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Chapter 47. 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
When Claudia wakes up in the morning, she’s weak. By the time she’s dressed, she has chills and a headache. Downstairs, Ma reminds Claudia that her Banneker interview is today; that’s why she’s not dressed for work. Ma explains that Daddy is on his way home and they’re going to go check on Monday soon. Claudia sways; she’s worried Ma is going to go missing too. Ma wraps Claudia in a hug but pulls back when she feels Claudia’s skin. It’s burning up, so Ma tucks Claudia back into bed and leaves to pick up some medicine.
Because she’s sick, it’s hard to tell if Claudia is legitimately afraid that Ma is going to go missing or if that’s just a consequence of her high fever. Regardless, the fact that she’s afraid of this suggests that Claudia is now aware that there’s danger in the world—and it can come for her loved ones at any time, just as it may have come for Monday.
Themes
A bit later, Claudia hears sirens getting louder. Sirens are normal in Southeast, but not this many. Claudia looks out the window at the library, remembering how she’d skipped chapters to keep up with Monday when they read for school. Monday used to laugh about it being like “fast-forwarding a movie to the ending.” Suddenly, Claudia dives under the bed and pulls Monday’s journal out. She decides to start at the end; it’s the best chance she has of finding Monday. Monday’s last entry is two lines: that Claudia is leaving tomorrow, and that she’s going to tell Ma “what happened.” Claudia feels her dread gathering.
Now that Claudia is able to read on her own, she’s also learned to think more critically about how she reads. This is why she’s able to suddenly see the value in starting from the end of Monday’s journal. Discovering that Monday planned to tell Ma “what happened” feels very sinister. But while it confirms that Monday kept secrets, it also shows that in the end, Monday did finally decide to put her shame aside and tell a trusted adult what was going on at home.
Themes
The phone rings. It’s Ma, saying she’s fine but is having a hard time getting back. All the cross streets near Ed Borough are blocked off. Claudia looks out the window and sees a cop car on her street. The cop is heading for Ed Borough. Claudia doesn’t remember saying goodbye to Ma or putting her boots on. She gets on her bike and rides to Ed Borough. It’s a warm spring day. When Claudia gets to Ed Borough, she cuts through the grass to Monday’s house. There are barriers and a crowd right outside her house.
It's telling that people only seem to care about what happened to Monday now, when it seems like the police have found something. While Claudia has been focused on finding her friend for months because she cares about Monday, the crowd suggests that people are here as much for the spectacle as anything else.
Themes
Claudia joins the crowd and pushes through. She sees a policeman stumble out of the front door and vomit on the pavement. Other officers and medics are moving slowly and a photographer arrives. Whispers start to whip through the crowd: they found dead kids in the freezer inside, and the police already took April away. Claudia’s body goes numb. All she can hear is her racing heart and the buzzing freezer. Everything starts to spin, just like Claudia and Monday used to spin each other. As Claudia falls back, Daddy catches her. He picks her up and carries her home.
Finally, Claudia puts all the pieces together: presumably, Monday was one of the dead kids in the freezer. This turn of events validates Claudia’s belief all along that something was terribly wrong for Monday to disappear without a trace—and it implicates everyone else who assured her that everything was fine without properly following up. It’s essential, the novel shows, to be concerned about vulnerable kids safe, long before something bad happens to them.
Themes
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