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The Fourth Tale
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in A Monster Calls, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Death, Denial, and Acceptance
Storytelling
Isolation
Family and Growing Up
Summary
Analysis
Conor usually wakes up from his nightmare right about now—but he doesn’t. Conor asks the monster to take him back to reality; he needs to see his mother. The monster replies that Conor let his mother go. Conor says that she fell—he couldn’t hold on to her because she got so heavy. The monster reiterates: “And so you let her go.” Conor is adamant that she fell—he didn’t let go. The monster says that Conor must admit the truth or he will be trapped alone in this nightmare forever.
Conor is forced to confront the pain of watching his mother die, but the metaphor of the nightmare extends even further. Conor blames himself for her death, and for letting her go even though he could have held on longer. As the monster implies, the isolation and grief brought on by this burden is something Conor has to accept so that he can learn to move past it.
Themes
The monster tells Conor to “speak the truth.” Conor knows the truth, “he ha[s] always known,” but he says that he can’t speak it. The monster insists that he can, and there is a change in its voice—a note of kindness. The monster says that Conor let his mother go, even though he could have held on for longer. Conor wanted his mother to fall.
The monster proves itself once again to be a representation of Conor’s denial. As Conor starts to recognize “the truth” of what happened, as the monster says, the monster becomes kinder. It seems that the more that Conor faces his suffering, the more supportive the monster is.
Themes
Conor insists it’ll “kill [him]’ if he tells the truth. The monster says that it will kill him if he does not tell the truth. Conor feels himself choking, the fire and anger in is stomach burning “like it would eat him alive.” He yells “in pain and grief,” feeling the fire of his anger “blazing out to consume everything” around him. He speaks the truth: he “can’t stand knowing that she’ll go,” that he just wants it to be over. The fire “[ate] the world, wiping away everything.”
Conor finally acknowledges the truth that he has always felt: that he just wants the pain and suffering to end, even if it means having to say goodbye to his mother forever. But because he could not face these feelings, the “pain and grief” stewed inside him. Thus, Ness, like the monster, argues that it is important to acknowledge these feelings, but also to recognize that it is natural to want the end of pain.
Themes
