User:Edenrfan

Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson, published by Vintage Canada, 2000. Four close readings of one scene from the novel.

SPOILER ALERT! Details about the novel's plot and ending are revealed here.

1. The scene with the photograph, depicted on page 365 of Monkey Beach, is significant in that it is symbolic of the cyclical nature of generational abuse. The photo, as in this situation, remains essentially the same, while the characters names become interchangeable: “Josh’s head was pasted over a priest’s head and Karaoke’s was pasted over a little boy’s” (365). In finding this “old photograph and folded up card” (365), Lisa now understands the full implications of what has happened, and what is happening. She is now able to reconcile Karaoke’s recent violent behaviour, when “[she] pulled her fist back and smashed it into the nearest girl’s face” (364), with her brother’s perplexing decision to go fishing with Josh. The ironic revelation is that the ramifications of the abuses inflicted upon those who attended the residential schools are far reaching, not limited only to the attendees of those schools.

2. The photograph and birth note that Lisa finds in Jimmy’s pocket is both critical for the plot as well as symbolic of the continuing abusive pattern that residential schools have created in some Aboriginal communities. The black-and-white picture depicts a priest standing beside a little boy, except someone has altered the image and pasted Josh’s face over the priest’s face and Karaoke’s over the little boy’s. Along with the birth note that reads “Dear, dear Joshua. It was yours so I killed it” (Robinson 365), we can infer that Josh has, at some point, sexually abused Karaoke. This explains why Karaoke had left to Vancouver earlier in the novel, as well as sheds light on Jimmy’s abrupt decision to work with Josh on a fishing boat. Jimmy had recently fallen in love with Karaoke and is most likely seeking an opportunity to take his revenge. Since Jimmy is an excellent swimmer, being alone with Josh out at sea would be a great opportunity to kill Josh and escape to shore. On a symbolic level, the photograph finally confirms our suspicions that “Josh isn’t right” (58) and is abusing children in the community. Like Aunt Trudy, Josh is passing on the abuse that he was forced to endure at residential to the next generation.

3. When Lisa finds the photograph in Jimmy's brown leather jacket, it is a perfect representation of Eden Robinson's continuing theme throughout the novel of exposing tragic elements of the character's lives and leavening them with humour. By discovering the photograph, Lisa has exposed a sick, abusive side of Josh that has been kept quiet by the community. Robinson presents this extremely serious subject in a somewhat comedic way in the form of a 'cut-and-paste' card. Karaoke even states that "it was meant to be a joke, [and] Jimmy was never supposed to find it" (365). Child abuse is never a joke, yet Robinson has taken a frightening case of hidden child abuse and exposed it in a way which is not so abrasive.

4. The photograph scene in the Eden Robinson's novel is a poignant illustration of how the innocent are destroyed by the selfish actions of one man. Josh was destroyed by the priest, as any postitive potential that existed in him was killed by the poison of abuse. Josh became the monster and passed the disease on to his niece, Karaoke. Karaoke, in her turn, embarked on a road of self-destruction and ultimately chose to end the life of the child that resulted from her abuse. Now Karaoke must live with the pain of abuse, self loathing and the death of her child. The child paid the ultimate price in this circle; he paid with his life.