that a story about a man with AIDS will end with his death. Sontag does not imply that the man will not die—which would be historically inaccurate given the treatments available at the time when the story is set—but makes a point of closing the story while his battle with the disease is still underway. This underscores...