Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Marrow Thieves, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression
Family and Coming of Age
Humans and Nature
Trauma, Identity, and Pride
Summary
Analysis
Without RiRi and Minerva, the group is able to move faster. Frenchie thinks that they're without their roots and their reason to make the world better. They head south in the hope of finding the resistance near Espanola. Frenchie feels as though he's now getting to make decisions with Miig and Chi-Boy. He's so worried about the possible consequences of heading south that he can barely sleep. When they get close to Espanola, Miig calls Frenchie to look at some cuts in a tree. He says they're syllabics, the written language. Miig can't read it. Frenchie touches it reverently.
Frenchie's assessment of what they've lost in losing Minerva and RiRi shows that he now understands the importance of being a part of a family and a community that includes people of all ages, as they all have a unique role to play in keeping the culture alive. That Miig can't read syllabics reminds the reader again that, even though Miig is knowledgeable, he's not a true Elder who possesses all the Indigenous wisdom.
Themes
The next day, Rose invites Frenchie to hunt for mushrooms with her and he follows her into the woods. They walk silently for an hour and then Rose stops. She smells water. They choose a direction and then race forward. Frenchie thinks that Rose is impossibly beautiful and that he loves her. Rose breaks through the trees and emits a small scream. Frenchie joins her, afraid, but she points to the small stream with fish in it. Frenchie falls to his knees, feeling like everything is too heavy, and laughs until he cries. Rose steps forward and lets Frenchie pull her into his lap.
Finding this stream with fish shows Frenchie that a future is possible. That he feels this way because of something he found in the natural world shows again that the future of these Indigenous people is intrinsically tied to the land and whether or not they'll be able to work with it and heal it going forward. This intimate moment shows that Frenchie also sees that his future should include romantic, chosen family, as represented by Rose.
Themes
Frenchie remembers being with his uncle once when he was a little kid. His uncle told Frenchie to choose a "good" CD, and Frenchie chose one from the middle of the stack. Frenchie's uncle inspected the CD, smiled, and declared it was just what they needed. He lumbered to his feet, inserted it into the stereo, and explained that the album was by Pearl Jam. Frenchie listened to the sound of the drums, guitar, and vocalist, and felt uncomfortable. His uncle asked him what he thought, and Frenchie said that it sounded "like if gray could make noise." Frenchie thinks that that's what he's hearing now, sitting with Rose by water. He wonders how anything can be bad when he loves Rose, and they kiss.
The confluence of this memory, the intimate moment with Rose, and the healthy stream shows that the past, love, and the natural world are all connected. Together, these elements create a roadmap for the future for all Indigenous people, not just Frenchie. His inability to focus on anything bad in this moment speaks to the emotional power of seeing the future laid out for him like this.
Themes
