Connections
Part 1:
In the famous novel “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the protagonist takes part in a journey where she familiarizes herself with 4 life lessons. The protagonist, Scout Finch, her father was a lawyer who had recently won a case against a low class alcoholic who accused a black field worker of harassing his daughter Mayella Ewell. Mr. Ewell, the father of Mayella was quite embarrassed. Keeping in mind that this plot was set in the early early 1920s, losing a case to a man of the African-American race would be considered very degrading and dishonourable. Ewell got drunk on Halloween night of the ensuing year and encountered the protagonist and her brother Jim. Scout Finch had lived across the Radley household, which was right next to the schoolyard. The Radley household contained many mysteries, the death of the mother, the constance silence and the lock up of the youngest of the brothers, Boo Radley. Boo Radley was just a man who had gotten into trouble with the law when he was a teenager. So, he stayed inside most of the time. Scout had been told that Boo was a scary and dangerous. So naturally, Scout was scared of him. The night Scout and Jim encountered Ewell was an extremely foggy night. Boo Radley was alarmed by the screaming and the noise produced by the encounter and ended up saving the lives of Scout and Jim, while also taking one in the process. He had sneaked up on Ewell, proceeded to snatch his knife and use it against him. Of course Scout did not due to the fog, but later when she saw Boo talk to her father, she was amazed by his friendly personality. This sprouts a friendship between Scout and Boo. We see a similar setup in Monkey Beach. Lisa, in the beginning, strongly disliked her uncle Mick and was very discourteous to him. She was informed that he wasn’t trustworthy and was a convict. However, Lisa ended up having a very rich and influential relationship with Mick. Therefore, these four characters end up bonding under very similar circumstances.
The novel All Quiet on the Western Front is a novel set in the first World War. The protagonist, Paul, was a high school graduate was a very artistic, charismatic and lovable man. But after serving many years of his youth in the war, he transformed into a grim, depressed and ambitionless man who had lost his identity. Similarly in Monkey Beach, young Lisa was portrayed as an exciting, curious and naive child who was eager for adventure. Yet the adult, 20 year old Lisa was displayed as a lost, depressed, dark and characterless adult who seemed to lack any excitement or enthusiasm to lead a healthy productive life.
Part Two:
Throughout part two Lisa goes through many difficult times, but remains strong throughout all of them. She goes through a hard time, but then bounces back. This shows how resilient teenagers can be. In reality teenagers go through so much sometimes, but most often make it through because they are resilient.
The relationship that Lisa shares with her grandmother is very unique. They are very close and she’s almost like a second mom to Lisa. This portrays the relationship between a grandmother and a granddaughter really well because grandmas are like second moms.
Part Three:
When Jimmy asks Lisa why she even missed ma-ma-oo and Uncle Mick that much, it was apparent that they had two very different opinions on their relatives. This relates to the world, because not every single person in the world has the same views on everythings. There are factors (religion/personal values/beliefs, etc) that come in to affect one’s view on a topic.
Lisa found several sentences that Adelaine had written to Josh. Adelaine and Josh are relatives and it was mentioned that Adelaine had been carrying Josh’s child. This relates to a global issue of women who are being taken advantage of, whether it would be within their family or not. Adelaine even though it was okay to be taken advantage of at one point.
Part Four:
There is a connection with the short story, Knife by Sarah Ellis. The passage from Monkey Beach, “I want to yell for help, but nothing comes out. The seal swims beside me, splashing water in my face” can relate to the story “Knife”. In the story, “Knife”, it is about a boy who reflects about his accident of killing a seal. He is able to reflect on this because a new student came to his class and reminded him about the seal he killed. During the story, he has flashbacks of his accident and tries to move on from it. I believe this can relate with the book because he seal can actually hold a message. A seal has been mentioned a few times in Monkey Beach. Most of the time, it is mentioned she is near water. This could be a spirit of Jimmy watching over her. Also, the stories are similar as both characters are reflecting on their part and are evaluating their lives. They both looked at their mistakes and understood their situation.
The scene where Lisa is connected to the spirit world with her family connects with people’s beliefs. It shows that people can be spiritual in the world and they believe there is an afterlife.
Passages
Part One
The crows are squawking...some of the pieces and flew away.(Page 125)This passage is important because it shows how intelligent crows are and the relationship between Jimmy and the crows. Jimmy provided his favourite crow, Spotty. Spotty could have taken the watch and dropped it from high up and picked up the spare parts. Instead, she dropped it on the road and waited for a car to do the damage for her. In this passage it also talks about Jimmy giving the crows food before a swim meet for luck. This shows that the crows were like pets to Jimmy almost. And even the fact that he named them all portrays their relationship. This passage also goes along with the theme of spiritual awareness. How Jimmy gives the crows food before a swim meet. This portrays First Nations beliefs pretty accurately because First Nations people have a lot of respect for Mother Nature.
A sea otter dives... Drifting hair of a corpse. On page 131, there is a passage describing a otter hunting a sea urchin and killing it. This passage is foreshadowing to near the end of the book where Lisa finally finds out what happened to Jimmy and Josh and how Jimmy was like the otter hunting its prey and Josh was like the sea urchin oblivious to what was about to happen. When Jimmy murdered Josh he tossed him overboard the boat into the water.
Part Two
Namu, Ma-ma-oo explained later...washed up on a nearby beach.(Page 161-162) In this passage Ma-ma-oo tells Lisa about her sister Mimayus who died along time ago. She says that her sister Mimayus who went on a boat travelling to visit the man she loved, but a storm hit and Mimayus was never seen again. This passage portrays a sibling relationship which is one of the themes in the book.
Terrance is larger than the kitimat townsite, and has two malls…” that temper of yours is gonna get you killed one day.” (Page 249-251) This whole scene where Lisa see’s Erica being harassed and butts in to help her is very important to the story because the men use sexual harassment and racism towards the girls. Sexual harassment and racism are two themes in the book and this passage is evidence to support the themes.
Part Three
“Yes, he admits, he did steal the sun and moon… he’s become respectable.” This passage relate to Lisa’s life. As the short story shows that the raven stole the sun and the moon, he did it for an alternate reason, even though he did steal it for himself. This is similar to Lisa because the things she has to seem normal around her friends and because she cared whether her friends thought she was cool or not. The raven admits his doings as it compared with Lisa doing drugs, drinking and smoking. This is a cover up for her emotions and is a way to seem like she is doing fine and doesn’t need help. She does this to push people away. It seems that she doesn't want people to suffer her confusions and is better for people to not notice. From hiding from people, she is truly trying trying to find herself and not be frightened. By doing all these bad things as a way to keep her mind off of the things that are really bothering her. For example, all the death in her life. In this confusion she finds herself and gets back on the right track like how the crow becomes very respectable after his control of pranks.
“You can’t be dead…” If I was hallucinating. This passage on page 301 is important because it shows how unstable she is. She doesn’t know if Tabatha was a ghost or not. This means that her ability to see spirits is not clear and confusing. This shows that her life is out of control and she doesn’t know what she is seeing. Usually, to connect with the spirit world she had to be calm and relaxed. This proves that she is lost in herself and can’t tell if she is in the spirit world or reality. Also, Tab is trying to tell her that her life is a mess and she needs to live her life right.
Part Four
The waves have washed the blood from the oar tip… executing the strokes he’s trained all his life to perfect. (Page 369-370) This passage is important to the story because it finally gives you information about what happened to Jimmy. It finally tells you that Jimmy killed Josh and then tried swimming to shore after. This is important now that she knows what happened to Jimmy. However, Lisa isn’t quite satisfied with this information because she really just wanted to know where Jimmy was instead of what happened.
On page 373-374 there is another passage that is very important to the story; I open my mouth, but nothing comes out… wherever you’re going. This passage is important because she figures out where Jimmy really is. Through her powers, she can connect with those in the spiritual world. In this scene, she is able to interact with ma-ma-oo, Mick and others. It also mentioned right before this passage that she sees him with a faint, pale, white/green glow, before he was swallowed by the waves. Catching sight of Jimmy with her dead relatives once again confirms that he is dead.
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