Part 1:

As the story begins, it is told through the perspective of Lisa Hill. One day, they had received a phone call from a coast guard that changed the lives of Lisa and her family. Jimmy, Lisa’s brother is lost at sea without a trace of his boat or his fellow employee, Josh, under mysterious circumstances. The household is tense with thoughts of Jimmy’s disappearance. Lisa’s parents, Gladys and Albert, then depart for a flight to Namu, where it is believed Jimmy had disappeared, to aid in the search. Meanwhile, Lisa stays at home in the care of her Aunt Edith.

With the thoughts of Jimmy’s disappearance fresh in her mind, Lisa experiences many flashbacks in regards to Jimmy and her childhood. As the days past, her present life is intertwined with these flashbacks, as she reflects on how these memories lead to her life now. Many of her flashbacks also included Mick, most of which were rather joyful. In some of her flashbacks, she is reminded of people and things she had seen, but nobody else had. Memories of a red-haired man, tiny hairy man, and a father and son waving at her. All of these memories gave her a feeling of uncertainty, these memories felt like dreams connecting her to another world. The day Jimmy had disappeared, Lisa had had an uneasy feeling throughout the day, she also had a blurry dream about Jimmy being at Monkey Beach.

She had a dreamy day, but to brighten things up she receives a call from her parents in regards to discovering a life boat off the shore. With the hopes of Jimmy being alive, Lisa borrows her father’s motorboat and sets off on a long journey to reunite with her parents, and possibly Jimmy.

Part 2:

Lisa talks about Uncle Mick’s funeral in one of her flashbacks. It’s mentioned that Lisa came across one of Mick’s old friends, Barry. After the service, Lisa and her family and friends arrive at Ma-ma-oo’s house. When Lisa joins Barry for a smoke, he goes on to tell Lisa what he knows about Mick’s life. Shortly after, Tab informs Lisa that she and her mother, Aunt Trudy, will be moving to Vancouver. While Lisa is hanging out with ma-ma-oo, tree spirits are mentioned and a description of a chief tree spirit is given. Realizing that the little man she sees matches the description of a chief tree spirit, she casually asks what seeing a chief tree spirit would represent. She ends up telling ma-ma-oo about how she’s capable of seeing spirits and Lisa finds out that her mother possesses the same ability but instead, chooses to ignore it. Lisa begins falling into depression as she returns back to school while she continues to mourn the loss of her uncle. To make things worse, Frank (a boy she had previously fought with) had been expelled from his previous school and had transferred to Lisa’s, making Lisa his victim.

After her friendship with Erica broke apart, Erica and her friends started to bully Lisa, which only added to Lisa’s depression. Lisa begins hanging out with Frank and the boys after a new friendship is built between Frank and Lisa because she had started a fight with one of Erica’s friends, Big Lou. The relationship between Jimmy and Lisa continues to worsen. Lisa runs into Tab on her way home when Tab had hitchhiked back to Kitamaat but she is quickly sent back to Vancouver with Josh. Tab reacts rather strangely about being in a car with Josh, considering how she declared that she’d rather hitchhike back then get driven by Josh. Jimmy receives protection from Lisa and her friends after a sign is sent to her in regards to Jimmy being harmed, and shortly after, Alexis (Lisa’s cat) is discovered missing, so Lisa attempts to find her in various ways. She even attempts to use a ouija board, but had no luck with it. The ouija board perhaps hinted at something Josh had done that relates to a bed, when it spelled out Josh and bed.

On Valentine’s day, Lisa receives an anonymous card and she figures out that it was from Frank. She chooses to simply pretend she never got it and decides to not take action and confront Frank. Ma-ma-oo nearly dies from a heart attack after Lisa had been visited by the little red haired man and Jimmy continues to excel in his swimming. Months of smoking later, Lisa’s mom finally busts her and forces her to quit. One day when Cheese and Lisa are hanging out, he asks Lisa out and claims that he knows she likes Frank and that apparently this can make Frank feel jealous. Lisa politely declines although Cheese was being extremely persistent. During a party that Lisa attends, Cheese drugs her drink and sexually assaults her after apologizing for past events. She blames the little man for not warning her and she is later offered help by the tree spirits to hurt Cheese, but she rejects their help. When Cheese informs Frank that he had sexual intercourse with Lisa, Frank visits Lisa for the sake of confirming what he had heard. Lisa claims that it had never happened and Frank then dismisses it. Lisa’s parents decide to bring her into the hospital for some tests when she begins to sleepwalk and had almost gotten hit by Aunt Kate’s car. After no problems could be found, Lisa began having visits with a shrink. One day at school, Lisa is called down to the office and her mother is there to pick her up, because ma-ma-oo had had a stroke. When ma-ma-oo returns home from the hospital, she begins seeing ghosts of her dead family members. Shortly after ma-ma-oo talks about death, Lisa receives another sign warning her that someone is about to die, but she chooses to ignore it. Only to find out that ma-ma-oo had died in a fire, leaving her over two hundred thousand dollars. In the present day, Lisa finally arrives at Monkey Beach.

Part 3:

Lisa goes to Monkey Beach and thinks back to when she and Jimmy were there together and back when she partied a lot. She has a flashback to when Tab had been caring for her during another one of her hangovers. When Tab states that she’s dead, Lisa goes in search for confirmation from Aunt Trudy, only to be comforted when Trudy says she had just been on the phone with Tab two days ago. Lisa is startled that Trudy will finally be going into rehab, but first she will be throwing one final, crazy party. At this party, Lisa encounters Frank and Josh, but is puzzled as to why Frank had been so cold towards Josh. Frank offers Lisa a ride home and is informed that Pooch had shot himself. Frank then offers to drive Lisa up to Kitamaat for Pooch’s funeral and she accepts. On the drive there, Adelaine tries to say something about why Pooch had killed himself, but is abruptly stopped.

Lisa, Frank and Adelaine are invited to a party. At the party, Lisa runs into her little brother, Jimmy. She is surprised when Jimmy explains to her that he had quit swimming due to an injury. Jimmy manages to convince Lisa to return home and visit her parents. Her mother persuades Lisa to stay and Lisa even decides to return to school. Karaoke’s birthday was coming up, Lisa and Jimmy had both been invited. While Karaoke is intoxicated, she comments on Josh and states that she would like to kick his ass someday. After the party, Jimmy and Karaoke are found missing. They are later discovered together by Lisa and that is when their relationship sprouted. Karaoke is invited over for dinner and it seems as though she is feeling slightly uncomfortable. Meanwhile, in present time, the spirits offer to help Lisa if she offers them “meat”. Shortly after this dinner, Karaoke departs, leaving Jimmy with many questions and a broken heart.

Lisa flashes back to when she had brought Jimmy to Monkey Beach to “recover” from the pain Adelaine had caused, only to leave them stranded.

Part 4:

In this section of the book, Lisa truly discovers and understands her spiritual powers as she is able to contact the Land of the Dead and her dead relatives. She is provided with implicit information regarding her power and its fatality that could result from lack of control. Throughout her journey to reunite with her parents, she is encountered by many of her past relatives and even makes an expedition to the Land of the Dead.  Following the discovery of her powers, she is casted back to reality and she realizes that her powers have always been connected to Monkey Beach.

Spiritual awareness

Spiritual Awareness is almost wholly the gift that Lisa has harnessed. Throughout the novel, Lisa has connected to the spirit world, whether it would be the little man that had appeared, the voices in the forest, the seals, the crows etc. It is no secret that Lisa can easily communicate with spirits, especially her past relatives and ancestors.

Grief

Lisa has endeavored into a journey of grief. In her case, when compared to the average human being raised in a western society, it can be considered as overwhelming. Her involvement in the deaths of many of her mentors, if not her most loved ones certainly spark a lot of grief and the pain of loss.

Sexual assault:

This is an ongoing theme throughout the story. Josh was sexually assaulted by a priest by a priest at a residential school. Josh then goes on to assault Adeline. The protagonist, Lisa is also a victim to sexual assault as well as many of her peers.

Sibling relationships:

Lisa always competed to accomplish as much as Jimmy. Jimmy was a competitive swimmer, and Lisa had a hard time keeping up with that. But she always had loved him, and a natural sibling relationship has been portrayed well by the author, even with the settings of the story.

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.

Part 1:

• So far, Lisa has experienced a lot of life and death in this novel, whether it be the chickens in her backyard or her Uncle Mick. How do you think this affects her character? Is the effect positive or negative? Explain.

• What do you think the meaning of her flashbacks relate to Jimmy’s disappearance?

• What do the think the theme of this story is so far?

• What do you think of Lisa seeing strange things  in her memories? For example, the red-haired man, tiny hairy man, and a father and son waving at her. Does this foreshadow anything after she saw the little men?

• How did the people around Lisa influence her? Does the influence show in her character?

Part 2:

• During Lisa’s childhood, she had many different friends. How did her friends influence her? How did being friends with Tab, Erica and Frank do?

• How and why does Mick’s death affect Lisa?

• When Lisa told Ma-ma-oo about her ability to see spirits, what do think Ma-ma-oo would react later on and how is it going to affect Lisa’s future?

• Tab came to visit Kitamaat, yet she hitchhiked all the way there. Later, Josh offers a ride back to Vancouver but Tab said she would rather hitchhike back. Why do you think Tab got a ride from Josh then actually finding an alternative route back, such as, hitchhiking? And what do you think Lisa thought it was odd?

• After Ma-ma-oo returned from the hospital, Lisa started seeing spirits and there was a signal that there was going to be another death. Although the spirits tried to warn her, Lisa ignored the message. Why do you think she ignored the warning? Did any past event influence her decision?

Part 3:

• Do you think Trudy is dead? If Trudy isn’t dead, why do you think she had a dream about her? Why is this significant if she is alive or not?

• Lisa and Jimmy are stranded on Monkey. What do you think will happen during their time there? Will this foreshadow anything and is it beneficial to anyone?

• Reflect on Lisa’s personality during her childhood to the present. How does the death of Uncle Mick change and affect her personality and behaviour?

• How is the death going to affect Lisa relating to her confusion and curiosity of her seeing spirits? Is this going to affect her behaviour to the family?

• Why do you think Lisa wants to learn how to contact the spirit world?

Part 4:

• During the book, Lisa encountered many deaths in her life. Do you think her gift foreshadowed any events and aid her to prevent them?

• Do you think Lisa will use her supernatural power in the future? If you do, why do you think she wants to use it? Is it a way to find closure by seeing her dead relatives?

• What do you think the main message of the story with main ideas of death, grief, social societies?

• Do the lessons Lisa learnt about contacting the spirit world is relevant to the experience of contacting Ma-ma-oo and Uncle Mick?

• Base on the experiences of Lisa’s life, do you think she handled them well? Do you think she is a strong person? Why or why not?