What is the issue of injustice in your novel? January 13, 2010

 

The issue of injustice in “Monkey Beach” by Eden Robinson is trying to cope with the after math of having to live through a Canadian residential school. Surviving afterwards is tough. There were many rules and loads of punishments: physical abuse, sexual abuse leading to alcohol and drug consumption.

In “Monkey Beach” Lisa and Jimmy’s Aunt Trudy was taken from her parents to attend a Canadian residential school. She was raped and beaten and yelled at. She started to drink heavily, in my guess to forget.

In the Canadian residential schools young native children were forced to drop their religion, change their appearance and learn the ways of the white man. If any children showed proof of still knowing their religion or broke any rules the punishments were very harsh.

In the years after the Natives of the residential school either moved on in life (like expected) resorted to drug and/or alcohol use to forget, or committed the worst thing possible, suicide.

The struggles that Canadian Natives have lived through are still going on today and Eden Robinson has told through her characters in “Monkey Beach” some of the experiences the Natives had to go through as children in Canadian residential schools.

-Brittany

issue of injustice

                                                                          

The mistreatment of the First Nations People is the issue of injustice in Eden Robinson’s, “Monkey Beach.” The government would send natives to Residential schools trying to force upon them different beliefs and religion.  They were beaten brutally as they wanted them to speak english, and beleive in the ‘white man’s’ god. In these schools they were treated unfairly and were assaulted in many ways unimaginable. Lisa’s Aunt Trudy is an example of this mistreatment. She is severely ‘messed up’ from her experience at a residential school, and it has changed her for the worst. While forced to live at these schools Aunt Trudy underwent unbeleiveable torture. Physical and verbal assault, aswell as  sexual abuse are just a few of the challenges she faced. These memories still haunt her, and she is now an alcoholic. This abuse, not only effected Aunt Trudy, but now effects her entire family and everyone around her. She is drunk 95% of the time in the book which leads her to have minimal control of her actions daily and has become very violent. Both Aunt Trudy  and Uncle Mick underwent this torture and they have both just held their emotions inside them. The effects of this injustice are very impactful and are extreme long term. The challenges faced at these schools  haunted them up until their late adulthood and never stopped.

Injustice

                                                     

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 🙂

What is the issue of injustice in Monkey Beach?

Was there an issue of injustice?

 

 

     The novel Monkey Beach written by Eden Robinson has many points of injustice throughout the book itself.  It talks about the abuse that family member of Lisa and Jimmy went through in the Canadian  Residential School System. This was where people from the First Nations were sent to a school and were forced to speak english. They were also abused for doing things that were “not” appropriate.  Aunt Trudy talks about how she herself  endured physical and sexual abuse. She went through this sort of treatment because she was a First Nations child and was forced to speak english and believe in the ways of the “white” mans god and beleifs that differ from  her own.  Canadians said “ we are killing the indian in the child”, this was one of the harshest statements ever spoken about the residental schools. 150 000 children were sent away from their homes until the year of 1973. Lisa  after getting involved with drugs and alcohol begins to learn such things it horrifies her even more into the drugs and alcohol she discovers to “help” her with the fact that her brother Jimmy has gone missing.  The Canadian government should be apologizing more then what they are, money is just a symbol to the fact that they went through so much pain and suffering they have went through over the 73 years the residential schools were in place.

     First Nations residents have since gone to court and fought to have their emotional and phsyical pain they went through over the years. They are getting paid for going to the school when they did and for aslong as they did, but that still doesn’t make up for the pain their families have gone through now. ” In 2007, two years after it was first announced, the federal government formalized a $1.9-billion compensation package for those who were forced to attend residential schools. ” CBC News.  The money they give doesn’t really matter because they have already went through all the stuff they went through.  Some families are even worse off then the government thinks but they don’t seem to care. Lisa and her immediate family are a family that is well off and don’t have much to worry about, but as for Aunt Trudy and her Uncle, the story is much different and they struggle becuase of it.

Taylor Whyte : )

Love Like The Ocean

 

The novel Monkey Beach written by Eden Robinson has one point of view, as a native girl, Lisamarie, living on a reserve tells her story of growing up, beling classified as ‘different’. While living here, she experiences many changes and is struggling to find her social ground. As she searches for her inner self, she  deals with drugs, alcohol and is forced to cope with family deaths. 

 

The injustice of Monkey Beach can be described as unfairness to the native peoples. The way their government has handled their presence has resulted in displeasing actions. The younger population of Kitamaat, was harshly against the regulations they were forced to oblige. Many of which, turned to alcohol, cigarettes and drugs to help them deal with these issues.

 

 One of the regulations they had to respect, was going to a school on the reserve, where they were taught to worship only one God, the catholic God. Here, they were also forced to speak only english and forget about their culture.

 

At one point in the book, Lisa’s Ma-ma-oo (grandmother) is discussing her husband’s experience when he returned from the second world war. He had lost an arm during the war and it was impossible for him to find work in his condition. He also couldn’t get his money from Veterans Affairs because Indian Affairs were supposed to take care of him. Indian Affairs said that if he wanted the same benefits as a white vet, he should move off of reserve and throw away his status. He would recieve the payments, but if he chose to do so, he would loose their house, and at the time they were expecting their 4th child.

 

The injustice to the native poeples was hard on everyone living on the reserve. The amount of partying the youth was interested in, was enormously high. Meaning more drugs and alcohol was injested, causing their better judgment to lessen. Suicidal actions where also a result of the injustice.

 

It would have been easier if the goverment had treated everyone as equal and had given them equal rights to do as they please and raise their children the way they would have liked to. No one would have been dissapointed, hurt or have felt bellow everyone else.

-Kaprise