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Chapter 33
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Hunting by Stars, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Community and Identity
Resistance, Survival, and Hope
Dehumanization and Trauma
Language, Memory, and Legacy
Colonial Dominance vs. Healing with Nature
Summary
Analysis
Agent Mellin rides south with the convoy of Recruiters. Having found Mitch’s body, she assumes he and Frenchie defected and helped the others escape across the border. She regrets trusting them. Mellin is impatient to cross the border. Earlier, she received a call from someone named Adelaide informing her that the group—including Frenchie—had been captured by a group of “roving women.” Mellin promised to relocate Adelaide and her son to Canada and provide them with dream serum in exchange for the group’s location. Mellin thinks of Frenchie’s family as stolen property belonging to her. She hasn’t alerted the U.S. government, lest they grant the prisoners political asylum. Mellin’s job depends on retrieving the family.
This brief dip into Mellin’s mind confirms she is just as heartless as she seemed to Frenchie during training. Not knowing Mitch was devoted to his mission to the end, Mellin scorns his memory and feels no sorrow for losing him. Mellin seems to lack all emotional depth, only caring about doing her job well and maintaining control—though note that just as Mitch and Frenchie were threatened with torture or death if they failed in their mission, her narration implies that she’s been threatened with the same. The coercion clearly runs deep in the residential school system.
Themes
