Comparison Of Ceremony And Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach

Sherman Alexie once said that “everybody has a backstory, and refusing to recognize that backstory is a move intended to naturalize white supremacy.” While it is easy to assume that the use of flashbacks by Native American authors relates only to the main characters within the novels, I can’t help but think differently. Instead, I believe that the use of flashbacks and traumatic memory by Native American authors is a strategy used to tell cultural and tribal backstories that aren’t commonly recognized. When reflecting on the Native American works that we have explored this semester, this strategy can be seen within Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony and Eden Robinson’s Monkey Beach. The reason I am drawn to these novels for this argument is because
By closely analyzing the novel and utilizing literary sources that explore traumatic memory and magical realism, Mrak claims that through the use of these literary strategies Robinson’s Monkey Beach becomes “a repository of memories, triggered and fueled by trauma” that “gives way to the unconscious to enter the narrative structure, gradually revealing a much larger issue of the mistreatment of the Haisla people in Canada” (1). I find Mrak’s attention to the detached point of view of Lisa Marie and the use of memories within his essay to be useful in constructing my argument because his work better allows me to understand the significance of Lisa Marie’s flashbacks and traumatic memories. Mrak’s exploration of traumatic memory and its ability to uncover the backstories of the Haisla people makes this critical essay a significant to my writing process and is an important building block in further constructing my argument that this literary strategy allows Native American authors to unveil hidden