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Karaoke (Adelaine Jones)
Aunt Kate is Ma-ma-oo’s and Ba-ba-oo’s oldest daughter; sister to Uncle Mick, Aunt Trudy, and Dad; and mother to J.J. and Erica. Unlike Trudy and Mick, she missed residential school because she was already independent at the time they went. She judges Aunt Trudy harshly for her poor mothering skills and her maladaptive response to the traumas she suffered.
Aunt Kate Quotes in Monkey Beach
The Monkey Beach quotes below are all either spoken by Aunt Kate or refer to Aunt Kate . 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:
).
Chapter 1: Love Like the Ocean Quotes
Ba-ba-oo had lost his arm in the Second World War, at Verrières Ridge. When he came home, he couldn’t get the money he thought he should get form Veterans Affairs because they said Indian Affairs were taking care of him. Indian Affairs said if he wanted the same benefits as a white vet, he should move off reserve and give up his status. If he did that, they’d lose their house and by this time, they had three children and my dad, Albert, was on the way.
“Geordie and Edith helped as much as they could,” Mick had told me […] “But they had their own family. My father worked hard all his life, and now he would say things like, ‘Agnes, I’m useless.’ She didn’t know what to do.”
Related Characters:
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Aunt Kate Character Timeline in Monkey Beach
The timeline below shows where the character Aunt Kate appears in Monkey Beach. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1: Love Like the Ocean
...and run-down even though it’s fairly new. Aunt Trudy cares far less about housekeeping than Aunt Kate . Tab’s room—in the unfinished basement—usually provides complete privacy, so Lisa can bring forbidden reading...
(full context)
Chapter 2: The Song of Your Breath
...after Mick’s funeral, the family holds a meeting at Lisa’s house where Aunt Trudy and Aunt Kate fight over his old basketball trophies. Trudy claims that she and Mick had been the...
(full context)
...and around the village after the rape. On one such occasion, she wakes to find Aunt Kate and Erica gently leading her home; they almost hit her with their car. In these...
(full context)
...Ma-ma-oo sneaks in a large amount of salt behind his back. Afterward, while he and Aunt Kate wash the dishes, Ma-ma-oo tells Lisa to look after Jimmy, whose focus on swimming has...
(full context)
...locket with Mick’s picture in it—a locket she still wears every day. Later that evening, Aunt Kate sends Lisa home. Afterwards J.J. calls and asks Kate to drive her granddaughter to the...
(full context)
...walking to Ma-ma-oo’s house, and watching the firemen carry her burned body outside. She remembers Aunt Kate ’s high screams piercing the night.
(full context)
