Monkey Beach

At the beginning of Part 3 of Monkey Beach, Lisa is struggling and lost like never before in her life. She borrows a tactic from Mick, leaving school, her family, and the village of Kitamaat behind and disappearing into the big city of Vancouver. Her motivation for this shift is never directly stated, but the life Lisa leads during this time—partying continuously with questionable friends, supported by her inheritance from Ma-ma-oo—leaves her directionless and in precarious situations. When she believes the ghost of Tab has visited her as a warning, she recalls her former experiences of contact with the dead and spirits. However, she turns out to be wrong in believing it was Tab’s ghost, and in retrospect the whole incident suggests that it was the voice of Lisa’s conscience, in the guise of her cousin who she feels close to, warning her to turn her life around.

Lisa returns to her former life by following her intuitions about the perceived ghost of Tab, implying the importance she places on contacting the dead. At Pooch’s funeral, Lisa encounters Cheese, who makes fun of her for her ability to see ghosts. Ironically, it is during the opening of Part 3 that Lisa is actually disconnected from her ability to see ghosts and connect to the spirit world. For once, it is not Lisa seeing a ghost, however, but Frank, who believes he saw Pooch’s ghost on the day that Pooch died.

In fact, Lisa feels so removed from the spiritual part of her identity that she actually feels “comforted knowing that magical things were still living in the world” when she thinks she sees a b’gwus jump out of bushes while driving to Pooch’s funeral (316). The sighting verifies the existence of the supernatural world, which she evidently wants to reconnect with.

Lisa’s return to life among her family and in Kitamaat brings other surprises. Her relationship with Jimmy continues to be an important one in her life, as implied when Jimmy convinces her to come home, to “at least say goodbye,” tugging at her sense of family bonds (322). However, what Lisa experiences there is an inversion of her previous home life. Jimmy, formerly the popular, successful swim star, has descended into partying and lacks ambition after injuring himself and getting bumped from the swim team. Lisa, on the other hand, applies herself seriously for perhaps the first time in her life, working hard to complete school and overcoming the apathy she feels at the beginning of Part 3.