Who Is The Monster In John Steinbeck's A Monster Calls?

In A Monster Calls, a thirteen-year-old boy named Conor O' Malley has a mother who is dying of cancer. Conor tries believing it is getting better but deep down, he knows it isn't. Conor starts to have dreams and wakes up exactly seven minutes after midnight. One time Conor wakes up one night and there is an actual monster outside of his bedroom window. We make the assumption that Conor would be terrified however, it is not the monster Conor has been expecting which results in him being unimpressed. This monster will spend the days as a yew tree in a cemetery behind his house, but during the night, it turns into a terrifying tree-creature with its skin made of leaves and slices of bark as teeth. Conor is not scared because the monster in his dreams was scarier in the beginning. A Monster Calls has a monster tree …show more content…
He would constantly get bullied and one day, Lily tried to stand up for Conor but due to Lily talking about his mom having health problems, Conor swore that they would never be friends again. Lily shoved the other bullies aside from Harry and it caused her to get into trouble. The teachers asked if it was Lily who started it and Conor just agreed. From that day forward, Lily never spoke or stood up for Conor again and ignored him from then forward. Harry was a school bully to Conor and his bullying was verbal and physical. Harry would insult Conor constantly and push him around as if he was not even human or a lower human compared to himself. One day, Harry told Conor he was completely invisible and due to the invisible man story the monster spoke of, Conor ends up breaking Harry's' bones and teeth. Conor gets called into the principal's office, but even then, they do nothing to punish him. The reason being is because they all walk on eggshells around Conor because his mom has cancer. It's the belief that it is easier to pretend nothing is wrong than to face facts because we don't know what he's going