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Chapter 35. 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
As Claudia helps Ma load pies for church into the car, Ma observes that Claudia hasn’t said anything about the game. Claudia is too busy dwelling on April’s words—she can’t believe Monday would’ve lied about her favorite color. As they get into the car, Ma wants to know how it felt to be in a high school and if Claudia might want to apply to Cardozo. She insists it’s good to have options, but Claudia wonders what options Monday has.
To Ma, Claudia’s basketball game represents the future—and she seems very interested in making sure Claudia is thinking about the future. But for Claudia, it’s hard to think about going to high school and growing up without Monday around. Their dreams for the future were too intertwined.
Themes
Ma takes a wrong turn and explains that she agreed to drive Michael to church. Claudia wants to scream—Michael didn’t say anything to her after the conversation with April last night. Michael gets in the car and Claudia only greets him when Ma glares at her. At church, Michael rushes in ahead and Claudia refuses to tell Ma what’s going on with them. Claudia watches Michael greet others, but she thinks she’s the only one who can tell he’s stressed and tired. Ma leads Claudia and Michael to the car after the service and invites Michael to stay for dinner.
Claudia feels she’s the only one who can see that Michael is struggling emotionally at church, which suggests that their relationship has deepened over the last several months, whether Claudia is aware of it or not. This also suggests that Claudia is learning to befriend and care about a person other than Monday, something that will help her move forward and heal in Monday’s absence.
Themes
Michael insists on carrying Ma’s groceries inside for her when they get home and stares at the TV. Claudia explains that it’s broken and Daddy hasn’t fixed it yet. Michael spends the next hour with Daddy’s tools, putting it back on the wall. Ma hisses for Claudia to offer Michael water. As Michael accepts it, he asks for the Wi-Fi password. Claudia explains that it doesn’t work—so Michael fixes it. He’s about done when Daddy walks in, confused to see Michael there and the TV fixed. Michael introduces himself, but Daddy heads into the kitchen with a scowl. He and Ma argue loudly—Daddy doesn’t think Claudia needs an older boyfriend, but Ma tells him to stop fussing.
Michael doesn’t have to fix Claudia’s family’s TV and internet—but because he’s good at this sort of thing, he sees it as his responsibility. He models how different community members can care for each other by playing to their strengths and offering their skills when the right situation arises. While Ma sees Claudia and Michael’s budding relationship as a good thing, Daddy isn’t so sure. The prospect of seeing his daughter grow up is difficult for him, even if Claudia growing up is normal and expected.
Themes
Daddy helps Michael lift the TV onto the wall and discovers that Michael plays football. For the rest of the evening, Michael and Daddy talk about football and Claudia sulks. After dinner, Ma and Daddy clean up while Claudia and Michael eat dessert. Claudia breaks the awkward silence and asks if Michael wants an apology. He says that Claudia did a dumb thing, “Chasing after that ‘ho like that.” Claudia tells him to not talk about her best friend’s sister like that, but Michael points out that April isn’t her friend. Michael says that he’s not really mad at Claudia; he’s just disappointed that they didn’t get to hang out like he wanted. He says he only said that Claudia was a girl from church to protect her from rumors.
The way that Michael describes April (using the derogatory term for prostitute) shows even more clearly how set April’s reputation is. People think of her only in terms of her promiscuity. But to Claudia, April is more than her sex life—she’s Monday’s big sister. She, unlike seemingly everyone else, sees April as a full person. When Michael reveals why he always said Claudia was a church friend, it shows that he’s in tune with Claudia’s preferences—he knows how intent she is on avoiding rumors.
Themes
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Claudia writes a letter to Monday. She says that Daddy played a new song last night and she taught Ma to dance. Michael came over since it was Presidents’ Day and Daddy brought home crab legs for a crab boil. Claudia thinks that Monday would like Michael—but she assures Monday she only likes him like that a little bit. She says she saw April, and April told some very odd lies. Claudia asks why Monday left without saying anything.
At this point, Claudia can’t believe that Monday would’ve lied to her, so her only option is to believe that April lied instead. This shows how caught up Claudia is in her conception of Monday: she doesn’t feel able yet to consider that there was more to Monday than she knew about.
Themes
