Monkey Beach
Monkey Beach is a compelling novel authored by Eden Robinson. The book is one of the adults’ fictional novels, with enthusiasm, vigor, and breath taking. Eden Robinson is a native author from the North America. The Author used his creative, poetic and writing styles to question the barbaric traditions in Canada that have so far saw many Aboriginals lose their basic, fundamental rights. The novel uses fictional human characters, and imaginary scenes to question the beliefs, acts, and traditions that many of the inhabitants consider ordinarily. Therefore, this paper seeks to analyze the behavior of the characters, themes, and contribution of this novel and its impact on the first nation (Robinson, 2011).
The setting of the Novel
Robinson chose North America as the place for the novel, specifically, Haisla Land, to build on various themes present in the first nation. This novel sought to attack various social injustices perpetrated against the Aboriginals by the Whites and attack some of the traditions in the Island. Of course, various reasons support the choice of the place. Firstly, the author aimed to criticize the misleading traditions among Aboriginals that discriminated against members of female gender. For instance, the Aboriginals’ traditions discriminate against women as evidenced by the role they play in society. The aboriginal community requires girls to care for their brothers acting in a role as a surrogate parent and often requires them to miss school to attend to some family matters. However, the author attacks these believes and traditions in the novel as shown by the role given to the female members. The novel’s main character is a female, by the name Lisa Hill. Robinson portrays Lisa as a rebellious character and uses Lisa’s smoking to show off one of her rebellious traits. Smoking is not considered to be within the traditional realms and norms of Aboriginals. The author depicts Lisa as an independent Female in quest of finding her lost brother. In the Aboriginal culture, women are looked on as a lower class and generally do not play any critical roles to play in the community. Conversely, Robinson portrays Lisa hill as a domineering character in the novel to ridicule the societal beliefs. In addition, Lisa is an extra-ordinary character, who goes beyond the physical realm and acts in a spiritual form in a bid to rescue her lost brother, Jimmy (Robinson, 2011).
Themes in the Novel
The Theme of Extended Families
The novel captures different time horizons to depict various themes of interest. Robinson addresses the theme of the extended family among the Aboriginals. The Aboriginals traditions value extended families unlike the non-Aboriginals, who values nuclear families. Robinson depicts these traditions in many instances. One of the scenarios, where the author depicts the cultural preservation of the extended family is when he brings to the attention of the readers the departed members of Lisa’s family. The novel did mention about the departed grandparents of Lisa, to point out the inherent discrimination against women in the Aboriginals’ culture. For instance, Lisa’s grandfather commits cruel acts against his wife. This instance proves the inherent negative acts perpetrates against women in community. Therefore, the novel brings the different time contemporaries to highlight the negative traditions that continue to undermine the womenfolk among the first nation (Robinson, 2011).
The Theme of Racism
Racism occupies a central position in the novel too. The author develops this theme in various instances to highlight the injustices perpetrated against the people of first nation in North America. The first instance where the theme of racism is evident is when the state fails to compensate Lisa’s grandfather, who sustained injuries in the service of defending the nation against enemies. This is in contrast to his white colleagues who benefit from full compensation due to the injuries inflicted on them during the war. Subsequently, the author manages to bring the contrast in the way the government treated civilians. The state favored the Whites over the Aboriginals. Thus, it is evident that racism is a common practice in Canada. Another instance in the novel that portrays an element of racism is the way the Whites treated the Black women. In the novel, there are cases where the Whites sexually abused Black women, which further confirms the discriminatory acts by Whites against the Aboriginal (Robinson, 2011).
The Theme of Discrimination
A further analysis of this novel provides facts about the Whites’ continued discrimination of Blacks in Canada. The novel also provides a rich analysis of the traditional believes and cultural practices of the first people of the North America Land. The author depicts the traditions of the Aboriginals, which contrast those of civilized economies. For instance, the main characters in the novel do not engage in modern professions. Thus, the author highlights how Aboriginals have lagged behind Whites in terms of development. In the novel, the element of the prejudice has received significant attention. In many instances, the action and behavior of non-Aboriginals seems to despise the cultural practices of the first nation in North America. It is evident that the Whites from Canada considers the Non-Whites as uncivilized and disregard them in all levels of governance. This is the scenario in education, job opportunities, and social arena where rivalry is so evident between the Aboriginals and Non-Aboriginals. Therefore, Monkey Beach, as the name suggests, highlights the prejudices against the first nation by the Whites (Robinson, 2011).
Challenges and Opportunities of Aboriginals
Regarding the challenges and opportunities facing the Aboriginals characters in the book, this novel ascertains pertinent issues of hindrance to the enhancement of the Aboriginal’s welfare. Firstly, Aboriginals lag behind in development due to adoption of anti-development traditions. For instance, these people still value extended families. As a result, individuals support one another and cultivate the culture of tolerance and supportiveness. Individuals are assured of getting assistance from their relatives in a form of “Aboriginal welfare” when times are difficult. This financial safety net discourages individuals from motivating themselves to work towards independent financial freedom. Second, Aboriginal culture vests responsibilities to the elder siblings to look after their younger siblings. For example, Lisa works tirelessly to look for her younger brother, Jimmy, who disappeared when he went fishing. Her efforts confirm the responsibilities that an elder sibling has towards her younger brother in Aboriginals traditions. This may be a significant source of hindrance to girl-child education, especially when an individual is forced to forego his studies to attend the younger children. Finally, the persistence of traditional observance by the elders forced the younger generation to learn their culture; thus upholding it. However, some of these cultural practices are worthless in achieving development in the country. Observance of these cultures has negatively affected the education standards in some instances (Government of Alberta, 2012).
Conclusion
In conclusion, many of the Aboriginal authors have written their books to demystify beliefs among the Aboriginals. No doubt, Robinson, in his book, Monkey Beach, sought to attack some traditions that have a negative impact on the lives of Aboriginals. Therefore, the author managed to bring out the white’s injustices towards the Blacks. Consequently, the author relied on three major themes: the theme of discrimination, the theme of extended family, and the theme of racism. In the novel, Robinson uses his excellent poetic and literary styles to create an irony in the presentation of these themes to the readers. Consequently, the book requires close examination of content to understand the underlined meaning. The sarcasm in the book makes the book interesting for reading. No doubt, this book is a must read because it has deliberated on various social injustices perpetrated against the aboriginals.
References
Government of Alberta. (2012). Our Words, Our Ways: Teaching First Nations, Métis and Inuit
Learners. Retrieved Oct 26, 2012, from Education: http://www.education.gov.ab.ca/k_12/curriculum/OurWords.asp
Robinson, E. (2011). Monkey Beach. Canada: Knopf Canada.
