Who Is The Monster In John Steinbeck's A Monster Calls?

In A Monster Calls, a thirteen-year-old boy named Conor O' Malley has a mother who is dying of cancer. Conor tries believing it is getting better but deep down, he knows it isn't. Conor starts to have dreams and wakes up exactly seven minutes after midnight. One time Conor wakes up one night and there is an actual monster outside of his bedroom window. We make the assumption that Conor would be terrified however, it is not the monster Conor has been expecting which results in him being unimpressed. This monster will spend the days as a yew tree in a cemetery behind his house, but during the night, it turns into a terrifying tree-creature with its skin made of leaves and slices of bark as teeth. Conor is not scared because the monster in his dreams was scarier in the beginning. A Monster Calls has a monster tree telling Conor stories, Conor's family life, and how his school life is but all of these will help Conor deal with loss and grief. The monster tells Conor three stories on three separate nights. They seem like fairy tales but have a twist. The good guys are the bad guys and vice versa. A huge twist is when the monster tells the stories, Conor acts them out in his own life and only realizes so when the monster disappears. The monster tells Conor stories because it helps him face what he needs to in his personal life. Later while the monster was the telling a story about an apothecary, the monster shows Conor how fun it is to destruct the parsonage's house, making Conor wreck his grandma's living room. The third story told was about the invisible man. This has a big impact on Conor because it defines his life. Harry always bullied Conor and on one school day, he chose to make him invisible and pretend Harry never saw Conor or heard anything he said. After hearing the story of the invisible man and having Harry treat him this way, Conor could not hold his anger anymore. He beat up Harry sending him to the hospital with broken bones and teeth. The stories may seem unimportant to Conor but they are helping him face what he is afraid of to help him in the future. A school life was never easy for Conor. …show more content…
He would constantly get bullied and one day, Lily tried to stand up for Conor but due to Lily talking about his mom having health problems, Conor swore that they would never be friends again. Lily shoved the other bullies aside from Harry and it caused her to get into trouble. The teachers asked if it was Lily who started it and Conor just agreed. From that day forward, Lily never spoke or stood up for Conor again and ignored him from then forward. Harry was a school bully to Conor and his bullying was verbal and physical. Harry would insult Conor constantly and push him around as if he was not even human or a lower human compared to himself. One day, Harry told Conor he was completely invisible and due to the invisible man story the monster spoke of, Conor ends up breaking Harry's' bones and teeth. Conor gets called into the principal's office, but even then, they do nothing to punish him. The reason being is because they all walk on eggshells around Conor because his mom has cancer. It's the belief that it is easier to pretend nothing is wrong than to face facts because we don't know what he's going through. Conor has an interesting family life. Conor's father had moved to America with his new wife before A monster Calls. He used to visit Conor yearly, but times changed with a new wife and baby. The father came to visit Conor for a few days while Conor's mom is in the hospital but rushes straight back to America the instant his new baby is sick. Conor's dad seems to have priorities, but it definitely isn't with Conor. Even though Conor's dad will come back to England in an emergency, he isn't willing to let Conor back into his day-to-day life. The father makes excuses like "Americans don't get many holidays," or another, including his new wife having frequent migraines. Conor's