Sacrifice Narration In Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach

In Eden Robinson’s novel, Monkey Beach, there is a contrast between the present tense narrative and flashback technique Robinson incorporates. The novel consists of the narrator, Lisamarie Hill, telling her story in the present time; intertwined with these sequences of events is a series of flashbacks from her past to educate the reader about Lisa’s life up until the present. Throughout Monkey Beach, flashbacks and present tense narration depict time and place through the characters Lisamarie, Erica, and Josh, who experience sexual violence, due to colonizers, and residential schools.

To begin with, the flashback technique and present tense narration portray time and place from the impact colonizers have on Lisamarie and Erica. Sexual violence occurs to Lisamarie’s cousin, Erica, who is being followed by a few young white men, in a car, hurling racist insults, until Lisamarie intervenes. As the two girls walk in Terrace, the “young white guy [sticks] his head out of the

Attending residential school leads to Josh enduring sexual abuse from a priest, which results in Josh committing sexual offenses himself. His exploitation of Karaoke, Jimmy’s girlfriend, is confirmed when “an old photograph and a folded-up card [is found with] Josh’s head… pasted over a priest’s head [,] and Karaoke’s… pasted over a little boy’s” (365). The replacing of new pictures on top of the old ones represents how Josh is taking the position of the priest as the offender, and Karaoke is becoming the ‘new Josh’; the victim. In the present tense narrative, Jimmy becomes aware of Josh’s deed and retaliates by getting revenge, resulting in the death of both Josh and himself. All in all, Josh’s abusiveness relates to his experience in residential school, therefore his exploitive actions depict a direct result of