Day 4 Monkey Beach- Symbolism

1)  One if the main, abstract ideas in Monkey Beach is death. I think it is a big part of this book and Lisa’s life because there is so much death and talk of death around her, like when Mick dies, her contacting he Ba ba’oo and going to the cemetery. What symbolizes death in this book for Lisa, I think,  is the little man that she sees coming into her room at night. I think this because her Ma ma’oo said that when you see something like that, it is a bad sign and it signals that something bad is going to happen.

 

2)I think that maybe the author picked this symbol because of personal experience with the little man, because I don’t know how she could have made something like that up. Also, it seems like it could be an actual legend, because you hear stories like that all the time in Native American folk lore. I think that maybe using crows or something that belonged to Mick as a symbol for death would’ve been better. I think this because crows are commonly used as that symbol, but also they play a big part in the book because Jimmy feeds them and loves them as pets, and something that belonged to Mick would’ve been good because it would’ve reminded her of him and death because he’s gone.