Monkey Beach Plot Analysis

“THe shadows around me roused themselves as if from a deep sleep and left silently in every direction”

The two men lay in the snow, listening to the branches creak in the forest. Silence. A crow cawed in the distance, interrupting the calm only for a second. As the two men’s fate approached, they began to perceive things that they had never experienced before. All the crackling, shuffling, and whistling became crystal clear to them, and they wondered how they had never heard these sounds before. Little shimmers and sparkles caught their eyes as if to tell them to enjoy their last moments in this world. Frost glittered in the slivery moonlight, cascading upon them through an opening in the dense canopy

The fate of jimmy is ambiguous because Lisa cannot communicate effectively with the dead. When Lisa goes to the spirit world Ma-ma-oo says that her gift is like Oxasuli, "unless you know how to use it" she says, "it will kill you"(Robinson 226). My argument is that, though Lisa is not dead, her gift has certainly killed her sense of identity. As a person, Lisa is unsociable and does not understand the issues behind her questions. She communicates as effectively with the dead as she does the living, she frequently misunderstands social queues and even when she does recognize her mistakes, she doesn't care. We can see this

Robinson uses nature and spirituality to connect the main protagonist, Lisa, to the old ways of the Haisla people. Throughout the first passage of Monkey Beach, Lisa describes many instances of animals and nature coming

Frost further points out that the stretch of woods being viewed is very rural. This is made possible by the reference to the location between the woods and frozen lake. In closing the final sentence of the second stanza Frost reiterates the fact that this occurs on “the darkest evening of the year” stating the darkness of the mood.

Both Dickinson and Frost approach their darkness with a sense of rhythm. In Dickinson’s poem, the “uncertain step” of line 5 is conveyed through

Darkness surrounds the evening sky. The stars were peeking out from their dark home. It looked as if God took a straight pin, poked a sheet of paper with tiny holes. Crickets softly played their symphony as the world slept. James laid in his bunk, staring off into the darkness. He wondered what the day had in store for him. The night watchman quietly walked his route, like a thief in the night.

Grass tickles my bare feet, and the sultry night air caresses my skin as I stand facing the forest. With the moon full and glistening over the dew covered greenery, I am enraptured. The gentle breeze wraps around me like a lovers embrace and I am lost to my surroundings. The nights are beginning to cool with the new season and are a welcomed relief to the waning summer heat.

The authors have two clearly different environments and describes them in diverse ways. Abbey writes about his surroundings as a bright, clear, calm April morning. He changed his description in the afternoon as “the wind begins to blow, raising dust and sand in funnel-shaped twisters that spin across that desert briefly, like dancers, and then collapse-elements under stress” (52). While Leopold writes about his experience with on a mountain as a “deep chesty ball echoes from rimrock to rimrock, rolls down the mountain, and fades into the far blackness of the night” (49).

When the speaker in "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Eve" pauses for a moment's rest, he does not do so on a simple evening, but on the "darkest evening

“Acquainted with the Night” by Robert Frost dramatizes the conflict that the speaker experiences with the outside world, which has rejected him, or perhaps which he has rejected. The poem is composed of fourteen lines and seven sentences, all of which begin with “I have.” Frost’s first and last line, “I have been one acquainted with the night,” emphasizes what it means for the speaker to be “acquainted with the night” (line 1; 14). The speaker describes his walk in the night as journey, in which he has “walked out of rain—and back in rain” and “outwalked the furthest city light” (line 2-3). Through the depiction of the changing weather conditions, Frost signifies the passage of time, perhaps indicating that the narrator has been on his journey for a lengthy period of time and has traveled through many cities. Furthermore, the imagery of the rain at night creates a forlorn atmosphere in the poem.

Nature acts as a gentle guide for the children; their only concept of time comes from the luminaries and the light they give. The children respond to the nurse, wanting to play until the last lights in the sky are gone. Again, scenes from nature appear.

"Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" by Robert Frost is a contemporary piece dealing with the typical human desire for escape. Whether this desire is manifested in avoidance of work, school or simply a relief from the mundane repetitiveness of everyday life this want is present in all humans. Throughout this poem Frost depicts and suggests that the "woods" are his means of escape from the "village", from society, and Frost conveys this by his respectful and almost wondrous diction when describing and referring to, the forest and the nature surrounding it. This poem also clearly

The sunset was not spectacular that day. The vivid ruby and tangerine streaks that so often caressed the blue brow of the sky were sleeping, hidden behind the heavy mists. There are some days when the sunlight seems to dance, to weave and frolic with tongues of fire between the blades of grass. Not on that day. That evening, the yellow light was sickly. It diffused softly through the gray curtains with a shrouded light that just failed to illuminate. High up in the treetops, the leaves swayed, but on the ground, the grass was silent, limp and unmoving. The sun set and the earth waited.

The sun was still below the horizon but the clouds above the mountains were tainted the color of pomegranates. Around me the shadows seemed empty. I tried not to look into the brush as I walked down the driveway. I had stopped before, looking to see the back of the shadows; staring hard, only to have them retreat from my eyes indefinitely. Invisible birds called from within. Their sound followed me down the driveway and onto the road.