Monkey Beach Sparknotes

Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson stands out as an exceptional piece of fiction, which provides readers with a closer look at the Haisla people, raises awareness on the victims of residential schools, educates those who are uneducated on the concept of indigenous culture, promotes empathy and even highlights the importance of preserving cultural knowledge. This is such a dramatic, passionate story that any literate Canadian would benefit from reading. These aspects make Monkey Beach an important novel with which Canadians can familiarize themselves to create a society that is educated on the backgrounds of all types of cultures. Firstly, Monkey Beach provides a cultural tour that will be very important to many Canadians since they may not be conversant

This understanding is useful to facilitate other views, especially in Canada, to enhance the appreciation of the Indigenous people’s contributions to the nation. Secondly, the novel raises issues that are very sensitive and are of social relevance today, namely the consequences of operations of the institutions of residential schools and racism. Through the portrayal of the Indigenous peoples’ suffering and using intergenerational trauma as a narrative tool, Monkey Beach provides the audience with the painful message about Canadian indigenous policy. The character of Uncle Mick, who is haunted by his experiences in a residential school, exemplifies the deep scars left by these institutions: “Uncle Mick had been sent to residential school at the age of five, and he never really talked about what happened there, but sometimes he would wake up screaming in the middle of the night” (Robinson 112). Being exposed to such incidents may make a Canadian more knowledgeable, or sometimes even sensitive, about the issues that indigenous people faced in the past and are facing in the present to be able to accept to be reconciled with

Lisa recalls the words of her grandmother: “Ma-ma-oo would tell me stories about the old days, about how the world was created and the adventures of the trickster Raven. She wanted me to know where I came from” (Robinson, 57). In light of this, it remains the noble and vested responsibility of the generation to educate the successive generation on such topics in order to foster a more informed as well as more compassionate society. In addition, the novel talks about the aspects of social inclusion because the reader gets an insight to the life of the characters, namely Lisa and her community. Readers are introduced into the dark reality of Lisa’s life because of Robinson’s descriptive writing; the loss of her brother Jimmy to his mysterious disappearance to supernatural encounters that will leave the audience challenged between reality and fantasy rooted in indigenous spirituality. Lisa describes a haunting moment: “I watched as Jimmy’s ghost drifted through the house, his face pale and