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The Importance Of Names In Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach

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"Words have meaning and names have power," as stated by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. Words, who was often called "The Great Dissenter". In the novel Monkey Beach, the author Eden Robinson tells readers a story about the Indigenous girl Lisamarie, the main character living in Haisla, who is trying to find her younger brother Jimmy. Eden Robinson creates a complex, fragmented timeline by adding flashbacks from Lisamarie’s memories to shape her and the people around her. Interestingly, in this novel, names are not only codes or titles for places, people, or supernatural creatures but also have a power inside the letters that is able to showcase culture and identities, create the connection with death, and determine Lisamarie’s life path. Firstly, …show more content…

Lisamarie reveals in Monkey Beach that the actual word for Haisla in their language is "Xa'islak'ala" (P. 193), indicating that if a person is shaped by Haisla culture, he will …show more content…

In Monkey Beach, Lisamarie’s full name is Lisamarie Michelle, which is named after Mick, and Mick was excited and "reached to shake [Lisamarie’s] hand" (P. 24) when he found out what her full name was. Due to the name, Uncle Mick appears willing to take care of Lisamarie and pay more attention to her than Jimmy. Therefore, Uncle Mick and Lisamarie have more time to spend together without Jimmy, especially when Jimmy gets older and develops an interest in swimming. Thus, Uncle Mick’s radical view of life and his audacious attitude in dealing with problems have a chance to deeply affect Lisamarie and gradually shape her characteristics. Lisamarie has the nickname that her family members give her, "little Mick" (P. 253), and gets the spiritual legacy of fortitude from Uncle Mick. She acts like Mick never steps back in a quarrel when she gets in trouble with three young white guys. Even though Lisamarie never notices that she is more like Uncle Mick the older she gets, her friends and family members do, to a point where even her father starts to think that "[he] should have never named [Lisamarie] after Mick" (P. 252). Therefore, Lisamarie’s name provides her with an opportunity to pass on Uncle Mick’s spiritual legacy and indirectly catches his interest and attention. Consequently, seeing the impact Lisamarie had made, Eden Robinson shows that a name has the hidden power to develop and influence someone’s

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