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The crows, which gather around the Hills’ house because Jimmy feeds them before his swim meets, symbolize luck. Indeed, Jimmy began feeding them because Ma-ma-oo told him it was good luck. And one of the crows helps Jimmy save Lisa from drowning. Yet, their intelligence and behavior mean that they are often associated with trickster figures in the traditions of indigenous peoples, which complicates their relationship to luck. The Hills’ crows indicate—or maybe even cause—bad luck, too. Thus, they foretell (or bring about) the gruesome death of the family’s chickens and tell Lisa where to find her brother after he goes missing—drowned—at sea.
Crows Quotes in Monkey Beach
The Monkey Beach quotes below all refer to the symbol of Crows. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 1: Love Like the Ocean
Quotes
The greengage tree was covered with a fishing net. The greengages were almost ripe, so Dad had put the net on to keep the crows from raiding our tree. Crows are clever, though, and find the holes or simply go under the net. I don’t like ripe greengages, anyway. I like them tart and green, hard enough to scrape the roof of my mouth.
White feathers tumbled down from the half-eaten chickens caught near the top of the tree, where the hawks had dropped them. The chickens were still alive. They flapped wings, kicked feet, struggled against the net. Their heads had fallen to the ground like ripe fruit. Their beaks opened and closed soundlessly, and their eyes blinked rapidly, puzzled and frightened.
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“Watch this,” Jimmy said to me. “She’s going to haul it up in the air, then drop it until it busts open. They do that with clams, too.”
Spotty did no such thing. She waited patiently by the side of the road, preening in the early-morning sunlight and occasionally screeching. Jimmy tried not to look disappointed. I was about to go inside when a car drove by, missing the pocket watch completely. Spotty hopped over and moved it two feet to the left, so that when the next car came along, it ran right over the watch. Jimmy and I looked at each other, then back at Spotty, who picked up the exposed innards of the pocket watch. She gathered some of the pieces and flew away.
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Get the entire Monkey Beach LitChart as a printable PDF.
Crows Symbol Timeline in Monkey Beach
The timeline below shows where the symbol Crows appears in Monkey Beach. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Love Like the Ocean
Lisa wakes to the sound of crows outside her bedroom window. They seem to be saying la’es, which means “Go down to...
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...last known location—to be closer to the search area. Lisa regrets telling them about the crows, but at least she didn’t tell them about her Sunday night dream, in which she...
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...maybe it’s a warning from the spirit world about Jimmy’s death. She doesn’t understand the crows’ message either: it could mean that Jimmy’s boat sank, or that her parents shouldn’t go...
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...Jimmy, they think they hear a chicken on the roof. Rushing outside, they find a crow imitating the chickens and making a sound like laughter. The next day, hawks attack the...
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...Lisa remembers the greengage tree covered in netting to keep the fruit out of the crows’ reach. The clever birds find ways to get it anyway. She remembers feathers falling from...
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Lisa hears the crows squawking in the greengage tree. She remembers how Ma-ma-oo told Jimmy that feeding the crows...
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Chapter 2: The Song of Your Breath
...toward the Alcan docks. At the outskirts of the seagull squabble lurks a murder of crows.
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...mouse population in the house, she starts hunting outdoors, and Jimmy worries she’ll attack the crows. And every morning, she does indeed stand and cry pathetically at Lisa’s window when the...
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...hanging by the neck from a yellow rope and smiling eerily at her. She hears crows screeching and goes to the window to see them circled around a young, dead crow...
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...wearing the night of the rape. She hears voices calling her name, a cacophony of crows, and something moving through the underbrush. She pushes the bushes aside and is surprised to...
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Chapter 3: In Search of the Elusive Sasquatch
In the present, crows land near Lisa on Monkey Beach. They ignore the whispering from the trees. Lisa doesn’t...
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...the attic instead of throwing them away. Lisa hopes he’ll move on from his noisy crows next. But Jimmy keeps feeding the crows; he loves the big-brained birds and tells Lisa...
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...a memory, of walking down the steps of the front porch. A large flock of crows sit in the greengage tree, silhouetted against the bright sky. As she approaches, they lift...
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...gave her to help carve up fish—from her bag and the voices fall silent. A crow caws. She walks towards the trees, announcing that while she doesn’t have meat, she does...
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...gear. As Josh and Jimmy drive away, Jimmy rolls down the window and waves. The crows hop and caw. At school, Lisa gives his message to Karaoke. She shrugs. At lunchtime,...
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Chapter 4: The Land of the Dead
In the present world, Lisa hears hundreds of crows calling from the beach. The voices ask for more blood as she crawls out of...
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...in slow motion. She breathes in the salt water, gagging on it as she sinks. Crows wheel over her head in a dance. The kelp sways in the tide. Jimmy stands...
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...the mountains. The sky is denim blue. A raven hops overhead in the trees. The crows have disappeared. A seal bobs in the water, and she lies on the sand. She’s...
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