It's A Call That Saves Us by Marushka

Everyone has experienced grief or suffering ranging from a wide variety of problems, it’s just that some people cope with those feelings in different ways. In the beautiful, thought-provoking novel by Patrick Ness, the yew tree monster from “A Monster Calls” often reminds Conor of his its reason as to why it came. The monster tells Conor that he had called out to it, and Conor would often tell the monster that he called it to save his mother. The monster then tells Conor that it came walking, not to heal Conor’s mother, but to heal Conor himself. In the melodic song “This Is A Call” by a band named Thousand Foot Krutch talks about two people, a girl and a boy, who are suffering from different problems. The girl, much like Conor, has a mother at home who has cancer and she’s scared of her mother dying. The boy suffers from the feeling of not fitting in, similar to how Conor was isolated for his mother’s condition and was even bullied because of it. “A Monster Calls” by Patrick Ness and the song “This Is A Call” by Thousand Foot Krutch both give the audience the message that when some people are suffering from their problems, they subconsciously call out for help, even while they choose to push everyone away.

A common theme in both pieces is being isolated. In the second verse of the song “This Is A Call” talks about a boy who lies about his life to make it appear more interesting. The lyrics are, “He tells everyone a story, because he thinks his life is boring, and he fights, so you won't ignore him, because that's his biggest fear,”. Conor, from page 146 to 152 starts to feel even more ignored and invisible than ever. His bully, Harry, tells Conor that he sees nothing. Everyone acts like Conor is invisible, like Conor doesn’t even exist. Conor starts to fight to just become noticed and ends up sending Harry to the hospital in an effort to feel less isolated and alone. The boy in the song “This Is A Call” also fights to be noticed, just not in a physical way. He chose to change himself to appear more interesting just to fit in so he wouldn’t have to suffer from his loneliness. Conor on the other hand, was bullied for being different and he often changed himself into a more angry, yet quiet person.

Another common theme in both the song and the story is the theme of hiding your true feelings in front of other people. The first verse of “This Is A Call” is about a girl who shares something in common with Conor. “Her mother lies there sick with cancer, and her friends don't understand her,”. Whilst Conor doesn’t really have ‘friends’, he had Lily until she told the entire class that his mother had cancer. “She fooled all of her friends into thinking she's so strong, but she still sleeps with her light on, and she acts like it's all right on, as she smiles again”. Nobody really understands Conor and all the struggle he’s going through because, just like the girl in the song, they try to fool people into thinking that they aren’t suffering. Patrick Ness even uses Conor’s main bully, Harry, to point this out. “Conor O’Malley,” he said, his voice growing poisonous now. “Who everyone’s sorry for because of his mum. Who swans around the school acting like he’s so different, like no one knows his suffering.” (page. 151). Both of them felt like falling apart in the end. They both felt like nobody understood the struggles they were going through of having a mother that had a high likelihood of dying. In the end, they would pretend that nothing was wrong, that they were completely fine. Conor would do this by pushing everyone away and cutting them off, insisting he was fine. The girl would do this by pretending she’s happy, especially around her friends.

While everyone has their own different situations, they also have different ways of coping. It’s human nature to find a coping mechanism. There are many coping mechanisms known to us, for example, the boy in the song uses music as his coping mechanism. “So he hides behind the music, 'cause he likes it that way.”. A lot of people choose music as an escape from their problems, whether it’s just listening, playing, or both! Others tend to use art as an escape, illustrating their feelings onto a paper, canvas or screen. The girl from the song “This Is A Call” coped by acting, well not professionally at least. She would pretend everything is alright by hiding behind a probably highly convincing smile, after all it did fool all of her friends. Conor would cope with his situation by pushing everyone away, as discussed earlier. However, despite the differences between all three characters, they all are subconsciously trying to get out of the situation as their coping mechanisms aren’t working. To get out of their situations, they’re calling out to anyone or anything that is willing to help them, though they may not admit it themselves.

In the song, the lyrics of the chorus are literally, “She’s/He's calling out to you, this is a call; this is a call out, 'Cause every time I fall down, I reach out to you, and I'm losing all control now, and my hazard signs are all out, I'm asking you, to show me what this life is all about.”. The chorus states that every time they fall down (basically whenever they reach that point where they feel like they can’t go lower) they reach out to someone to save them. The thing Conor had called out to was the yew tree monster. When people subconsciously call out to a person or something else, they’re actually calling out to save themselves and not anyone else. ““If I called you,” Conor said, his face boiling red, tears he was hardly aware of streaming angrily down his cheeks, “it was to save her! It was to heal her!”” (page. 172). Conor was a stubborn person in general, which was why this reaction was expected of him. He tried to trick himself into believing that he didn’t care about himself and only about his mother, because his true wish was for his mother to die so he could feel better. The yew tree monster gives Conor a quick reply, saying, “I did not come to heal her, I came to heal you.”. After exchanging angry words, the monster tells Conor that it is time for the fourth tale, the tale where Conor is forced to admit the truth. In the end, after doing what the monster asks it to (admitting the truth), Conor ends up feeling a lot better, and he can rest easily once again. The monster was right, it did come to heal Conor, and not his mother.

In both “A Monster Calls” by Patrick Ness and “This Is A Call” by Thousand Foot Krutch, both the author and the band show readers and fans that regardless of how people cope with their situations, they subconsciously call out to people or the unknown for help, regardless of whether they push the people around them away. Anyone who has ever reached that point in their life where they’ve wanted to given up, such as Conor from the story and the two people from the song, call out for help without knowing, as it is human nature to want to live happily once more, to return to how things used to be.

The Song : "This Is A Call" by Thousand Foot Krutch
(There wasn't any official video. Sorry!)