Charles Yu implies that one can have agency even in the context of a predetermined fate. Ultimately, Charles the protagonist faces his fate: being shot by his past self. His decision to confront his fate head-on illustrates that he still possesses free will.

Initially, Charles doubts that he possesses agency. When he encounters his future self and shoots him, it traps him in a time loop. He also questions whether any effort to escape the outcome is futile. If the time loop can only ever end with Charles’s shooting, then nothing is stopping him from going straight to that moment and accepting his fate. If he does accept his fate, however, it means that his life has no resolution or meaning. The unresolved thread of his father’s disappearance will always remain a mystery with no one left to solve it. In the context of the time loop, Charles sees life as a meaningless, useless endeavor.

The book empowers Charles to escape the time loop and find meaning. The only thing future Charles says before getting shot is that the book is the key.