Can you repair a broken heart? January 22, 2010

                                                                

After reading this novel, I personally do not feel as if the characters really repaired any of the harm going on in the story. It seemed as if it was death after death and nothing was really getting resolved or fixed. There is so much damage and hurt done to the characters that nothing anyone could do or say could repair what they were feeling. Aunt Trudy leaving and moving to Vancouver, I believe was a good idea. She was having a hard time coping with her brothers death, and she had to leave behind what was haunting her everyday.I believe that the only true ‘repair’ in this novel is that Lisa finally finds out the mystery of her brothers disappearance. Lisa knows that her dear brother is dead and gone, though this is not what she wanted to find out, her just knowing that he was actually gone would help her later to move forward in her life with no questions or suspicions that her brother may still be alive.

Overall I believe this book was filled with so much damage, the majority of it could not be repaired.
– Rach

Coping

I think that most or maybe even all of the characters are coping terribly wrong with their problems. Alcohol and drug abuse is one of the main sources that the characters in this novel decide to ‘cope’ with their problems. Throughout the book Lisa goes through a ton of tragedy, and has to cope with more problems than anyone should have to go through at her age. After Uncle Micks death, her Grandmother (Ma-ma-oo) passing away, and her brother going missing, Lisa slowly looses her way in life, and turns to drinking, partying and doing drugs to try to take away the pain. Lisa is also a smoker, and tries to keep this from her parents, but eventually fails. After her brother goes missing, Lisa experiences two weird things I thought stood out to me the most. One being, that she sees a little red headed man sitting on her dresser, sometimes before she goes to bed. Lisa believes that when this man visits her that something bad is sure to happen. The second being, a word that Lisa is constantly reminded of and a word that she keeps hearing when she is conscious, sleeping, sober, and high. This word is La’es, which means ‘go down to the bottom of the ocean’. No matter how drunk or high she is, the pain never leaves her and gets worse everyday. Eventually Lisa changes her looks, cuts her hair off, and starts to hang out with Frank and his friends, the ‘bullies’ from school. When all of this changes, she drops out of school, moves to Vancouver where the partying starts. She slowly gives up hope that her brother will return home safe, and looses faith in herself and her life. What Lisa does not understand is that no matter how hard things are for you, there is always someone going through something worse, and she should never give up on herself, and someone who means so much to her.

After a childhood in a residential school, Aunt Trudy is left with the horrific memories of the abuse that was done to herself and Uncle Mick. To cope with these problems, Trudy tries to drink away her problems and becomes very physical towards the ones she loves. Along with the incident with Josh and the beer bottle, and pushing him down the stairs, Aunt Trudy says some very awful things to her daughter Tabitha as well. There is a time in the novel when Aunt Trudy says some stabbing words to her daughter when she is drunk in front of Lisa. Though Tab says nothing, and walks away subtlety, Lisa opens her mouth and calls her aunt a drunk, and points out that she should not be talking to her daughter that way. After arguing, Lisa comes over in the morning to find that Aunt Trudy has no memory of anything said the night before. She gets so drunk that she wakes up forgetting the night before.

Lastly, we have Uncle Mick. Staying in the same residential school as Trudy, Mick went through some very tough times as a child. Though he is scarred, he does a very good job at hiding it and bottles all of his feelings up inside. Though he has had a few rough times coping with himself, he has tried his best to move on with his life, and to forget about what was done to him.

 

Breaking Reactions

There were many characters who went through the injustice in the book together, but each character reacted to them in different ways.
Aunt Trudy and Uncle Mick were put in the same residential school together and were treated terribly with each other close by. I think that the fact that they had to go through such a horrible experience together, it would have built up a closer friendship between them, and it could have helped them stay alive and get through everything. Though they went through this together, Aunt Trudy and Uncle Mick have reacted differently towards life after this experience. Aunt Trudy is an alcoholic and smokes heavily to help cope with the memories that haunt her everyday. She has done many crazy things to people such as hitting Josh, her boyfriend, in the head with a beer bottle. After Uncle Mick’s death, Aunt Trudy and Josh fight about the possessions he has left behind. This fighting leads to Aunt Trudy throwing Josh down the stairs and breaking his leg. After Aunt Trudy finally gets her mind together and realizes what she has done, she picks up the phone and calls 911. She eventually leaves with Tab and moves to Vancouver.
Though Lisa and her immediate family were fortunate enough to not have to go to residential schools, they still have the stress of helping out, listening to, and dealing with the issues or problems Aunt Trudy and Uncle Mick are left with during the coping process. Lisa has a hard time coping with her surroundings and the life around her, and drops out of school. She moves to Vancouver and this is when the partying begins, along with drinking and boys. She goes about everything the wrong way, and makes her problems worse along the way.
– Rach 😛

Injustice January 13, 2010

                                                     

In the novel ‘ Monkey Beach’ written by Eden Robinson injustice is spread throughout the novel showing how the First Nations people were being treated in Canada. Native American adults are being sent to live on reserves, while the children are being sent to residential schools. The government has quoted “We are killing the indian in the child”, and by doing this they force them to believe in the ‘white man’ beliefs. If they did not believe in this, and failed to follow the rules, they were sexually abused, did not get fed, tied up and abused, and were not able to get clean. The natives had to sleep in one big room, this room would be full of 50-60 children at once. In this book, Lisa’s aunt Trudy is  sexually abused after she tells the white people she does not believe in the beliefs that they believe in. Lisa’s immediate family is fortunate enough to be together, and to not have to of gone to the residential schools. Because they did not have to go through the horrors of what other natives had to go through, Lisa and her family have a normal amount of food and money, and are living much better then most first nation families. Though Lisa’s immediate family did not get sent to residential schools, her aunts and uncles were unfortunate to have had to go to these schools. Because of the horrible experience at the schools, Lisa’s aunt, uncles and cousins are very messed up and are suffering terrible from emotional pain. Her aunt has nightmares, and flashbacks that unfortunately remind her of some of the things that were done to her at the school. Some of the things that she has done was to,  throw tantrums and cry, scream and throw things because of this, her children have followed in her footprints and are messed up too.

– Rachel Rainbird 🙂