Analysis Of Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach

Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach is set in the small, coastal village of Kitamaat, on the coast of British Columbia, home to the province’s Haisla community. The story is about a

Haisla family living in a North American society. The main perspective of the novel is told through Lisamarie Hill. The Early in the novel readers soon discover that Lisamarie has a connection with the spirt would, allowing her to reconnect with her First Nation heritage. Due to her modern-day lifestyle she understands that the North American culture considers the supernatural world to not be factual and it is not believed in. Due to the confliction between the two, Lisamarie is constantly struggling between her First Nation culture and the North American culture. With

Throughout the novel Lisamarie is torn between her first nations culture and the north

American culture making it difficult for her to trust what her visions were telling her. However, through the course of the novel Lisamarie’s connection to the spirt world strengthens. For example, when Uncle Mick died she “chopped the rest of …" (175) her hair off. Which allows her to observe to Haisla mourning rituals. The night that night ma-ma- oo died she could not help but think she could have prevented her death by acknowledging the warning of the spirts: If I had listened to my gift instead of ignoring it, I could have saved her.” (294). This is the first time she acknowledges the consequences of disregarding her gift. Lisamarie made a cut on her left hand raising her “hand up to the trees ... offering this to the things in the trees” (366). By giving her blood to the tree spirits, in hopes they would show her what happened to Jimmy. Instantly after she is in between the real world and in the land of the dead. In between the worlds she is able to see uncle mick and ma-ma- oo but also, she is able to feel and hear things in her surroundings on

Monkey Beach.

Throughout the novel Eden Robinson shows the longing effect that the Haisla