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Chapter 34. The After
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
Ma kneads bread in the kitchen and snaps that she doesn’t know where Daddy is. Daddy strolls into the kitchen at that moment and explains that the band van broke down. Daddy says that he ran into an old high school buddy who happened to know where Tip Charles works—and passed along his phone number. Daddy says his buddy called Tip right there to ask about Monday, but Tip hasn’t seen Monday or any of the kids in over a year. Ma is incensed, but Daddy explains that Tip owes Mrs. Charles a lot of child support and it’s easier to just disconnect. Tip doesn’t make a lot of money and doesn’t want to get arrested.
Daddy discovers here that sometimes, a person has to have a certain amount of money to think they have the right to care about someone. Tip feels unable to check in on his own kids because he can’t afford the child support. This deprives Monday of one more person who could help her—and specifically, one person who could file a missing persons report. To Ma, this is ridiculous, but the novel implies that her attitude reflects her privilege.
Themes
