A Monster Calls Life Writing Summary & Analysis

Conor walks home after avoiding Harry the rest of the day. He also avoided Lily, who was very upset when she returned to class. In English class, Mrs. Marl gave them an assignment to write about themselves called “Life Writing,” encouraging the students by saying that they have stories to tell, though Conor dreads the assignment.

The assignment that Conor gets in school foreshadows the eventual story, “the fourth story,” that he will have to tell the monster about his own life. Conor’s apprehension about the assignment demonstrates his skepticism of how stories might be useful to him.

Active Themes

Conor thinks about a few important events that had happened in his life: his father leaving, the cat wandering off, the afternoon his mother said they needed to have a “little talk”—but nothing he wants to write about. He remembers the day before they had the “little talk,” when he and his mother got Indian food and laughed all the way home as they “fart[ed]” in the car. But then, the next day, when they had the “little talk,” he understood “what his mum had done and why she had done it.”

The story about the Indian food, followed by the “little talk,” in which it is implied that Conor’s mother told him of her diagnosis, proves the point that the monster eventually makes: that people and life are both complicated, and a story can be both happy and sad at the same time. Conor realizes that his mother took him out to have a final night of carefree fun before telling him about her diagnosis, showing her willingness to deny that anything is wrong, and her desire to help her son maintain some innocence.

Active Themes

As Conor walks, Lily calls after him and confronts him, asking why he lied and got her into trouble. Conor asks her to leave him alone, saying that he doesn’t need her help and that she shouldn’t have been meddling in his business. She says it’s his fault that she’s got detention all week, and that the school sent a note home to her parents. Conor says it’s all her fault and storms off.

It is notable that in this moment, Conor asks Lily to leave him alone. As he goes on to explain in this and later chapters, she is the reason that he feels so isolated at school. But at the same time, Conor pushes away the closest friend he has, which only makes him more isolated.

Active Themes

Conor has known Lily “for as long as he [can] remember.” Their mothers had been friends before the two kids were born, and because of this, Conor and Lily have always felt more like siblings. After Conor’s mother had a “little talk” with him, she then told Lily’s mother the news. Lily’s mother then told Lily, and then suddenly everyone knew—“which changed the world in a single day.”

Conor’s description here hints at what he explains later: Lily told a few friends, who in turn told a few more. This caused people to treat Conor differently at school and avoid him, which is particularly hard on Conor when the only thing that he wants from his friends and teachers is to be treated normally, as he is in denial that anything is wrong.

Active Themes

Conor arrives home to the house that he has always lived in. After his mother and father had divorced, and his father had moved to America, his mother only asked to keep the house. That was six years ago, and now Conor can’t remember what it was like to have a father in the house. Conor looks past the house and spots the yew tree in the church graveyard. He assures himself that it’s only a tree.

The six years referred to here, coupled with the time frame given in the chapter “Understanding,” suggests that Conor’s mother and father were already divorced by the time that she was diagnosed with cancer. This highlights the fact that Conor has been pushed into a parental role in the absence of his father, and has been forced to grow up quickly in order to take care of his mother essentially alone.

Active Themes

A Monster Calls

Patrick Ness

A Monster Calls: Life Writing Summary & Analysis