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Chapter 2. 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 loves how a colored pencil feels when she touches it to paper. It feels like the start of something new. She feels like she does nothing but color since Daddy read about coloring being therapeutic. Fortunately, he buys her coloring books with complex designs now, not kiddie books. Claudia takes her time choosing the right shade of blue. The wrong shade can ruin the whole picture. And without Monday, Claudia feels “ruined” as well.
It's unclear in the “After” chapters exactly when they take place (e.g., how many days, months, or years have passed) and what particular event they come after. The aside that Claudia’s coloring books are therapeutic suggests that some sort of stress or trauma has occurred between the “Before” and “After” chapters, but it’s not clear if this refers simply to Monday’s absence or something more.
Themes
Ma appears with a load of laundry and asks Claudia if she has work to do. Claudia notes that it’s Saturday as she sits with her book and some music on the couch. She’d rather watch TV, but the TV is broken and Daddy hasn’t fixed it. The phone rings. Claudia leaps up to get it, but it’s just Sister Burke from church calling for Ma. From the couch, Claudia can hear Ma say that Claudia’s doing well but needs prayers. The women discuss the pies Ma is making; she started a catering business a few years ago.
It's impossible to tell at this point if Sister Burke is just being polite when she asks after Claudia. But Ma’s response that Claudia needs prayers gives the impression that something bad has happened, and Claudia needs the congregation’s support to get through it.
Themes
Claudia realizes she chipped a nail running for the phone and runs to fix it. She loves painting nails and is great at it. She’s even thought of opening her own shop, but Ma brought home college pamphlets when Claudia voiced that idea. Claudia finds the appropriate polish color, devil’s plum. It’s the same color of the journal that Monday gave her last Christmas. The journal was a weird gift, since Monday knew how much Claudia hates writing. But because Claudia has so much to tell Monday, she opens the journal and writes, “Dear Monday, Were are you? I got a new bra wit Grandmma. Are we the same sise now?”
Claudia’s journal entry offers some clues into why she mentioned in the second chapter that she hates writing. Writing is clearly difficult for her, as seen from all of her misspellings. But right now, reeling from Monday’s absence, Claudia feels that she has to get her thoughts out somehow, and writing is her only outlet. Monday’s absence may force Claudia to figure out how to communicate in new ways, even if it’s just through writing out her thoughts and feelings.
Themes
