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Chapter 4. One Year Before 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
Over and over again, “they” asked Claudia if she saw any red flags. They were looking for answers and looking for signs that Monday had been in trouble. They asked Claudia if she noticed anything unusual. Claudia hadn’t noticed anything. When they called her a liar, it hurt more than losing Monday did. Claudia thinks that if Monday were a color, she’d be a bright, vivid red. Maybe Claudia saw so much red that she couldn’t see the flags.
Claudia confirms here that Monday was being abused—that’s why “they” (presumably, the police) were looking for red flags. They seem to imply that the red flags should’ve been obvious. But when Claudia says that she saw so much red that she couldn’t see the flags, it suggests that she didn’t notice any evidence of abuse because it seemed so normal to her.
Themes
