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Chapter 48. 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 soon as Claudia and Michael walk in the front door, Ma embraces Claudia. Claudia insists they have to go to the police. Michael apologizes and says she thought seeing “him” would help Claudia remember. Ma says it’s okay—Tip called a while ago. Claudia says this is proof Tip is to blame and tells Ma that nobody knows where Monday is, but they just found a girl’s body in Baltimore. It must be Monday. She’s spoken to Ms. Orman, and Monday never had the flu. Ma’s eyes well up. She though Claudia was getting better. Confused, Claudia says she’s seeing Ms. Walker and going to the TLC; this isn’t at all related.
In Claudia’s mind, it’s clear what needs to happen here: she needs to help Monday. But since the police found Monday’s body in the previous chapter, it seems possible that the mystery has already been solved. The way that Michael and Ma talk about Tip—as though they all know something Claudia doesn’t—supports this. When Claudia assumes that Ma is referring to her dyslexia getting better, it shows how much Claudia still identifies herself with her dyslexia.
Themes
Claudia insists that Monday was trying to leave breadcrumbs by checking out books about child abuse from the library, but Ma tells Claudia to sit down. Claudia screeches that no one will listen to her or believe her. Crying, Ma says that Claudia was right all the time—they should’ve listened and believed her when Claudia brought this up the first time. Ma says that Monday has been gone for two years now. Claudia is confused, but Ma gently says that Monday and August were murdered two years ago.
It's maddening for Claudia when no one is willing to take her seriously. But when Ma shares that Monday and August have been dead for two years, it begins to illuminate when the “After” timeline actually takes place—this seems to be at least a year after the “Before” timeline, if not longer.
Themes
Claudia gasps and tries to back away. Ma explains that Claudia keeps having “episodes” where she forgets. Claudia asks how old she is—she’s applying for high schools and just turned 14. Ma sighs that Claudia is 16 and is applying for high school again; she and Daddy pulled Claudia after what happened on her last day. Claudia can’t remember what happened, and she doesn’t know where the last two years went. Claudia still hears the buzzing in her head.
Revealing that Claudia has been repressing the memory that the police solved Monday’s murder shows just how traumatizing that information is for her. It’s less traumatizing to continue to search for Monday for years than it is to accept that Monday is gone. This also illuminates some of the more confusing passages earlier in the “After” timeline. People expected Claudia to remember that Monday was dead—and were shocked and confused when she didn’t.
Themes
Ma explains that Ms. Walker has been homeschooling Claudia for a year, Claudia has been dancing, and Michael has been around since the beginning. Ms. Valente moved back to New York just after “it happened.” Claudia falls. She can’t believe Monday is dead. Ma helps Claudia up and suggests she get some sleep. Claudia asks if April knows about her condition, and Ma says she does.
It's significant that it’s even more of a shock to Claudia to learn that Monday is dead than it is to learn that she’s forgotten that fact for two years. Monday’s death remains the most important and traumatic event of Claudia’s life—and so she continues to try to process it by searching for Monday.
Themes
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