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Chapter 4
Themes
and Colors
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
Chi Boy watches Wab sleep inside their tent. The camp is quiet—everyone knows soundlessness is safest. Worried about what kind of world his child will be born into, Chi Boy decides the only thing he can do to increase their chance of survival right now is share the truth, no matter how dark. Lips pressed to Wab’s belly, Chi Boy tells his coming-to story for the very first time. He begins by describing how he tried to get help, but people only reminded him “what [he] was.” Chi Boy describes his life in scenes, the first of which take place in foster houses and a group home.
The camp’s soundlessness is forced rather than organic. Chi Boy suggests this is because Indigenous people often have to stifle and silence themselves in order to stay hidden and survive. His worries for his unborn child characterize Chi Boy as responsible and caring. In sharing his story, he hopes to warn his baby of the world’s dangers and prepare them for life’s challenges. The beginning of Chi Boy’s story, though vague, implies the people whose help he sought made him feel “other” and separate from them, likely because of his Indigenous identity. His use of scenes to organize the story suggests a disjointed childhood.
Active
Themes
From a young age, Chi Boy keeps himself safe by being as quiet and unobtrusive as possible. When kids start disappearing and no one looks for them, he leaves the group home with only his backpack. Walking through farmland, he is chased by two armed men who call him a “dream smuggler” and an “Indian.” Chi Boy seeks shelter in a nearby farmhouse, but the elderly couple threatens him, presuming he has friends lurking nearby and that the band of children intends to rob them. Chi Boy’s protests go quiet. As he runs, the man shoots him in the calf. In the woods, Chi Boy shelters in an old trailer before discovering a woman hiding in its storage space. This is how he meets Minerva.
Chi Boy’s childhood teaches him to equate silence with safety, as it is better to go unnoticed in the temporary homes he inhabits. By the time Chi Boy sets out on his own, knowledge of Indigenous people’s retained ability to dream have already made them a target for those driven mad by the Plague. The old couple’s racist ideas about the lawlessness of Indigenous people place Chi Boy at a further disadvantage. These experiences teach Chi Boy that some people will only ever see one aspect of his identity, refusing to acknowledge his nuanced and complete personhood. That the old man shoots Chi Boy—a child—for no apparent reason is evidence of his moral depravity. When he meets Minerva, she is well-hidden, reiterating the notion that silence is the best way to survive.
Active
Themes
Chi Boy and Minerva set out together to avoid capture by the Recruiters. Eventually, they join up with Miig. In the ninth scene of Chi Boy’s story, he encounters a beaver lodge. Now 11 years old, Chi Boy hopes to catch the beaver for dinner and make Minerva proud. Instead, peering through a crack in the lodge, he sees a young girl curled inside. She is the most beautiful thing he’s ever seen. Seeing him, the girl shows no fear. Back in the present, Chi Boy tells his unborn child this was the day he met their mother. This is the day their story really starts. Secretly awake and listening, Wab cries into her pillow.
Active
Themes
