Monster Identification
This character in A Monster Calls might be considered monstrous because of his bullying behavior toward Conor.
Who is Harry?
This thesis states that "the monster's body is a cultural body" that represents specific cultural fears.
What is Thesis #1?
In A Monster Calls, the monster tells Conor this many stories before demanding Conor tell his own truth.
What is three?
In A Monster Calls, this character is dying of cancer throughout the film.
Who is Conor's mother?
Both The Road and A Monster Calls feature this emotional state as a central theme that characters must navigate.
What is grief/loss?
In The Road, these people are monstrous because they have abandoned traditional morality and turned to cannibalism.
Who are the "bad guys" or marauders?
This thesis suggests monsters "resist classification" and exist at "the gates of difference."
What is Thesis #3 (Category Crisis)?
In The Road, this phrase represents maintaining humanity and moral goodness in a monstrous world.
What is "carrying the fire"?
In The Road, this character represents innocence and hope despite being born into a post-apocalyptic world.
Who is the boy/son?
Both works use this literary technique to represent deeper truths through non-literal representation.
What is metaphor/symbolism/allegory?
This "monster" in A Monster Calls is made of yew tree wood and comes to Conor at 12:07.
Who is the Monster/Yew Tree Monster?
This thesis states that "fear of the monster is really a kind of desire."
What is Thesis #6?
This tale told by the monster involves an invisible man and challenges ideas about faith and belief.
What is the second tale/the tale about the apothecary and the parson?
Like the boy in The Road, Conor experiences this state that represents Cohen's third thesis as he exists between childhood and adulthood, truth and denial.
What is category crisis/liminality?
In both texts, the authors allow for the exploration of pain through which symbolic expressions?
In "A Monster Calls," Conor breaks these objects as an expression of his pain, similar to how the landscape in "The Road" reflects emotional devastation. What are windows/items in grandmother's house/school property?
This abstract concept can be considered monstrous in both The Road and A Monster Calls as it consumes characters from within.
What is grief/loss/fear?
This thesis proposes that monsters always return in different forms and can never be fully contained or defeated.
What is Thesis #2 (The Monster Always Escapes)?
In both The Road and A Monster Calls, the protagonists must ultimately accept this difficult truth.
What is death/mortality/loss? (Accept similar valid answers)
Conor's relationship with this character changes significantly after she reveals her own emotional struggles related to his mother's illness.
Who is his grandmother?
Both the monster in "A Monster Calls" and the father in "The Road" tell stories to help the child characters understand this concept.
What is truth/reality/mortality/survival?
According to Cohen's first thesis, monsters embody these cultural anxieties. Name two specific anxieties represented by monsters in either A Monster Calls or The Road.
What are fear of death, environmental destruction, loss of loved ones, abandonment, moral collapse, illness, etc. (any two valid responses)
This thesis suggests monsters stand at "the threshold of becoming" and ask us why we created them.
What is Thesis #7?
Explain how one of the monster's tales in A Monster Calls subverts traditional ideas about heroes and villains, and connect this to McCarthy's portrayal of morality in The Road.
(Open-ended response that demonstrates understanding of moral complexity in both works)
Compare and contrast how the father in The Road and the monster in A Monster Calls serve as guides for their respective children through traumatic situations.
(Open-ended response that demonstrates understanding of both characters' roles)
According to Cohen's monster theory, how do both The Road and A Monster Calls use monsters to help characters and readers process trauma and confront difficult truths?
(Open-ended response that demonstrates understanding of monster theory across both texts)