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Chapter 56. 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
In her journal, Claudia writes a letter to Monday. She says Monday should know why she hasn’t written in a while, but she has to tell her about the block party last weekend. Daddy’s band played and April and Tuesday came. Claudia writes that she’s going to a therapist now, and her therapist thinks she needs closure. Claudia knows how to get it—but no one is going to like it. She asks Monday to notice how well she’s writing now—she even helps out in the TLC.
Though getting her dyslexia identified and going through tutoring at the TLC was traumatic for Claudia, she ultimately finds that it was all worth it. It’s a privilege, this suggests, to be able to face one’s shame, open up about any secrets, and figure out how to healthily deal with them. In this case, doing this propels Claudia closer to independent adulthood.
Themes
Claudia is in the car with Michael, parked outside of Monday’s house. The house is boarded up now. Michael asks if she’s sure she wants to hear this, especially right here—it makes him queasy. Claudia insists they have to listen right here and kisses him. He asks if she still hears the buzzing. Claudia says she does, but she needs to know for sure what happened. With a sigh, Michael opens up his podcast app and presses play.
Listening to this podcast is presumably Claudia’s method of finding closure. When she says she needs to know for sure what happened, it suggests that Claudia will only be able to heal when there’s no more mystery to solve. It’s essential that she doesn’t leave herself anything more to question so she doesn’t feel the need to keep searching.
Themes
The podcast plays Mrs. Charles’s voice. Mrs. Charles says that August kept touching girls and beating up his sisters. When she caught him biting Tuesday, she bit him and hit him back. She choked him until he died and told April to put him in the freezer. Mrs. Charles’s voice is smooth and level. She says that Monday was “a fast-ass little girl,” and had boys coming to the house looking for her. Monday might’ve even been messing with girls. One day, Mrs. Charles came home and Monday said she was leaving. Mrs. Charles grabbed her, punched her, and threw her in the closet for a few days. She went in and kicked Monday whenever she made too much noise. Eventually, Monday wouldn’t get up. Mrs. Charles insists she doesn’t know how Monday ended up in the freezer. She isn’t sorry—she knows what she did.
What Claudia listens to in this passage is presumably a recording of Mrs. Charles’s confession. With it, Claudia will learn once and for all what Monday’s final days were like. When Mrs. Charles describes Monday as a “fast-ass little girl” and talks about Monday seeing boys and girls romantically, it suggests she took issue with Monday’s burgeoning sexuality. In this sense, Monday was ultimately killed for growing up and becoming sexually active. But importantly, Monday thought things would be better if she and Jacob were involved—so being sexually involved with boys could’ve been another way to escape her home. This mirrors how April is consistently vilified for being promiscuous but was acting out of necessity.
Themes
Michael stops the playback and pulls Claudia into a hug. Claudia realizes she’s been crying. She looks at the house, remembering Monday skipping up the path. Then, she slips out of the car. These days, she only wears blue and black—colors remind her of Monday, and she feels guilty whenever she sees pink. Over the last year, Ed Borough has become a ghost town because of the eviction notices. Monday’s house is now known as “the House of Horrors.”
Feeling guilty whenever she sees pink shows that as she heals, Claudia is acknowledging where she messed up in her relationship with Monday. By recognizing that she made Monday feel like she had to keep secrets, Claudia will hopefully be able to prevent repeating this in her future friendships.
Themes
Get the entire Monday’s Not Coming LitChart as a printable PDF.
Claudia shuffles to the door, listening for the TV and the freezer. She doesn’t hear anything and backs away, feeling relieved. A voice asks if Claudia is Monday’s friend. Claudia jumps and notices an old woman sitting next door. The woman says Monday used to talk about Claudia like she was a twin and introduces herself as Ms. Roundtree. Ms. Roundtree explains that she’s one of the last people left on this strip. Claudia looks up at Monday’s bedroom window and reminds herself that Monday isn’t inside.
Meeting Ms. Roundtree and learning that she’s the last one on this block shows that the push to move people out of Ed Borough has persisted, long after Monday died. Even though the push to evict people may have contributed to Monday’s death, the city seems still to be prioritizing its finances over the health and wellbeing of Ed Borough’s citizens.
Themes
Ms. Roundtree says that Monday used to sit on the stoop and cry. She knew something had happened when she hadn’t heard Monday cry in a while. Claudia asks why Ms. Roundtree didn’t say anything. Ms. Roundtree explains that she has grandkids that live only 20 minutes away. The kids’ schedule is so busy and she’s proud of them, even though she doesn’t see them often. She doesn’t think they’re dead, and that’s what she figured was going on with Monday—especially since Monday spent so much time at Claudia’s.
Ms. Roundtree paints a picture of a community where it’s not out of the ordinary for kids to disappear for perfectly legitimate reasons. Indeed, her own grandkids disappear in a sense as they get busy with their own lives. This shows how Monday was able to disappear so easily—people didn’t see any reason to worry when she disappeared, because it happens often and it’s not usually anything to cause concern.
Themes
Ms. Roundtree says that the community used to be close, but now people don’t notice things. She admits that she sometimes has nightmares about what happened to Monday and August. Claudia shares that she has nightmares too, but she can only remember the buzzing. Ms. Roundtree says the freezer was up against the wall, so she heard it in her house. It took a long time for the sound to go away, even after the police found the bodies. They both stare at the door as if expecting someone to walk out.
The community in Ed Borough has also fractured over the years, according to Ms. Roundtree. She suggests that it used to be close and people kept tabs on each other, but as people got caught up in their own busy lives, they stopped caring so much about their neighbors. This also contributes to an environment where Monday could disappear without a trace.
Themes
Michael honks the horn, startling Claudia. Claudia says she needs to go, but then heads back to Ms. Roundtree. She asks how she got rid of the buzzing. Ms. Roundtree says it’s a matter of perspective. The sound could be buzzing, but she decided it’s someone humming. Claudia hugs Ms. Roundtree and thanks her. She races back to the car and Michael drives off. Daddy’s newest song plays, and Monday hums along.
Ms. Roundtree tells Claudia that her recovery is partly about reframing things to make them more palatable. Claudia can be haunted forever by the buzz of the freezer, or she can decide that Monday is with her in spirit, and the buzzing sound is Monday humming a song. When Claudia chooses to take Ms. Roundtree’s advice and hears Monday humming to Daddy’s newest song, it offers hope that as Claudia moves forward, she’ll be able to honor Monday’s memory while not getting unhealthily caught up in the past.
Themes
