Monkey Beach Essay Example

Among the many books and films we have read and watched, I enjoyed Monkey Beach by Eden Robinson and Flight by Sherman Alexie the most. Both protagonists’ go through struggles while making decisions that will affect their own lives permanently. Zits, the main character of Flight, had a lonely and sad life, similar to Lisa from Monkey Beach. I believe that these two characters are similar through more than just misfortunes, but on a physical and a mental level as well. Both characters go through traumatic situations that shape them into sad and angry people. The similarities between Lisa and Zits lives show that character development is strongly affected by surrounding environments as well as the people you involve yourself with. It is clear that these two characters share strong wills, individualism, and experiences of loss.
Lisa and Zits both were very strong-minded individuals, that didn’t back down to anyone. Lisa is a Native American living through a time of racial segregation. Native American woman especially were seen as sluts and inferior beings. Lisa as a kid didn’t realize that her big mouth could really get her into trouble. One specific scene in the novel that really showed Lisa’s strong will to be heard was when she got in trouble in school. In this scene Lisa refuses to read and exert from her class reading when it falsely stated ways of Native Americans. “Lisa? She’d said. Did you hear me? Please read the next paragraph. But its all lies, I’d said… Ma-ma-oo told me it was just pretend, the eating people, like drinking Christ’s blood at Communion. In a clipped, tight voice, she told me to sit down. Since I was going to get in trouble anyway, I started singing Fuck the Oppressors. The class cheered, more because of the swearing than anything else, and I was promptly dragged, still singing, to the principal’s office.”(pg 69). Lisa did what many others would have never dared to do and that was stand up to authority for her own beliefs. After she had