Monkey Beach

Within Monkey Beach, birds are both harbingers of doom and reminders of connections to spirits. Thus, they hold a symbolic position echoing Lisa’s ability to communicate with the dead, which both challenges her mental state and gives her a sense of belonging and connectedness. The very first line of Monkey Beach mentions birds, as Lisa is awaked by hearing six crows speak to her in Haisla, “La’es—Go down to the bottom of the ocean” (1). As a boy, Jimmy begins caring for crows, feeding and naming them. Ma-ma-oo encouraged Jimmy’s habit: “Ma-ma-oo told Jimmy that feeding crows brought you good luck” (125).

Jimmy has just disappeared at the beginning of the novel, and given his connection to the birds, the voices of the crows speaking to Lisa can be interpreted as a spiritual connection. Similarly, at the end of Part 1, Lisa is again awakened by a crow, one Jimmy named Spotty, who tells her in Haisla, “Go into the water. La’sda, la’sda” (135). That moment, once again connected to Jimmy’s spirit, is what spurs her decision to travel alone to Namu, where Jimmy had gone missing.

However, there are signs throughout the novel that crows can also be ominous signs, much like the sightings of the little man that Lisa experiences.