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Invisible
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 visits his mother in the hospital. She is exhausted, but smiles when she sees him. She explains that some of the treatments she’s tried haven’t been working, but she’s going to try a different kind of medicine that they were hoping not to have to use “this soon.” Conor wonders if that means it’s “too late.” Conor’s mother assures him that she believes it’s not too late. Conor remembers the monster’s story: that “belief is half of all healing.”
This exchange offers an explanation for why Conor is so set on denying that anything is wrong, or that things might turn out badly in regards to his mother’s fragile health. He thinks here that simply believing that things will turn out well will help his mother in healing. But even if this is true, he still needs to be able to acknowledge and release some of the pain that he has been holding onto as well, otherwise he will not heal from it.
Themes
Conor’s mother mentions that the new drug is made from yew trees, like the tree behind their house. She says she read about this treatment when she was first diagnosed, and that it seemed “incredible” that all that time, there was a yew tree that could save her right behind their house. Conor asks if she thinks the drug is going to save her. She says, “I believe so.”
It seems that the connection to the yew tree makes Conor believe that the monster is here to cure his mother; however, since the monster’s stories resist easy explanations, it’s likely that the monster’s overarching purpose in visiting Conor does too. Meanwhile, although Conor’s mother doesn’t know about the monster, she too sees the yew tree as a symbol of her own healing.
Themes
