What's a piece of symbolism you think is important in the story (between chapters 1 and 7)? can you think of a theme it could relate to?

Frenchie and his peers long to connect with the cultural identity that most of them have lost. One way they attempt to do this is by braiding their hair as their ancestors did. Braiding becomes a powerful symbol of the desperate effort to preserve their lineage, as Frenchie says that he braids his hair to “remind myself of things I couldn’t quite remember, but that, nevertheless, I knew to be true."