Monkey Beach

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

PART 1, PAGES 1-40

Reading Check

1. What is Lisa’s brother’s name?

2. What natural phenomenon do Lisa’s parents remember her being excited about even though all of the adults around her were terrified?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Lisa’s brother convince the family to go to Monkey Beach?

2. Why are Lisa’s parents so surprised when Mick appears at the door?

3. What information about her brother’s motives for going fishing is Lisa keeping to herself?

PART 1, PAGES 40-82

Reading Check

1. What is Adelaine’s nickname?

2. What does Ma-ma-oo buy to honor her dead husband?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What explanation does Tab give Lisa about the tension between Trudy and Ma-ma-oo?

2. What incident at Lisa’s school makes her activist uncle, Mick, proud of her?

3. How did the Canadian government demonstrate that Ba-ba-oo’s Indigenous identity mattered more to them than his service in the military?

PART 1, PAGES 82-138

Reading Check

1. What did Jimmy once display in his room and then remove?

2. What does Lisa’s mother call the creature that guards the channel?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. On the fishing trip Lisa remembers going on with her family, what evidence is there of her connection to the supernatural?

2. During the family fishing trip, what can the reader reasonably infer that Mick’s bad dream is about?

3. What information does Trudy share with Lisa in an effort to punish her for speaking up for Tab?

Paired Resources

“The Residential School System”

• This thorough article describes the traumatic history and ongoing consequences of residential schools for Indigenous Canadians.
• This resource relates to the themes of Communicating with the Dead, The Strength of Family Connections, and The Importance of Haisla Culture.
• How does learning more about the residential schools impact your understanding of the characters in Monkey Beach? How does it impact their relationships? Does Lisa fully understand how residential school experiences have affected her family and community? What insight does this give you into Lisa’s family’s varying reactions to her ability to communicate with the supernatural world?

“Returning”

• This 6-minute video shares Cree poet Louise Bernice Halfe’s performance of her poem “Returning,” about her experiences in a Canadian residential school. A text version can be found here, on page 15 of the PDF.
• This resource relates to the themes of The Strength of Family Connections and The Importance of Haisla Culture.
• Which aspects of the residential school experience does Halfe emphasize in this poem? What is the function of the Cree cultural details in this poem? How do they illuminate the central importance of culture to identity? Which characters in Monkey Beach have had their identities most impacted by residential school experiences? In Monkey Beach, does alienation from culture impact characters more or less than the abuse they suffered in the residential schools?

“‘Close, Very Close, a B’gwus Howls’: The Contingency of Execution in Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach”

• This article from the literary journal Canadian Literature offers an analysis of the b’gwus figure in Monkey Beach and its relationship to Lisa’s qualities as the book’s narrator. Note that due to its length and complexity, and because it contains spoilers, this article is intended as a teacher-facing resource.
• This resource relates to the themes of Communicating with the Dead, The Strength of Family Connections, and The Importance of Haisla Culture.

PART 2, PAGES 139-179

Reading Check

1. What is Mick’s ex-wife’s name?

2. What kind of spirit does Ma-ma-oo tell Lisa the little man with the red hair is?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why do Trudy and Tab move away from Kitamaat?

2. When Lisa asks Ma-ma-oo what it means that she has seen the little man with red hair, what does Ma-ma-oo tell her?

3. How does Lisa embarrass Jimmy in front of his friends?

PART 2, PAGES 179-232

Reading Check

1. What was Mick’s childhood nickname?

2. How does Tab get back to Kitamaat?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Who is Screwy Ruby, and what does she say about Lisa?

2. After telling Lisa about shapeshifters, what does Ma-ma-oo tell her about understanding old stories like these?

3. After Lisa tries the voodoo spell, what does she see, and what does she think it predicts?

PART 2, PAGES 232-294

Reading Check

1. Which friend does Lisa start spending most of her time with after Frank starts dating Julie?

2. Where is Lisa in the present time when Part 2 ends?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. After he finds out about her run-in with the white men who were harassing Erica, what does Lisa’s father tell her about her name?

2. What traumatic event happens to Lisa at the party at the abandoned house?

3. What suggestion does the psychiatrist make about the reason Lisa sees ghosts?

Paired Resources

“I See Dead People: How (and Why) Our Minds Conjure Ghosts”

• This entertaining article discusses several theories about why people might see—or think they see—ghosts and other supernatural entities.
• This resource relates to the theme of Communicating with the Dead.
• Which of these theories does Lisa’s psychiatrist seem to believe in? What do other important people in Lisa’s life believe? What does Lisa believe? Which of these theories for why Lisa sees ghosts does the novel itself seem to leave open as possibilities, and which does it seem to rule out?

“Indigenous Storytellers Share Scary Stories and the Wisdom They Hold”

• This CBC radio story shares four potential motivations for frightening Indigenous stories of ghosts and the supernatural. It also contains four related audio files that share Indigenous creators’ stories of the supernatural. Of particular interest is Artie Martin’s story of investigating paranormal activity at a former residential school (11 minutes, at bottom of page). Please note that if your classroom contains Indigenous students with traditional beliefs, not all of these stories will be appropriate to play aloud.
• This resource relates to the themes of Communicating with the Dead and The Importance of Haisla Culture.
• Which of the motivations for telling scary stories seem relevant to the traditional stories that various characters share with Lisa? Lisa herself is narrating a scary story for the reader. What is her motivation? What about Robinson—what might her motivation be for creating Lisa and sharing her story?

“‘Something in Between’: Monkey Beach and the Haisla Return of the Return of the Repressed”

• This article from Canadian Literature discusses Monkey Beach as a piece of Canadian gothic literature with an Indigenous perspective on the gothic trope of the “return of the repressed.” This link leads to the site where the article can be downloaded as a PDF. Note that due to its length and complexity, and because it contains spoilers, this article is intended as a teacher-facing resource.
• This resource relates to the themes of Communicating with the Dead and The Importance of Haisla Culture.

PART 3, PAGES 295-336

Reading Check

1. When Lisa is living in Vancouver, who comes to her in a vision and tells her to get her life together?

2. What does Cheese taunt Lisa about at the party in Kitamaat?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What terrible news does Lisa receive when she finally talks to Frank again?

2. How does Lisa change after she returns to Kitamaat?

3. How has Jimmy changed by the time Lisa returns to Kitamaat?

PARTS 3-4, PAGES 336-374

Reading Check

1. What figure does Lisa write her final English essay on?

2. When Lisa is drowning at Monkey Beach, who gets her out of the water?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. How does Jimmy end up saving Lisa’s life after her dream about seeing Ma-ma-oo covered in bruises?

2. What devastating news about Karaoke does Lisa learn from a note she finds?

3. What do Lisa’s visions imply happened to Jimmy?

Recommended Next Reads 

Son of a Trickster by Eden Robinson

• The first book in Robinson’s Trickster trilogy, Son of a Trickster introduces Jared Martin, a troubled 16-year-old Haisla boy struggling to help his family and to understand his grandmother’s frequent assertions that he is secretly the son of a trickster.
• Shared themes include Communicating with the Dead, The Strength of Family Connections, and The Importance of Haisla Culture. 
• Shared topics include Canadian Indigenous Gothic fiction, coming of age, Haisla culture and traditional stories, family dysfunction, the supernatural, and the continuing impact of colonialism on Indigenous communities.
• Son of a Trickster on SuperSummary

Never Whistle at Night: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology eds. Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst, Jr.

• This collection of short stories by Indigenous Canadian and American authors shares supernatural stories that explore Indigenous experience, past and present.
• Shared themes include Communicating with the Dead and The Strength of Family Connections.
• Shared topics include Indigenous Gothic fiction, Indigenous culture and traditional stories, the supernatural, and the continuing impact of colonialism on Indigenous communities.

The Sasquatch at Home: Traditional Protocols & Modern Storytelling by Eden Robinson

• This nonfiction text is the print version of Robinson’s three-part Kreisel Lecture series; it shares insights into Robinson’s life, her writing and philosophy, and how Haisla culture intersects with Monkey Beach.
• Shared themes include Communicating with the Dead, The Strength of Family Connections, and The Importance of Haisla Culture.
• Shared topics include the impact of the past on the present, the intersection of Western and indigenous cultures, the significance of place, and the importance of storytelling.