The Marrow Thieves Essay Questions

Is The Marrow Thieves a coming-of-age story? Support your answer with evidence.

Yes, The Marrow Thieves is a coming-of-age story. In particular, the protagonist, French, faces the struggles of adolescence and increasing responsibility over the course of the novel. For example, he develops his first serious romance, with Rose. This brings up feelings of excitement and longing. But it also causes French to feel jealousy, insecurity, and explosive anger. He struggles to learn how to deal with these emotions. On the one hand, French feels he must be a protector and provider for the rest of the group. On the other hand, he still feels like an awkward young boy who is mourning his lost childhood.

Why does Frenchie keep his hair long and wear it in braids?

Frenchie's hair is a way of preserving Indigenous culture. French and the other youths he travels with long to connect with the cultural identity that most of them have lost. One way this is expressed is through braiding their hair as their ancestors did. Braiding thus becomes a powerful symbol of the 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.”

How does author Cherie Dimaline use characterization to explore the diverse responses of Native peoples to the persecution and violence of the schools?

Dimaline uses characterization to explores Indigenous characters' varied responses to persecution and violence. The author characterizes Travis and Lincoln as lazy, untrustworthy traitors who are only looking out for their own interests. They are "the other Indians," those who are willing to spill the blood of their own community members for their short-term survival or profit.

In contrast, Dimaline characterizes Miig's group, as well as the resistance camp in Espanola, as well-prepared and alert. For the most part, they are noble and do not seek unnecessary violence. But they are armed and prepared to display aggression or use violence to defend themselves. They even risk their lives to try to save some people from the schools.

Finally, Dimaline characterizes Isaac and the original members of the Native Council as hopelessly naive. In Miig’s words, the Council still held on to “this crazy notion that there was goodness left, that someone, somewhere, would see just how insane this whole school thing was.”

What is the significance of dreams in The Marrow Thieves?

Dreams are of central importance in the novel. Once non-native people lose their ability to dream, they go crazy. In this sense, losing the ability to dream comes to represent humans losing their sense of meaning and direction in life. They become like machines, physically alive but spiritually empty. In contrast, Native people are persecuted because they still have the ability to dream. Despite all of the violence they face, their dreams keep them going. In this way, dreams come to represent hope as well as the history and present of Indigenous survival.

What is the significance of Minerva's story of the Rogarou?

When the woman in the story attacks the Rogarou and makes him bleed, he transforms into a naked, hungering man. Making the Rogarou bleed seems to represent a woman’s menstruation, marking a period in her life when she becomes capable of reproduction. “When I bring the blood, he brings the man,” explains Minerva. Subsequently, they “become more like man and wife,” which seems to imply a sexual relationship. Every full moon the dog comes back, referring to the parallelism between the moon cycle and a woman’s menstrual cycle.

But the story is also laced with violence. The Rogarou is said to kill unless he is met without fear. When Minerva describes the beast’s “hunger,” which appears the “same way I sees it in the men sometimes,” she uses a disturbing tone that evokes sexual aggression. Moreover, Minerva says that she is damned and her family is cursed because of her weakness and sin. Finally, she says that the Rogarou goes after half-breeds, which is likely a reference to people of mixed Indigenous and European ancestry.