Summary
Analysis
The monster arrives just after midnight. Meanwhile, Conor has just woken up from a nightmare. He’s been having this same nightmare a lot, but he’s been too afraid to tell anyone about it—certainly not his mother, and not his grandmother or father either, and no one at school. He hears someone calling his name, a quiet whisper over and over again coming from outside his open window. He starts to get panicky and goes over to the window.
The beginning of the book introduces Conor’s denial. Not only does he refuse to tell his family and friends about his recurring nightmare, but this information is withheld from the reader as well. This illustrates how Conor doesn’t even want to think about the nightmare in his own mind, which foreshadows his struggle with accepting what happens in it.
Conor notes the yew tree rising from the center of the graveyard, next to the church near his house. He only knows it’s a yew tree because his mother has recently started staring out of their kitchen window and saying, “that’s a yew tree, you know.” He hears the whisper of his name again.
This passage introduces the yew tree, which is the central symbol in the book. The fact that both Conor and his mother keep an eye out for it suggest that it is—and will continue to be—important to the both of them.
A cloud passes over the moon, covering the view in darkness. When the moon shines again, the yew tree is standing in the middle of Conor’s backyard. This is the monster: the branches of the tree twisting into a “great and terrible face,” with a powerful spine and torso. It bends down to the window, saying in a low, rumbling voice that it has come to get Conor. It pushes against the house, shaking Conor’s wall and sending objects tumbling to the floor.
It is no accident that the monster springs out of this yew tree, further signifying the yew tree’s significance in the story.
Conor isn’t scared, however: “this wasn’t the monster he was expecting.” He says, “come and get me then.” The monster roars and pounds its fists on the walls. It grabs Conor and swings him out of the window. The monster is surprised to see Conor isn’t frightened, telling Conor that he will be afraid “before the end.” The monster opens its mouth and roars, preparing to eat him alive.
Conor’s lack of fear in the face of the monster is an early example of how he has been forced to become an adult, even at thirteen years old. He isn’t afraid of this giant beast; as the novel will soon reveal, Conor’s fears are much more mature and complicated than what the monster is expecting. The monster defies Conor’s expectations, too, as this passage notes that Conor was waiting for a monster of a different sort, and is possibly tied to his recurring nightmares.
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