Monkey Beach Essay
Zicong Liang
Mr., Maher
March 13,2018
ELACF40S
In our entire life there are always people that have a big effect on our life. How they chose to person expression and their actions could affect someone’s life shock amount. In Eden Robinson’s novel “Monkey beach” she has characterization the main character Lisa Marie, and shows how certain people in her life, actions have affect on her life.
Monkey Beach written by Eden Robinson is a haunting coming of age story that portrays the effects those generations of Aboriginals within Canada. The effects were not only hurt on the people who had a bad destiny, but they were felt by the following generations as well.
In the book, Mick is Lisa’s uncle and her mother Gladys both has a great affect on her life with the actions what they have made, which affect her both have positive and negative one. The negative affect is come from her mother, and positive one is come from her brother Jimmy and Uncle Mick.
Jimmy is Lisa’s brother, he has quit the swimming because his shoulders is injured, and lost his chance to Olympics because of this thing is happened, he is very struggle with his life, same as his sister Lisa. Jimmy's disappearance prompted Lisa to think more about him than usual. She remembered their happy childhood, partly as a good memory, partly as a flashback to a particular scene or event.
Lisa says upon a “communicating with the dead” spell. She tries the spell and saw the little red head man; she then sees a vision of Jimmy. Because the red man comes when something bad will going to happen, Lisa acts as Jimmy’s guard then saved him from mumps. When Lisa and Jimmy are older. Jimmy no longer hanging around Lisa but he now tells his friends that Lisa is adopted. It let me know Jimmy and Lisa has a very stronger relationship, Jimmy rather sacrifices himself than his sister.
At the end of story, Lisa had a dream of Jimmy, when she wake up she feels unstable and nervous, she sees Jimmy and grabs both hold of him, but Jimmy pulls Lisa above the water. She watches as Jimmy slowly goes underwater.
Uncle Mick, he is Lisa’s uncle, Mick, killed in a fishing accident some ten years earlier Lisa has influenced by him. Mick supported Lisa’s ways and continued to influence her continuously entire the story. Lisa’s current family did not really obey the traditional ways of Natives. Mick l believes was the person who really developed Lisa’s character into such a strong human. Mick was a very strong person himself, as shown by his participation in the American Indian Movement.
Mick is encourages her to stand up for herself and what she believe in. Lisa refused to read out of a textbook in class because it told horrible lies about heritage. Mick went out and had the teacher’s note laminated and framed. (Page 187)In my opinion, Mick want to increase Lisa’s confident he use tactful way to hug Lisa make her feels more confident and let her understand not just Lisa , let Lisa knows she has a stronger prop.
Mick wanted her to remember her mom is open and clear, happy woman. It was during this trip that they camped near an old fishing village where everyone had died, and Lisa wanted to go see it. She heard laughter in the trees. When she mentions to her Uncle that she doesn’t want to go alone in the darkness because of she can see the ghost, he mentions that her Ba-ba-oo could see ghosts as well.
Mick’s funeral change Lisa life style and make her life be worse, and she is increased drugs and smoking in the rest of the time, she feels sad and be stronger to face the life.
Ma-ma-oo, she is Lisa’s grandmother, Ma-ma-oo helps Lisa understand her family history background and tells her countless, and she is a person she turns Mick dies. Lisa also reveals to her grandmother about the ghost that she can see. Lisa she has created stronger relationship with Ma-ma-oo. In my opinion, Lisa also remembers that Ma-ma-oo would disapprove of the way her son would tell it, as Ma-ma-oo’s version just told of a hunter, getting scared and running.
In the story, Ma-ma-oo teaches her granddaughter how to live alone by herself, for example, how to smoking and incense to communication. The numbness and dissociations and the many types of imagery, emotional, and spiritual level. Ma-ma-oo gives a large of money for Lisa to shows how much love she gives to Lisa.
Lisa’s relationship with her family is also a big part of the book. Her beloved Uncle Mick, a Native rights activist, the kind of uncle who lets out a moose call to attract their attention at a party. Her cantankerous and rather hilarious grandmother Ma-ma-oo who teaches her about the things.
A tale that combines both humor and tragedy, western culture and aboriginal culture, wisdom and foolhardy decisions, Monkey Beach is as beautiful as it is haunting. Told in the perspective of Lisa Michelle Hill, a young Haisla First Nations girl, the story unfolds as a coming-of-age adventure fraught with heartbreak and humor in equal parts. Intertwined throughout the story is the tragedy of her brother’s disappearance and her journey to look for him at Monkey Beach.
This novel captivated me. I couldn’t put it down for long. And though I feel it deserves a five star rating, the interspersed scenes of animal pain and cruelty got to me quite a bit. However, to the novel’s credit, I never felt it was gratuitous. It always served a purpose and furthered the story in some way.
The way the story is written makes the spirituality and supernatural elements feel strangely familiar, like I’ve somehow experienced it myself. Robinson’s writing is fantastic and her ability to weave together truth and fiction into a seamless narrative gave the novel a unique verisimilitude.
