Selfishness In A Monster Calls

In A Monster Calls Conor is a young kid who lives in England. His mom is terminally ill. Every night at 12:07 there is a monster that comes walking to his window, asking Conor to tell him the truth. He knows the truth, but he is fearful to say it. The Monster, made up of a yew tree, tells Conor a total of 4 tales. All the tales have one thing in common, they show selfishness, which he is trying to show Conor that being selfish does not end well. Everyone at school knows his mother’s prognosis. They do not talk to him, ask him any questions, or interact with him in general. At the end of the last story, Conor has to tell the truth, or he will be trapped inside it, and his guilt will consume him. Conor gets to see his mom one last time, and there he tells her the truth. The truth is that he wants his mom to die so that he does not have to go through all the pain anymore. Patrick Ness conveys the theme of selfishness in the book A Monster Calls. Conor’s life is very good until he is faced with his terminally ill mother and does not

In the second tale, the monster tells Conor a story about an Apothecary, who is a chemist. The Apothecary wants to cut down the yew tree because it can cure almost any ailment man suffers from. The Apothecary then asks the parson, who is the landowner of the yew tree, if he can cut it down, and the the parson does not grant his pardon. Later on the parson’s daughters get very ill, and the only person that can heal them is the Apothecary. He refuses to help the parson because he wouldn’t let him cut down the yew tree.(105-106). This is a very selfish act just because the Apothecary didn’t get what he asked for. He only cared about himself and not the daughters or parson. The monster is showing Conor that being selfish is not the right thing to be about his mom. The monster continues to show the theme of selfishness throughout the tale, including the