Previous
Minerva
A seven-year-old girl in Frenchie and Miig's family. Miig explains to Frenchie that RiRi came to the group as a baby with her mother, but Recruiters took her mother not long after. RiRi is generally happy, endearing, and sassy. She begins to crave more independence in the weeks before the main story begins, so she starts sleeping in her own tent (rather than with Minerva) and pesters Frenchie to tell her Story. RiRi finally gets to hear Story after Miig notices that she heard Wab's coming-to story, which was extremely violent, and hearing Story shakes RiRi and starts to expose a dark streak in her personality. Frenchie notices that after hearing Story, RiRi becomes more afraid of strangers and more apt to come up with scary or heartbreaking explanations for such things as the pink rubber boots she finds at the Four Winds resort. RiRi dies tragically a week after hearing Story when two Indigenous double agents, Travis and Lincoln, try to expose the group to Recruiters. Lincoln, inebriated, falls off a cliff with RiRi to both of their deaths. Her death is one of several things that motivate Frenchie to lead the group south to the resistance fighters.
RiRi Quotes in The Marrow Thieves
The The Marrow Thieves quotes below are all either spoken by RiRi or refer to RiRi. 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:
).
Haunted in the Bush Quotes
It was painful, but I didn't really mind. The more I described my brother, my parents, our makeshift community before Dad left with the Council, the more I remembered, like the way my uncle jigged to heavy metal. Instead of dreaming their tragic forms, I recreated them as living, laughing people in the cool red confines of RiRi's tent as she drifted off.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Frenchie tells RiRi about his parents and Mitch as she falls asleep every night, and he begins to see that talking about them like this is more comfortable for him than just having nightmares about them that he can't control. In this situation, Frenchie begins to truly come to terms with the power of storytelling. He starts to learn that by choosing how he remembers his family, he's able to actually improve his memories of his family and start to edge out the nightmares in which he sees them suffering at the hands of Recruiters, or otherwise damaged. More broadly, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus
Story: Part 2 Quotes
"And all those pipelines in the ground? They snapped like icicles and spewed bile over forests, into lakes, drowning whole reserves and towns. So much laid to waste from the miscalculation of infallibility in the face of a planet's revolt."
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
When Miig tells RiRi Story for the first time, he begins with the massive environmental changes that took place and specifically mentions that oil pipelines poisoned the natural world. Notice how Miig suggests that the people who laid the pipelines—who were, presumably, white government officials—went into this disaster and into the time preceding it believing that they'd be able to somehow control the natural world and save their society. This reminds the reader that while the Indigenous people are the ones who are paying for this tragedy with their lives, all poor people are also suffering—they can't buy their way Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus volupta
"Soon, they needed too many bodies, and they turned to history to show them how to best keep us warehoused, how to best position the culling. That's when the new residential schools started growing up from the dirt like poisonous brick mushrooms."
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Related Literary Devices:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Miig ends Story for RiRi by explaining how the Recruiters pulled directly from the historical model of residential schools to inform how they set up the system to steal Indigenous bone marrow. Again, the fact that the government calls these facilities "residential schools" shows that this is a continuation of something that's been going on for a long time, rather than something that's new and without historical context. This shows just how cyclical history can be, and specifically, how oppression can be cyclical: as times changed and it became "necessary" to once again subjugate Indigenous people, the powers that be Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque err
Rogarou Comes Hunting Quotes
The schools were an ever-spreading network from the south stretching northward, on our heels like a bushfire. Always north. To what end? Now we'd lost RiRi. Now I'd shot a man. Would I even be welcome in the North? I couldn't even protect a little girl.
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
While up in a tree to scout, Frenchie wonders if it's pointless to keep trying after everything that's happened and with the schools spreading in that direction. Importantly, this sense of hopelessness comes on the heels of killing Travis, something that shakes Frenchie to the core and makes him question who he is and if he's still a good person. Losing RiRi and not being able to protect her also makes Frenchie question if he's on the right path to adulthood, given that his failure resulted in a child's death. This all shows how at this point, Frenchie is turning Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam offic
On the Road Quotes
Everything was different. We were faster without our youngest and oldest, but now we were without deep roots, without the acute need to protect and make better. And I had taken up a spot that'd opened up in the middle of it all, somewhere between desperation and resolve.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
After Frenchie decides that they should go south, find the resistance, and rescue Minerva, he muses about how the group has changed after losing RiRi and Minerva. It's telling that he now conceptualizes Minerva as the family's "roots" and RiRi as the future, deserving of protection. This suggests that Frenchie is beginning to see the necessity of being a part of a family or a community that's made up of people of a variety of ages, as this is the only way to ensure the flow of ideas and culture—and consequently, the survival of the culture itself. Frenchie's belief that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Op
Loss Quotes
In them, there is always this feeling, an understanding more than an emotion, of protection. It didn't matter what was happening in the world, my job was to be Francis. That was all. Just remain myself. And now? Well, now I had a different family to take care of. My job was to hunt, and scout, and build camp, and break camp, to protect the others. I winced even thinking about it. My failure. I'd failed at protecting, and now, as a result, I failed at remaining myself.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Frenchie thinks back on his mindset as a kid and his mindset in Miig's family, and feels as though he's failing at being himself. For Frenchie, his identity has been tightly tied up in who is to other people, especially since joining Miig's group—with Mom and Dad, Frenchie's job was to be himself, their son. It's also worth keeping in mind that the things that Frenchie must do for his family with Miig would take a toll on anyone, whether they're sixteen or not. The weight and the difficulty of existing in his difficult circumstances means that, at some point, Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est
Get the entire The Marrow Thieves LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
RiRi Character Timeline in The Marrow Thieves
The timeline below shows where the character RiRi appears in The Marrow Thieves. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Fire
...later, Miig explains to his makeshift family that dreams live in their bone marrow. Seven-year-old RiRi asks how the dreams get there, and Miig says that they're born with the dreams...
(full context)
...Wab is almost a woman at eighteen; she has a huge scar across her face. RiRi is seven, Métis, and still very much a kid. The children all long for "the...
(full context)
Story: Part 1
Frenchie hears RiRi calling that she can't sleep, and he lies down with her. This is the new...
(full context)
Frenchie is quiet for a moment and then agrees to tell RiRi something about why they're running. He says that years ago, the world got sick with...
(full context)
Magic Words
...him. Miig says they need to leave and move quickly, so others carry Minerva and RiRi's packs. After an hour, Rose catches up to Frenchie, says that nishin means "good," and...
(full context)
Haunted in the Bush
...He has nightmares about Mom and Dad when he sleeps, so he spends time with RiRi and tells her about Mitch. It's painful to talk about him, but Frenchie feels as...
(full context)
...to the meeting point, he vacillates between feeling good about his decision and ashamed that RiRi will go hungry. He feels better when he sees that Chi-Boy and Miig both got...
(full context)
The Four Winds
...sheets, and he's delighted when Chi-Boy pulls off the sheet to reveal a green sofa. RiRi and Slopper giggle, and Frenchie feels happy to be in a confined space. He gets...
(full context)
...a silly grin. Frenchie grabs a key and runs to the corresponding room, tailed by RiRi. RiRi is shocked by how huge the room is and she gets very upset when...
(full context)
...looking like a hungry, desirous man. At this, Wab insists that she needs to take RiRi to bed.
(full context)
...They kiss and Frenchie feels ready to die of happiness, but the moment ends when RiRi sneaks up and asks if she can sleep with them. Rose lets RiRi in and...
(full context)
Wab's Coming-To Story
...wilderness. She saw the man who set up the run last week in the woods. RiRi interrupts, terrified, and asks if the man is coming to take Wab away. Nearly hysterical,...
(full context)
Back into the Woods
...Everyone wants to stay at Four Winds where they feel safe. Wab moves slowly, and RiRi is quiet and seems to be trying to act mature enough to handle the truth....
(full context)
...him since that first night. He wishes he hadn't heard Wab's coming-to story, and seeing RiRi so scared eats at Frenchie. He also dreamed about Mitch during their stay, but Mitch...
(full context)
...the resort several times, wondering if they'd stayed if Rose might've come to him again. RiRi and Slopper are angry and complain that Miig is making them move. Frenchie thinks that...
(full context)
...that it's just smoke, and Slopper is confused that there's a fire with no cooking. RiRi points out that accidental fires exist, and Frenchie notices the fear in her face. Miig...
(full context)
...six weeks before revealing herself. She was too afraid to trust them. Miig says that RiRi and Slopper had a parent each when they arrived, but their parents ended up in...
(full context)
The Potential of Change
...and heavy, and everyone is cold and soaked. One evening while they set up camp, RiRi finds a "toy" in the muck. She shows it to Minerva, who raises the alarm....
(full context)
...goes pale, and Tree puts his cap on Zheegwon's head to make him feel better. RiRi suggests that they're "dumb kids" who are doing silly things because they don't have adults...
(full context)
The Way It All Changed
...Miig is standing, his gun on the ground. Frenchie sees Lincoln, who looks inebriated, holding RiRi off the ground by her throat. Miig and Travis convince Lincoln to let RiRi down...
(full context)
Rose emerges from her tent, shouts for them to let RiRi go, and holds Minerva back from trying to get to RiRi. Lincoln drops RiRi entirely...
(full context)
...him to stop. Frenchie startles the twins and Travis sighs and asks if Lincoln killed RiRi. Travis tries to reason with Frenchie, but Frenchie angrily notices Travis looking panicked. Travis pleads...
(full context)
The Long Stumble
...changed after he killed Travis. Frenchie admits to himself that he killed a man, that RiRi is dead, and that misses his parents more than he has in years. They continue...
(full context)
Rogarou Comes Hunting
Eight days after RiRi's death, Miig stops suddenly and tells everyone to scatter into the trees. Frenchie hears Recruiters'...
(full context)
On the Road
Without RiRi and Minerva, the group is able to move faster. Frenchie thinks that they're without their...
(full context)
Found
...Council: Clarence, Mint, Bullet, General, Jo-jo, and Rebecca. Miig introduces his group and explains losing RiRi and Minerva. Bullet sits up at this, and Dad says they've heard of Minerva. General...
(full context)
Locks Mean Nothing to Ghosts
...aggressive—it's better to apologize than not be able to bury their friends. Frenchie flashes on RiRi and trips.
(full context)
