Which monster do you choose

The question “Which monster do you choose?” condenses Oskar’s conflict between the frightening change he witnesses in his father and the vampire he has been told does not exist. It turns a private attempt to make sense of a parent’s behavior into a choice with immediate consequences: whether Oskar will remain at home or leave to find Eli.

The Monster in Oskar’s Father

Oskar anticipates a familiar evening. After Janne goes home and the drinking continues, his father will come to Oskar’s room wanting conversation and reassurance. Oskar expects him to move between sentimental need and anger, though he knows his father has never become physically violent. What frightens him is the apparent disappearance of the sober father: in his place, Oskar sees someone so changed that he imagines a monster has taken control of his father’s body.

The werewolf comparison offers Oskar a way to explain this rupture. Just as the moon brings out another being in a werewolf, he thinks, alcohol brings out another person in his father. The comparison does not make the experience less frightening, but it gives the change a shape: Oskar can distinguish the father he knows sober from the figure he expects to face that night.

A Question About What to Believe

Against that domestic fear stands Oskar’s insistence that vampires do not exist. The assertion conflicts with the reality of Eli, whose notes he carries with him. The question about choosing a monster therefore does not settle whether Eli is one; it exposes the strain between a belief Oskar can state and a person he is preparing to seek.

The expression works as a hinge between interpretation and action. Oskar has imagined traveling to Stockholm City and going into Eli’s courtyard and through her window. With his father and Janne still in the living room, he puts Eli’s notes back in his wallet, dresses, and quietly heads for the hall. The question remains unresolved as he begins to leave.

The Choice at the Threshold

At the doorway, Oskar pauses when he notices his old rubber boots beside his father’s large Tretorn boots. The childhood boots have stayed on the rack despite there being no one who can wear them; his father’s boots bear a patch on one heel. The narrative places this ordinary domestic detail beside Oskar’s departure, returning the abstract question to the home and family from which he is trying to get away.

The expression’s force lies in refusing an easy contrast between a safe ordinary world and a monstrous one. Oskar fears the person alcohol seems to bring out in his father, doubts the existence of vampires, and nevertheless sets out toward Eli. His choice is shown through movement rather than an answer: he leaves the room, listens at the hall, and turns toward the outside.