Conor’s Mother Character Analysis in A Monster Calls

Though it is only explicitly stated that Conor’s mother is sick, details that Ness includes heavily implies that she has cancer: Conor’s mother has lost her hair and wears a scarf, goes through rounds of treatments, and is often exhausted and nauseous. As Conor’s mother’s condition deteriorates over the course of the book, she feels increasingly guilty about the responsibility that Conor has been forced to take on in caring for her. This leads her to ask his grandmother (her mother) to visit and help her and Conor, despite the fact that Conor doesn’t like his grandmother very much. When Conor’s mother’s treatments stop working, she tries to tell Conor that she believes her last option, the one made from yew trees, will work. When she reveals to him later that this treatment is also failing, he becomes angry with his mother for lying to him. She says, however, that his belief that she would get better is what had been keeping her alive for so long—demonstrating how Conor’s mother had also been incentivizing his denial. Ultimately, when the monster helps Conor accept the truth, he returns to his mother and is finally able to tell her that he doesn’t want her to die, resolving the anger between them. In the final pages of the book, it is implied that Conor’s mother passes away very shortly after its conclusion.

Conor’s Mother Quotes in A Monster Calls

The A Monster Calls quotes below are all either spoken by Conor’s Mother or refer to Conor’s Mother. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:

Death, Denial, and Acceptance Theme Icon

He’d told no one about the nightmare. Not his mum, obviously, but no one else either, not his dad in their fortnightly (or so) phone call, definitely not his grandma, and no one at school. Absolutely not.

Related Characters: Conor O’Malley, Conor’s Mother, Conor’s Father, Conor’s Grandmother, The Monster

Page Number and Citation: 1

Explanation and Analysis:

But she wasn’t in the kitchen. Which meant she was probably still up in her bed. Which meant Conor would have to make his own breakfast, something he’d grown used to doing. Fine. Good, in fact, especially this morning.

Related Characters: Conor O’Malley, Conor’s Mother, The Monster

Page Number and Citation: 10

Explanation and Analysis:

“I’m going to be late,” Conor said, eyeing the clock.

“Okay, sweetheart,” she said, teetering over to kiss him on the forehead. “You’re a good boy,” she said again. “I wish you didn’t have to be quite so good.”

Related Characters: Conor O’Malley (speaker), Conor’s Mother (speaker), Conor’s Grandmother

Page Number and Citation: 17

Explanation and Analysis:

You know that is not true, the monster said. You know that your truth, the one that you hide, Conor O’Malley, is the thing you are most afraid of.

Related Characters: The Monster (speaker), Conor O’Malley, Conor’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 36

Explanation and Analysis:

There is not always a good guy. Nor is there always a bad one. Most people are somewhere in between.

Conor shook his head. “That’s a terrible story. And a cheat.”

It is a true story, the monster said. Many things that are true feel like a cheat. Kingdoms get the princes they deserve, farmers’ daughters die for no reason, and sometimes witches merit saving.

Related Characters: The Monster (speaker), Conor O’Malley (speaker), Conor’s Grandmother, Conor’s Mother, The Young Prince, The Farmer’s Daughter, The Evil Queen

Page Number and Citation: 64

Explanation and Analysis:

Those friends told a few more, who told a few more, and before the day was half through, it was like a circle had opened around him, a dead area with Conor at the center, surrounded by land mines that everyone was afraid to walk through.

Related Characters: Conor O’Malley, Lily Andrews, Conor’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 68

Explanation and Analysis:

And for a moment, Conor was entirely alone.

He knew right then he could probably stay out there all day and no one would punish him for it.

Which somehow made him feel even worse.

Related Characters: Conor O’Malley, Miss Kwan, Harry, Anton, Sully, Conor’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 73

Explanation and Analysis:

“We barely have room for the three of us, Con. Your grandma has a lot more money and space than we do. Plus, you’re in school here, your friends are here, your whole life is here. It would be unfair to just take you out of all that.”

“Unfair to who?” Conor asked.

His father sighed. “This is what I meant,” he said. “This is what I meant when I said you were going to have to be brave.”

Related Characters: Conor’s Father (speaker), Conor O’Malley (speaker), Conor’s Grandmother, Conor’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 88

Explanation and Analysis:

The yew tree is the most important of all the healing trees, it said. It lives for thousands of years. Its berries, its bark, its leaves, its sap, its pulp, its wood, they all thrum and burn and twist with life. It can cure almost any ailment man suffers from, mixed and treated by the right apothecary.

Related Characters: The Monster (speaker), Conor O’Malley, Conor’s Mother, The Apothecary, The Parson

Related Symbols: The Yew Tree

Page Number and Citation: 105

Explanation and Analysis:

His classmates kept their distance from him, too, like he was giving off a bad smell. He tried to remember if he’d talked to any of them since he’d arrived this morning. He didn’t think he had. Which meant he hadn’t actually spoken to anyone since his father that morning.

How could something like that happen?

But, finally, here was Harry. And that, at least, felt normal.

Related Characters: Conor O’Malley, Conor’s Father, Conor’s Mother, Conor’s Grandmother, Harry, Anton, Sully

Page Number and Citation: 125

Explanation and Analysis:

“Son,” his father said, leaning forward. “Stories don’t always have happy endings.”

This stopped him. Because they didn’t, did they? That’s one thing the monster had definitely taught him. Stories were wild, wild animals and went off in directions you couldn’t expect.

Related Characters: Conor’s Father (speaker), Conor O’Malley, Conor’s Mother, The Monster

Related Symbols: The Yew Tree

Page Number and Citation: 134

Explanation and Analysis:

Harry leaned forward, his eyes flashing. “I see nothing,” he said. Without turning around, Conor asked the monster a question. “What did you do to help the invisible man?”

And he felt the monster’s voice again, like it was in his own head.

I made them see, it said.

Conor clenched his fists even tighter.

Then the monster leapt forward to make Harry see.

Related Characters: Harry (speaker), Conor O’Malley (speaker), The Monster (speaker), Lily Andrews, Conor’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 152

Explanation and Analysis:

He was going to be punished. It was finally going to happen. Everything was going to make sense again. She was going to expel him.

Punishment was coming.

Related Characters: Conor O’Malley, Miss Kwan, Harry, Conor’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 157

Explanation and Analysis:

I’m sorry for telling everyone about your mum, read the first line.

I miss being your friend, read the second.

Are you okay? read the third.

I see you, read the fourth, with the I underlined about a hundred times.

Related Characters: Lily Andrews (speaker), Conor O’Malley, Conor’s Mother, Harry

Page Number and Citation: 162

Explanation and Analysis:

“I’ve known forever she wasn’t going to make it, almost from the beginning. She said she was getting better because that’s what I wanted to hear. And I believed her. Except I didn’t.”

No, the monster said.

Conor swallowed, still struggling. “And I started to think how much I wanted it to be over. How much I just wanted to stop having to think about it. How I couldn’t stand the waiting anymore. I couldn’t stand how alone it made me feel.”

Related Characters: Conor O’Malley (speaker), The Monster (speaker), Conor’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 171

Explanation and Analysis:

He faintly felt the huge hands of the monster pick him up, forming a little nest to hold him. He was only vaguely aware of the leaves and branches twisting around him, softening and widening to let him lie back.

Related Characters: Conor O’Malley, The Monster, Conor’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 190

Explanation and Analysis:

You were merely wishing for the end of pain, the monster said. Your own pain. An end to how it isolated you. It is the most human wish of all.

“I didn’t mean it,” Conor said.

You did, the monster said, but you also did not.

Conor sniffed and looked up to its face, which was as big as a wall in front of him. “How can both be true?”

Because humans are complicated beasts, the monster said. How can a queen be both a good witch and a bad witch? How can a prince be a murderer and a saviour?

Related Characters: The Monster (speaker), Conor O’Malley (speaker), Conor’s Mother, The Evil Queen, The Young Prince, The Apothecary, The Parson

Page Number and Citation: 191

Explanation and Analysis:

And he also knew he was going to get through it.

It would be terrible. It would be beyond terrible.

But he’d survive.

And it was for this that the monster came. It must have been.

Conor had needed it, and his need had somehow called it. And it had come walking. Just for this moment.

Related Characters: Conor O’Malley, The Monster, Conor’s Mother

Page Number and Citation: 204

Explanation and Analysis:

“You’ll stay?” Conor whispered to the monster, barely able to speak. “You’ll stay until. . .”

I will stay, the monster said, its hands still on Conor’s shoulders. Now all you have to do is speak the truth.

And so Conor did.

He took in a breath.

And, at last, he spoke the final and total truth.

“I don’t want you to go,” he said, the tears dropping from his eyes, slowly at first, then spilling like a river.

Related Characters: Conor O’Malley (speaker), The Monster (speaker), Conor’s Mother

Related Symbols: The Yew Tree

Page Number and Citation: 204

Explanation and Analysis:

Conor’s Mother Character Timeline in A Monster Calls

The timeline below shows where the character Conor’s Mother appears in A Monster Calls. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.

...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... (full context)

...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,... (full context)

Conor steps into the kitchen in the morning while his mother is still asleep. He makes his own breakfast, already in his school uniform with his... (full context)

Conor decides that it’s best to take the trash out so that his mother doesn’t find the leaves. He also takes the recycling out and puts a load of... (full context)

Conor’s mother hasn’t yet tied a scarf around her bald head this morning, and it “[makes] Conor’s... (full context)

...is upset, not only because he has to give up his room every time his grandmother visits but also because she talks to him like he is “an employee under evaluation.”... (full context)

...Miss Kwan, storms over, scolding Lily. Lily says that Sully was making fun of Conor’s mother. Everyone freezes, and Conor is both furious and embarrassed. Miss Kwan asks if this is... (full context)

...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... (full context)

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... (full context)

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... (full context)

That evening, Conor’s mother falls asleep five minutes into watching TV, exhausted from cooking frozen lasagna for dinner. Conor... (full context)

Just after Conor turns the light out, his mother “very apologetically—and very groggily—come[s] in to kiss him good night.” A few minutes later, Conor... (full context)

When Conor’s grandmother arrives, she tells Conor immediately to put on a pot of tea for her and... (full context)

Conor brings the tea to his mother and grandmother. His grandma asks how school was, and he says it was fine—even though... (full context)

Since Conor’s grandmother doesn’t really cook, they have Chinese takeout for dinner. After dinner, Conor cleans up the... (full context)

Conor’s grandmother sighs angrily—though Conor thinks that she may not be angry at him. She says that... (full context)

Conor’s grandmother reiterates that when this is all over, she wants Conor to know that he has... (full context)

That night, Conor lies awake on the couch, thinking about his mother. Usually by this time, three full days after her treatment, she starts to feel better.... (full context)

...he toppled enemies and slew dragons. The monster, glancing at Conor’s bedroom window, where his grandmother is sleeping, says that it is going to tell the story of a wicked queen. (full context)

...the floor in the middle of the night and then woke up late. Then his grandmother wouldn’t let him say goodbye to his mother because she said his mother had a... (full context)

...was just over a year ago that Lily had told a few friends about Conor’s mother’s diagnosis, and the news had quickly spread around the school. Conor thinks, “it was like... (full context)

Conor and his mother had hoped that by the summer holiday, her first round of treatments would put everything... (full context)

After school, Conor’s grandmother tells Conor that his mother has to go to the hospital because she’s in a... (full context)

Conor’s mother calls Conor up to his room, where she is lying on his bed, staring out... (full context)

Conor says to his mother that she could tell him if things weren’t normal. She doesn’t respond, instead pulling him... (full context)

Conor is now staying at his grandmother’s house, and the monster hasn’t visited him in five days. He wonders if his grandmother... (full context)

Conor’s grandmother leaves to go to the hospital while Conor waits for his father. He goes up... (full context)

...according to Conor) how Conor is holding up. Conor says he’s fine, and that his mother is on a new medicine that will make her better, even though she doesn’t look... (full context)

...would only be a visit, adamantly saying that he doesn’t want to live with his grandmother, and asks why he can’t live with his father in America. Conor complains about not... (full context)

Conor’s father argues that Conor’s grandmother has more money and space, and that it wouldn’t be fair to Conor to pull... (full context)

...for so little time, asking why he came at all. Conor’s father says that Conor’s mother asked him to come. (full context)

Conor goes into the house. His grandmother isn’t home yet, so he is entirely alone. He sits on the couch, relishing hearing... (full context)

...reads: 12:07 a.m. When he turns back around, the monster is there, sitting in his grandmother’s living room—though the room is far too small to hold it. The monster announces that... (full context)

...the morning, his father was making breakfast for him. His father said then that Conor’s mother has “taken a turn,” and that his grandmother had gone to the hospital to talk... (full context)

Conor visits his mother in the hospital. She is exhausted, but smiles when she sees him. She explains that... (full context)

Conor’s mother mentions that the new drug is made from yew trees, like the tree behind their... (full context)

...thinks to himself that perhaps this is why the monster has come: to cure his mother. Conor walks down the corridor and sees his grandmother and his father arguing. Conor asks... (full context)

...to a park across from the hospital. He tells Conor that the new medicine his mother is taking probably won’t heal her. Conor contradicts him, saying that he knows it will... (full context)

Conor’s grandmother, who has barely been speaking to him since the sitting room incident, drives him back... (full context)

...truth.” The monster turns to go, and Conor asks what’s going to happen with his mother. The monster asks if Conor doesn’t already know what is going to happen. (full context)

The next morning, Conor asks his grandmother to go to the hospital instead of going to school. She doesn’t answer. He asks... (full context)

Harry taunts Conor, saying that everyone is sorry for him because of his mother, that Conor acts like no one understands his suffering, and that Conor wants to be... (full context)

Days pass. Conor’s grandmother doesn’t talk to Conor in the mornings before school, and no one at school talks... (full context)

Conor spends the weekend in the hospital. His mother has developed an infection in her lungs, and her pain has gotten worse, too. Conor... (full context)

...Lily passes Conor a note. In the note, she apologizes for telling everyone about his mother, says she misses being his friend, and asks if he’s okay. In the last line,... (full context)

Conor’s grandmother takes Conor to his mother’s hospital room. Conor had never been pulled out of school... (full context)

Conor’s mother tells Conor that there are no more treatments to try. She apologizes profusely. Conor accuses... (full context)

Crying, Conor’s mother says that she understands if Conor is angry, and that if in the future he... (full context)

Conor’s grandmother drops Conor off at his home and then returns to the hospital. Conor realizes, looking... (full context)

...way of Conor’s kicks. Conor asks the monster why the yew tree didn’t heal his mother. He asks what the use of the monster is if it can’t heal his mother.... (full context)

Conor is in the middle of his nightmare—the nightmare he’s been having since his mother first complained about her exhaustion and how sick she felt, even before she was officially... (full context)

In his nightmare, Conor sees his mother on the edge of a cliff, and begs her to run away from what is... (full context)

Conor’s mother begs Conor to hold on. He promises not to let her go, but she starts... (full context)

...Conor asks the monster to take him back to reality; he needs to see his mother. The monster replies that Conor let his mother go. Conor says that she fell—he couldn’t... (full context)

...a change in its voice—a note of kindness. The monster says that Conor let his mother go, even though he could have held on for longer. Conor wanted his mother to... (full context)

...he believes that he deserves the worst. Conor admits that he’s always known that his mother wasn’t going to make it. His mother told him that she was getting better because... (full context)

Conor cries that he didn’t mean to let his mother go, and that now she’s going to die and it’s his fault. The monster comforts... (full context)

...“How can a prince be a murderer and a saviour?” it asks. “You wanted [your mother] to go at the same time you were desperate for me to save her,” it... (full context)

Conor’s grandmother wakes Conor up at the foot of the yew tree, thanking God that she found... (full context)

In the car, Conor apologizes. Conor’s grandmother notes that they’re “not the most natural fit,” but that they’re going to have to... (full context)

Conor and his grandmother burst into his mother’s hospital room at 11:46 p.m. Her eyes are closed, and she... (full context)

Conor understands that there is “no going back”—that his mother is going to die. He knows that it will be terrible, and he also knows... (full context)

Conor speaks the final truth. “I don’t want you to go,” he tells his mother, tears spilling from his eyes. She says, “I know, my love.” He puts his arms... (full context)

A Monster Calls

Conor’s Mother Character Analysis

Conor’s Mother Quotes in A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls Quotes

Breakfast Quotes

Three Stories Quotes

The Rest of the First Tale Quotes

Understanding Quotes

Champ Quotes

The Second Tale Quotes

Invisible Quotes

Could It Be? Quotes

The Third Tale Quotes

Punishment Quotes

A Note Quotes

Life After Death Quotes

The Truth Quotes

Conor’s Mother Character Timeline in A Monster Calls