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Chapter 1. September
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
The moment Claudia steps out of her gate at the airport, she asks Ma if she’s seen Monday. Ma laughs. Every summer, Ma sends Claudia to stay with her grandmother in Georgia. Claudia and Monday usually spend the summer writing letters. But this summer, Monday never wrote back. It made the two months in Georgia seem to drag on forever.
Many details in this passage suggest that, under normal circumstances, Claudia and Monday are inseparable. Claudia asking about Monday before even greeting Ma illustrates how close the girls are, which also underscores how odd it is that Monday never wrote back.
Themes
Ma drives over the bridge, onto Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue, and turns onto Good Hope Road. There, Claudia notices old posters on an old building that read “SAVE ED BOROUGH! It’s community! It’s home!” Ma tenses up and locks the car doors—she doesn’t feel safe in the city. Claudia distracts Ma by mentioning that Monday never wrote back. Ma just shrugs and suggests that Monday couldn’t make it to the post office. This doesn’t make sense, though: Claudia and Monday bought enough stamps and they promised to write, even though Claudia hates writing. Ma assures Claudia that Monday will visit soon.
The signs begging people to “save” Ed Borough reveal that the neighborhood is in danger—though Claudia doesn’t necessarily seem aware of this. When Ma comes up with excuses as to why Monday never wrote back, it begins to show Claudia that she is, at least for now, on her own in her worries about Monday. Claudia also makes it seem like writing to Monday at all is a sacrifice for her, since she hates writing.
Themes
Ma turns left at the Anacostia Library and then turns onto U Place, stopping in front of the house. Claudia leaps out of the car. She runs for the phone and dials Monday’s number. She’ll forgive Monday for not writing, but she has so much to tell her. After one ring, a recorded voice says that Claudia has the wrong number. This can’t be right: the only two numbers Claudia has memorized are her own and Monday’s. When Ma comes inside a moment later, she suggests that the phone is just off the hook at Monday’s house.
Claudia clearly relies on Monday, as evidenced by having so much to tell her friend. Getting the wrong number message is puzzling, and it only increases Claudia’s sense that something weird is going on. Having the phone disconnected may suggest that Monday’s family is currently in a tough spot financially and may not be able to afford the bill right now.
Themes
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Ma insists they need to deal with Claudia’s fuzzy, unkempt braids, so Claudia races upstairs to her room. Her purple room hasn’t changed a bit—the tent made of sheets that she and Monday slept in during their last sleepover is still there. Claudia grabs her comb and notices that Daddy left her a new coloring book. Hours later, when Claudia goes to bed with fresh hair, she ignores her feeling that something is wrong.
Ma’s insistence on fixing Claudia’s braids suggests that she may be very caught up in appearances; she wants to make sure Claudia looks well cared for and put together. The fact that the tent is still set up in her bedroom only reminds Claudia that Monday isn’t around—it seems like she’s disappeared out of thin air.
Themes
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The next morning, Ma yells for Claudia to hurry up. She always makes a pancake breakfast on the first day of school, but Claudia plays along and acts surprised. Mama reminds Claudia to hurry so she’s not late for school—Claudia doesn’t want to keep Monday waiting. Claudia asks if Monday can come over after school and Ma agrees, as long as Claudia checks in with Ms. Paul first at the library. Ma assures Claudia that Ms. Paul isn’t a babysitter, and that it’s “Always good to leave breadcrumbs.” Claudia huffs that this wouldn’t be an issue if she had a cellphone.
Claudia’s desire for a cellphone indicates that she’s growing up and is beginning to crave some independence. This is also why she resents having to check in with Ms. Paul. Ma's desire for Claudia to leave "breadcrumbs” contrasts with how unconcerned Ma seems about Monday. Ma wants to ensure her own daughter’s safety—but isn’t so concerned with other girls in the community.
Themes
Claudia grabs her new purple bookbag. Monday has the same bag in pink, her favorite color. Ma drives Claudia to school, which she always does on the first day. At school, Claudia doesn’t see Monday, even though Monday is usually there hours before anyone else. Ma soothes Claudia, but Claudia can’t get out of the car if Monday isn’t there. The car behind starts to honk, and Ma asks Claudia if she’s nervous. Claudia decides she can’t act like a baby and says she’s fine, but Ma rolls her eyes. She tells Claudia to catch up with the rest of her “friends.” To Claudia, though, those people are enemies. Mama doesn’t know Monday is Claudia’s only friend.
Just like Ma, Claudia wants to give the impression that she has everything together—and specifically that she has lots of friends. When she has Monday’s support, acting this way isn’t so hard. But without her around, Claudia can’t pretend she feels comfortable walking into schoolyard with all her enemies. Claudia’s fears also make it harder for her to act mature, but she doesn’t want Ma to think of her as a baby in need of hand holding.
Themes
Claudia kisses Ma and puts on a brave face to get out of the car. She reminds herself that Monday never misses school. But as she gets closer to the other eighth graders, Claudia gulps. Everyone looks so mature. Ashley Hilton and Shayla Green whisper and giggle as they see Claudia, and Trevor Abernathy laughs that the “dyke bitch” is here. The other kids goof off and Claudia thinks they’re immature. She reminds herself that next year, she and Monday will be going to high school together and won’t have to deal with these “dummies” anymore.
The taunting that Claudia faces suggests that she doesn’t just feel alone at school—she’s the victim of bullying. But Claudia is able to get through this uncomfortable moment because she trusts that Monday won’t miss school. It’s significant that she refers to her current classmates as “dummies,” as it suggests that she sees herself as smarter and more mature.
Themes
For Claudia, stepping outside of her comfort zone (here, by trying to look more mature) is extremely uncomfortable when she doesn’t have Monday by her side to bolster her confidence. It’s even more concerning when Monday’s siblings don’t show up for school, either. It suggests that there may be something amiss with Monday’s whole family.
Themes
Claudia has Ms. O’Donnell for homeroom and first period English. She’s supposedly the meanest teacher in the school—and over the year, Claudia will come to hate her. Ms. O’Donnell calls roll and skips right over Monday Charles’s name. After school, Claudia calls Monday’s house five times and gets the same automatic message. When she tells Ma, Ma assures Claudia that Monday will show up. Claudia knows she has to be careful: if she acts too concerned, it’ll be obvious that she has no other friends.
Skipping Monday’s name during roll call would suggest that Monday is, at the very least, not in the same class as Claudia. This is a major change for Claudia—she’s so used to having Monday around all the time. But again, Claudia feels like she has to act cool and not tip Ma off to the fact that she doesn’t have any other friends.
Themes
Monday doesn’t show up the first week of school. Finally, Claudia works up the nerve to ask one of Monday’s neighbors about her. Darrell Singleton hasn’t seen her all summer and assumed she was with Claudia. He says he has seen Monday’s mom, though, “next door”—the place in the complex to buy drugs. He can’t recall seeing Monday’s siblings, either.
It's even more concerning for Claudia when Darrell hasn’t seen Monday, either. But it’s telling that he hasn’t thought much of it, since Monday is usually with Claudia. This may mean that there are others who also haven’t noticed or worried about Monday’s disappearance because they expected her to be safe and happy with Claudia.
Themes
Finally, Claudia decides to go to Monday’s house. She knows something is up. Monday once had the flu and was gone for a month, but illness wouldn’t explain the disconnected phone or her siblings’ absence. Claudia rides her bike to the Ed Borough Complex, a big public housing complex. It’s “the hood,” according to Daddy. Claudia has never been inside Monday’s house; neither Monday nor Ma would allow that. Claudia will only find out why later.
In Claudia’s mind, she’s handling this whole thing very logically. She knows what will and won’t reasonably explain Monday’s absence, and she’s not willing to accept answers that don’t make sense. The aside that Claudia won’t find out until later why she wasn’t allowed to go to Monday’s house ominously foreshadows that there’s something seriously wrong with the house or the environment inside.
Themes
Claudia knocks. She can hear The Simpsons blaring inside and thinks that Monday hates The Simpsons. After a minute, Mrs. Charles comes to the door. She acts like she doesn’t know Claudia and positions herself in the doorway so Claudia can’t see inside. Claudia asks after Monday, Mrs. Charles shouts for her to stop asking questions—Monday isn’t here. Claudia can smell alcohol on Mrs. Charles’s breath.
Claudia knows a lot about Monday, and so she knows that Monday wouldn’t appreciate having to watch a show she hates. Even before Mrs. Charles says Monday is out, this small detail about The Simpsons tells Claudia that Monday isn’t around. The alcohol on Mrs. Charles’s breath combined with her shouting turns Mrs. Charles into a frightening figure. This behavior may explain why Claudia wasn’t allowed in the house before.
Themes
Claudia doesn’t feel like she can leave without finding out where Monday is, but when she asks if something is wrong, Mrs. Charles lunges at Claudia. Claudia trips and falls as she tries to back away, and Mrs. Charles looms over her to scream for Claudia to go home. Mrs. Charles pulls a leg back as though to kick Claudia. But she straightens up, gives Claudia a glare, and tells her to leave. Once Mrs. Charles is back in the house, Claudia wonders how Monday lived with “such a monster.”
Mrs. Charles’s behavior here is threatening, and she seems willing to kick a child (or at least threaten to do so) where the neighbors could see. Unlike Ma and Claudia, Mrs. Charles doesn’t seem concerned with keeping up appearances. Thinking of Mrs. Charles as a “monster” shows that Claudia considers her a clear antagonist.
Themes
Daddy gets home on Saturday. He’s a truck driver for a car factory and is gone for weeks at a time, delivering new cars to dealerships. As soon as he walks in, he lifts Claudia up and gives her a raspberry. He insists she’ll always be his baby girl when she resists. Then, he goes to Ma at the stove and kisses her—they’re like “lovesick teenagers.” They met at a truck stop and married less than a year later. Daddy was 29, and Ma was 19.
Ma and Daddy seem to have a healthy, loving relationship, and they treat Claudia with this same kindness—a sharp contrast from the way that Mrs. Charles just treated her. Though it’s impossible to tell what Mrs. Charles is like in her own home, her behavior with Claudia earlier suggests that Monday lives in a tumultuous or even outright dangerous home environment.
Themes
When everyone is seated for dinner, Daddy asks how school was. Claudia shares that Monday wasn’t there and she hasn’t been able to get ahold of her friend. She hasn’t told Ma about her visit to Monday’s house; she knows Ma would be too upset that Claudia paid a visit to Mrs. Charles to care about how the woman acted. Claudia wonders if Mrs. Charles was just in a bad mood and asks Daddy if he’d drive her to check in on Monday tomorrow. He insists he’s tired and explains he has band practice. (He plays in a go-go band with Uncle Robby.) Ma also reminds Claudia that they have church tomorrow.
Claudia decides to explain away Mrs. Charles’s frightening behavior from earlier that day. She doesn’t seem to expect adults to behave that way normally—so in her mind, Mrs. Charles must’ve been having a bad day. Claudia also realizes she’s on her own in this search for Monday, since Ma and Daddy won’t be pleased about the actions she’s taking to find her friend. This secrecy seems necessary to Claudia, as it means she won’t get in trouble—and perhaps so she won’t have to grapple with the shame of disappointing her parents.
Themes
Given the way that Mrs. Charles threatened Claudia, it’s possible that Monday may have other reasons for loving school aside from the academic and/or social elements. School may be a place to escape her mother’s wrath.
Themes
On Monday morning, Claudia hops off the bus and waits for Monday with a slice of cake. But Monday never arrives. After school that day, Claudia calls Monday’s house again, feeling ready to scream. She knows everything about Monday—her favorite foods, her favorite color, her allergies. Something is wrong.
To Claudia, it’s obvious that something is wrong with Monday. She seems to believe that Mrs. Charles wouldn’t have been watching The Simpsons if Monday were home, and it’s unusual for Monday to skip school.
Themes
