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Chapter 16. The Before
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Monday’s Not Coming, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Child Abuse
Family, Community, and Responsibility
Growing Up, Independence, and Friendship
Secrecy and Shame
Poverty, Social Support, and Desperation
Memory, Repression, and Trauma
Summary
Analysis
Claudia is half asleep when she hears pebbles hitting her window. She tiptoes downstairs to let Monday in. Monday slips off her wet clothes and says she has something to tell Claudia: she’s been out all night with Jacob Miller. Claudia screams. The girls get bowls of cereal and run upstairs to their tent. Monday tells Claudia everything: she snuck out of the bathroom window because Jacob asked her to meet him. She says the jump was fine, she’s done it before. Claudia thinks that’s weird, but reasons Monday has just been practicing fire drills.
The fact that Monday has had to jump out of the bathroom window before is significant, because it suggests that she often has to escape her home life. But because abuse is so far outside of Claudia’s lived experience—and because she trusts Monday so fully—she has to come up with a more palatable explanation for Monday’s behavior. Having to climb out of windows to practice for a fire might make sense for Claudia’s comparatively idyllic life.
Themes
Monday says that Jacob wanted her to do his hair, but not around anyone else. His mom was out, so they hung out in his living room. Monday did his hair and then they put on a movie—and kissed. Claudia buries her face in a doll’s hair and asks if they did it, but Monday says they didn’t. She doesn’t want to until he tells everyone at school that they’re together. Then Monday says she’s going to tell her mom she was at Claudia’s, since “she won’t know the difference.”
Insisting that Mrs. Charles “won’t know the difference” suggests that Mrs. Charles doesn’t keep close tabs on her daughter. Monday could, it seems, be going all manner of places—but Mrs. Charles won’t investigate as long as Monday can lie that she was with Claudia. This detail points back to the earlier mention that Monday is capable of lying as though out of self-preservation, which implies that lying to her mother is necessary.
Themes
Claudia asks what kissing was like. Monday describes it as being just like it looks in movies, which seems gross to Claudia. She feels jealous as she thinks of Monday kissing boys and doing big things—all without her. Monday notices this and asks Claudia what’s up, but Claudia brushes it off. Monday insists they just need to find Claudia a boyfriend now. She’ll ask Jacob—he’ll know someone. Claudia asks what’ll happen “if they find out that…you know?” Monday insists the boys are too dumb to tell.
The fact that Monday was out kissing a boy without her throws it into sharp relief that Monday is maturing, while Claudia isn’t there yet. She also shows here that she may struggle with getting to know anyone else aside from Monday, given that she’s so afraid of someone discovering her learning disabilities.
Themes
The next morning, Claudia gets to school early, eager to see Jacob announce that he and Monday are together. Monday did her hair in a twist and Claudia painted her nails. With a bit of makeup, Monday looks like a different person. Jacob stands across the yard. His hair looks great—but he doesn’t look away from his friends. On the way to History, Carl asks who did Jacob’s hair. With a shrug, Jacob says it was just a girl in his neighborhood. Monday looks to Claudia, who whispers that he must just be nervous. But Jacob doesn’t say anything all day and ignores Monday.
As a good friend, Claudia does what she can to make Monday feel better and assure her that everything is going to work out with Jacob. But Claudia can only help so much when Jacob is so rudely brushing Monday off. Indeed, this behavior suggests he's not honestly interested in dating her.
Themes
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