Monstrilio: Questions and Answers
Questions and Answers from the Opening Chapter of Monstrilio
(All questions below are grounded in the evidence of Chapter 1, “Begin Reading,” and the supplied outline. Quotations are kept short and paraphrased where possible.)
1. Why does Magos choose the lung as the part of Santiago that is “inextricably himself”?
Magos reasons through Santiago’s body parts systematically, rejecting hair as too public, fingers and toes as too familiar, the tongue as quick and lispy, the heart as quiet and solitary. The lung—his single lung—is the mystery that carried him past his expected lifespan. It’s the core of his “Santiagoness,” something she loves and hates simultaneously, a part of him she never fully knew.
Evidence context: In “Begin Reading,” Magos catalogues each body part and its limitations before landing on the lung. She calls it “the core of his Santiagoness” and says she wants to thank it and spit on it for not carrying him further. The lung is the one part of Santiago that was never fully knowable to her—it defined his survival against odds.
Interpretation: Choosing the lung reflects Magos’s desire to possess what she couldn’t fully understand in life. This decision sets up the theme of ownership of the dead that runs through the book.
2. Why does Magos fantasize about Santiago dying in a Mexico City mall?
In her fantasy, Santiago collapses in a Mexico City mall and Magos becomes a Pietà—marble and gorgeous, with fat clean tears pooling on her chin. She wanted an audience for her sorrow, something the secluded Upstate New York house cannot provide. The fantasy is about grief having a theatrical shape, about being seen in mourning.
Evidence context: The text describes the fantasy in detail—the mall, the audience, the hushed awe, the Pietà image. She contrasts this with reality: “no thunder, no angels weeping, no cloaked Death, no grace.” Her only audience is “one whimpering man.”
Interpretation: The fantasy reveals Magos’s expectation that grief should be dramatic and witnessed. The reality of Santiago’s quiet death deflates that expectation, leaving her numb. This tension between imagined versus real death drives her subsequent actions.
3. What does Magos’s act of licking Santiago’s ear reveal about her grief?
After folding Joseph and walking him to bed, Magos lies beside Santiago and licks his ear “like an animal would.” This is the first of several animalistic behaviors—she also smears and licks his blood. The gesture is intimate, primal, and unmediated by language or ritual, a way of knowing her son through her body rather than her mind.
Evidence context: The text explicitly frames the licking as animal behavior. Later, she smears and licks Santiago’s blood, savoring “a taste of iron and warmth.” She notes she’s “not a vampire though now she understands the impulse.”
Interpretation: Licking is a way of knowing through the body rather than the mind. Magos can’t access the drama of grief she imagined, so she reaches for something more instinctual. This connects to the theme of grief as bodily instinct.
4. Why does Magos fold Joseph’s body and walk him to their bed?
Joseph is “slack and raggy,” unable to move himself. Magos folds his fingers into his palms, pries them from Santiago’s pajamas, folds his fists to his chest, pulls his legs off the bed, and walks him out. She notes she could make him “dance like a puppet” but won’t. She holds his head to her chest so he can muffle his sobs.
Evidence context: The text describes the folding in detail, including her enjoyment of his thick thighs as a comfort. She says “Their son is only hers now” immediately after. The puppet line hints at a power she chooses not to exercise.
Interpretation: Folding Joseph is both caretaking and claiming. She physically removes him from the room, making space for her own private communion with Santiago. This moment establishes the solitude of parental grief that separates the two parents.
5. What is the significance of Santiago’s dinosaur pajamas?
Santiago wears cream-colored pajamas with silly dinosaurs in bright colors. They have thinning patches where the material has wearied. He loved them and would have worn them exclusively, “roaring his way through the day,” if Magos hadn’t forced him to wash and change. The pajamas are a marker of his youth and vitality.
Evidence context: The text describes the pajamas in detail, noting they fit him though meant for a younger boy. Joseph clings to them when he nuzzles Santiago, making them a site of shared memory and loss.
Interpretation: The pajamas capture Santiago’s personality—the roaring dinosaur boy. The thinning patches suggest time passing and a body growing. They’re also what Joseph holds onto, making them a point of connection between the parents’ different griefs.
6. Why does Magos reference the Lorca play she saw at UNAM?
Magos recalls a Lorca play produced at UNAM where a young actress played a mother who kneels and delivers a monologue about seeing her son’s blood spilled on the ground. The mother mimics soaking her hands in blood and licking them, saying “Because the blood is mine.” Magos then smears and licks Santiago’s blood, noting there isn’t enough to soak her hands.
Evidence context: The text describes the play and the actress’s performance in detail. Magos’s own act of licking blood directly mirrors the play’s script, but reality falls short—there isn’t enough blood.
Interpretation: The play gives Magos a script for grief—a theatrical model of maternal mourning. But reality doesn’t match the drama. The reference underscores the gap between imagined versus real death and shows Magos reaching for cultural models of mourning that fail her.
7. What does the owl symbolize in this opening chapter?
An owl hoots in the mornings “thinking itself a rooster” near the secluded Upstate New York house. Santiago loved this owl, his “tiny body wound in rapture.” Magos listens for it but worries she’s missed its hoot. The owl is a link to Santiago’s joy, and its missed call mirrors her fear of losing pieces of him.
Evidence context: The text describes the owl and Santiago’s love for it. Magos listens and wonders if it has already hooted. The owl’s misidentification (thinking itself a rooster) is noted explicitly.
Interpretation: The owl is a sound of Santiago’s happiness—something that made his body “wound in rapture.” Its absence or missed call mirrors Magos’s fear that she’s already missing pieces of him. The owl’s confusion about its own identity also echoes the book’s interest in things that aren’t what they seem.
8. Why does Joseph say “You’ve destroyed him” and why does Magos find the word “curious”?
Joseph freezes at the scene of Santiago’s opened body and says, “You’ve destroyed him.” Magos finds the word “destroyed” curious because she believes she has destroyed nothing—“nothing was left to destroy.” She has made a mess, but the boy was already gone. The word reveals how differently the parents understand death and the body.
Evidence context: The text shows Joseph’s freeze, his accusation, and Magos’s internal response. She also notes she planned to change the sheets and wrap Santiago in clean cloth to spare Joseph the sight.
Interpretation: For Joseph, the body is still Santiago—damaging it is destroying their son. For Magos, the body is already empty; the lung tip is what remains of his essence. This disagreement about ownership of the dead is the chapter’s central conflict.
9. Why does Magos only take a “nugget” of the lung rather than the whole thing?
Magos initially wants to rip the lung out and keep it for herself. But she pulls gently, “still thinking she can hurt her son,” and decides he should keep his lung. She slices only the downmost tip with a paring knife and places it in a jam jar. The decision shows her ambivalence about possessing Santiago’s essence.
Evidence context: The text shows her internal debate—wanting the whole lung, then deciding against it. She whispers his name “like an apology.” The paring knife is a kitchen tool, connecting the act to domesticity and care.
Interpretation: Taking only a nugget respects Santiago’s bodily integrity even in death. Magos wants to possess his essence but can’t bring herself to fully desecrate his body. This restraint is part of what makes the act so unsettling—it’s both violent and tender.
10. What does “Their son is only hers now” mean in context?
After walking Joseph to bed, Magos returns to Santiago and says, “Their son is only hers now.” Joseph is defeated, curled in their bed, while Magos remains with the body. She’s claimed the space and the ritual for herself. This is a claim of ownership over the dead, a declaration that her grief will take its own form.
Evidence context: The line comes immediately after Joseph curls defeated in their bed and before she lies next to Santiago and licks his ear. It’s a turning point in the chapter.
Interpretation: This is a claim of ownership of the dead. Joseph’s grief is physical and overwhelming, but Magos’s is different—she’s the one who will do something with the body, who will take the lung, who will perform the act that defines their mourning.
11. Why does Magos refuse to “bear him again”?
When Joseph pulls her toward Santiago in the bed, trying to press them all together, Magos thinks, “I bore him. I won’t bear him again.” She resists the physical merging Joseph attempts. “Bearing” has double meaning—carrying and giving birth. Magos refuses to re-experience the weight of Santiago’s body in the way Joseph wants.
Evidence context: The text shows Joseph grabbing her arm and pulling her toward the middle of the bed, and her internal refusal. This is one of the few moments where Magos explicitly resists Joseph’s approach to grief.
Interpretation: “Bearing” carries both meanings—carrying and giving birth. Magos won’t re-experience the weight of Santiago’s body through physical compression. Her grief is not about holding on through contact but about a different kind of possession, one that will lead to the lung extraction.
12. What does the jam jar (pencil jar) signify?
Magos places the lung tip in a clear jam jar that Santiago used to keep pencils in. There’s no lid, but she knows where to find one. The jar is a mundane object repurposed for something extraordinary—a child’s school supply transformed into a reliquary, a domestic object carrying sacred weight.
Evidence context: The text describes the jar and its previous use. She finds a lid, suggesting she’s prepared to seal it.
Interpretation: The jar transforms a child’s school supply into a reliquary. This is the kind of transformation that defines the book’s approach to grief and preservation. The act of preservation as defiance begins with this small, domestic object.
13. How do Magos and Joseph grieve differently in this opening chapter?
Joseph grieves physically—nuzzling, squeezing, grunting, smelling Santiago’s neck. Magos is numb, unable to cry, and thinks she “doesn’t know how to grieve.” Joseph’s grief is embodied and immediate; Magos’s is deferred and intellectual, leading her to the lung extraction. The chapter sets up a fundamental divergence in how the parents process death.
Evidence context: The text contrasts Joseph’s physical mourning with Magos’s observation that she “can’t rally the drama.” She watches him and tries to copy him, then moves to her own ritual.
Interpretation: This divergence is central to the solitude of parental grief. Joseph’s grief is about contact and presence; Magos’s is about possession and meaning-making. Their different approaches will likely drive the narrative forward.
14. Why does Magos think she “can’t rally the drama” she once imagined?
Magos imagined Santiago dying in a Mexico City mall where she’d be a Pietà with fat clean tears. In reality, he dies quietly in a child-sized bed in a secluded house, and she feels nothing—“not a tear.” She can’t perform grief she doesn’t feel. Her numbness drives her to the lung extraction as a way to do something with the death.
Evidence context: The text contrasts her fantasy with the reality: “no thunder, no angels weeping, no cloaked Death, no grace.” She notes her only audience is “one whimpering man.”
Interpretation: This sets up the central tension of the chapter—Magos’s grief doesn’t match her expectations. Her numbness drives her to the lung extraction as a way to feel something, to do something with the death. This connects to the theme of imagined versus real death.
15. What does the setting (secluded Upstate New York house) contribute to the chapter?
The house is “middle-of-nowhere,” surrounded by trees, far from Mexico where Magos’s fantasies placed Santiago’s death. The isolation means no audience for grief, no witnesses. The owl hoots outside; spring air blows in through an open window. The setting strips grief of its social performance, forcing Magos to find her own way to mourn.
Evidence context: The text describes the house as secluded, notes they are “away from Mexico,” and shows Magos opening a window to let in “fresh, very undeath-like” spring air.
Interpretation: The setting strips grief of its social performance. Without an audience, Magos must find her own way to mourn—which leads to the private, almost feral ritual of the lung extraction. The house becomes a space where the rules of normal mourning don’t apply, setting the stage for the book’s ending.
For more context on the characters and themes explored in these questions, see the main book page, the character study of Magos, the character study of Joseph, and the character study of Santiago.