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The Monster Calls Literary Analysis

Decent Essays

We are only humans after all… Time and time again, writers have used the ideas of monsters to express specific themes throughout stories. May it be good versus evil or overcoming all odds. Subsequently Patrick Ness tries to play with the ideas of monsters but not in the way that one may seem. In his book “The Monster Calls” Patrick Ness uses the monster as a symbolic metaphor to convey that humans are not perfect beings they are always contradicting them selves based on what is right or wrong. Humans need to realize the wrongdoings they commit based upon those moral rights, atone for them and move on. This is shown throughout the book by the monster’s representation as a Father type figure, (his own entity) to teach the main character, Conor …show more content…

An example of Conner’s actions relating to the monsters influence/ teachings is through his interactions between the teachers and schoolmates including lily Harry, sully, and Anton. Conors interactions start with Harry and with his friends relentlessly bullies Conor. The reason being lily (Conors best friend) told many of Conor’s mom’s disease. Because of lilys lack of common sense Conors school life was ruined. Angry at lily and depressed that no one noticed him from that point onward, Harrys bulling actually made him feel normal based upon himnot saying anything about the reoccurring bullying. All Conor wanted to do is to be noticed, by any means necessary. Despite Conors mental logic the monster did not sympathies. The monster tries to teach Conor that he was wrong in justifying that he needed to feel noticed by everyone. Patrick ness states this fact through the monsters 3rd story in which the monster tries to teach Conor by ironically giving what he wants, to be noticed by everyone. The monster accomplishes his task by telling him half of the third story to rile his anger and beat down Harry, to make everyone notice him notice him. However the after fight Conor realized the truth of the third story. That the invisible man was seen but ironically for the wrong reasons, he was further apart from reality than he was before. …show more content…

Patrick ness states to the audience how the real world revolves around the good and bad decisions mixed in one. In that story The Monster guides Conor in one direction showing the queen is horrible and the prince is righteous. However he tells Conor of the truth in that the prince tried to make up a reliable premise in which the queen so called killed the prince’s wife. Sometimes stories prove more dangerous than fact and the queen got attacked despite the coincidental death of the king. Over the course of the story he monster tries to teach Conor simply how humans have misconceptions that turn out to be wrong but having a great impact, in the instance of the crowed attacking the queen. The Monsters teaching relate back to the theme by showing the misconceptions of the human mind based on what is right and wrong. In the princes case his misconception of the queens guilt for murder cause him to kill his wife. Another exemplification is in the second story the monster tells. In the story The monster relates how the medicine man and the parson come from different worlds causing disagreement among them. By sharing this story The monster tries to express how humans have an ultimate sense to contradict right and wrong based on how the parson act towards the medicine man. Foreshadowing Conors whole journey, this story perfectly relates to the theme by showing

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