The Marrow Thieves

by

Cherie Dimaline

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Residential Schools Symbol Analysis

Residential Schools Symbol Icon

Canadian residential schools were 19th and 20th century government institutions designed to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children into the mainstream culture of European settlers. The residential schools, both the of the novel's present and of the historical past, are a concise representation of the way in which the Canadian government has abused Indigenous people over the centuries. While they represent the only way forward in the eyes of those who run them, Indigenous characters see the schools as symbols of the government's unwillingness to look at the whole problem and its tendency to instead find a quick fix at the expense of vulnerable populations.

Residential Schools Quotes in The Marrow Thieves

The The Marrow Thieves quotes below all refer to the symbol of Residential Schools. 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:
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
).
Story: Part 1 Quotes

"But we sang our songs and brought them to the streets and into the classrooms—classrooms we built on our own lands and filled with our own words and books. And once we remembered that we were warriors, once we honored the pain and left it on the side of the road, we moved ahead. We were back."

Related Characters: Miig (speaker), Frenchie
Related Symbols: Residential Schools
Page Number: 24
Explanation and Analysis:
A Plague of Madness Quotes

"Like how we are motivated to run because of the Recruiters?" Rose jumped in. "And the Recruiters are motivated to run after us because of the schools?"

"Almost," he answered. "We are actually both motivated by the same thing: survival."

"But isn't it just us that's trying to survive? No one's trying to kill those jerk-offs."

"But, nevertheless, they are dying. Mostly killing themselves, mind you. And so they are motivated by the need to be able to survive. And they see that solution in us."

Related Characters: Miig (speaker), Rose (speaker), Frenchie, Wab
Related Symbols: Residential Schools
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:
Story: Part 2 Quotes

"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: Miig (speaker), RiRi
Related Symbols: Residential Schools
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:
Miigwans' Coming-To Story Quotes

Isaac didn't have grandparents who'd told residential school stories like campfire tales to scare you into acting right, stories about men and women who promised themselves to God only and then took whatever they wanted from the children, especially at night. Stories about a book that was like a vacuum, used to suck the language right out of your lungs. And I didn't have time to share them, not now.

Related Characters: Miig (speaker), Frenchie, Isaac
Related Symbols: Residential Schools
Page Number: 106-107
Explanation and Analysis:
Finding Direction Quotes

He'd lost someone he'd built a life with right in the middle of that life. Suddenly, I realized that there was something worse than running, worse even than the schools. There was loss.

Related Characters: Frenchie (speaker), Miig, Isaac
Related Symbols: Residential Schools
Page Number: 110
Explanation and Analysis:
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: Frenchie (speaker), Miig, RiRi, Travis, Chi-Boy
Related Symbols: Residential Schools
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
Word Arrives in Black Quotes

"I mean we can start healing the land. We have the knowledge, kept through the first round of these blasted schools, from before that, when these visitors first made their way over here like angry children throwing tantrums. When we heal our land, we are healed also." Then he added, "We'll get there. Maybe not soon, but eventually."

Related Characters: Clarence (speaker), Frenchie, Miig, General
Related Symbols: Residential Schools
Page Number: 193
Explanation and Analysis:
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Residential Schools Symbol Timeline in The Marrow Thieves

The timeline below shows where the symbol Residential Schools appears in The Marrow Thieves. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Frenchie's Coming-To Story
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...the tree and considers letting himself fall. He wonders if he’ll be taken to the school with Mitch and might be reunited with Mom and Dad too, but he knows this... (full context)
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
About a year before, Dad met a man named Miig who escaped from the residential schools and who shared what the government is doing to the Indigenous people. Miig explained that... (full context)
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Humans and Nature Theme Icon
...knows that he has to get out of the tree and stay away from the schools. He knows he'll never see Mitch again. He waits until the van is gone and... (full context)
The Fire
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...Miig years before, examines his hand and imagines people taking Mitch's dreams at the residential school. Miig rolls a cigarette and elderly Minerva cups her hands to pull the smoke over... (full context)
Story: Part 1
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Humans and Nature Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...However, the newcomers decided they liked subjugating the Anishnaabe. The newcomers opened the first residential schools, which almost robbed the Anishnaabe of their language. When the schools were shut down, they... (full context)
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Humans and Nature Theme Icon
...tells Story every week in some form or another: sometimes he focuses on the residential schools, and other times he explains treaties or earthquakes. Miig believes they have to know the... (full context)
A Plague of Madness
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...thing: they run because of the Recruiters, and the Recruiters chase them because of the schools. Miig says that they and the Recruiters are both motivated by survival—people are killing themselves... (full context)
The Four Winds
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
...fell ill and died. Jonas was quiet but told Rose that their family survived residential schools and cautioned her to trust no one. He'd say that children need walls of some... (full context)
Story: Part 2
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
...the scientists needed more bodies, so they turned to history and looked at the residential schools to build new ones. Now, Indigenous people go to the schools and their dreams are... (full context)
Back into the Woods
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
...that the boots might've belonged to an Indigenous girl who was taken to the residential schools. Frenchie had assured her that the boots probably belonged to a rich blond girl. Whether... (full context)
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...Slopper had a parent each when they arrived, but their parents ended up in the schools. (full context)
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...pinkies. Frenchie wants to vomit. Miig says that he lost his husband Isaac to the schools, and Frenchie watches Miig rub the buffalo tattoo on his hand, his "wedding ring" that... (full context)
Miigwans' Coming-To Story
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...He didn't believe the rumors. Miig was terrified. Isaac's family didn't experience the original residential schools, and Miig knew that this was why Isaac wasn't afraid. Before they could argue, Recruiters... (full context)
Finding Direction
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
...making good decisions for their community. He says that people are building a new residential school but insists that not everyone needs to know so that they can remain hopeful enough... (full context)
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...the beautiful hat under Wab's pillow. He wants to know how Miig escaped from the schools but knows he can't ask. He knows that Isaac died in the school, and suddenly... (full context)
The Other Indians
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...eat all the food. Travis says that Espanola is the link between the new residential schools and supplies from the south. Miig notes that he's heard that there's an Indigenous resistance... (full context)
The Long Stumble
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...Frenchie, and Mitch. Miig resumes his story and says that he walked back to the school and sat for two days, staring at it. He knew it was a suicide mission.... (full context)
Rogarou Comes Hunting
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Humans and Nature Theme Icon
...As Frenchie climbs, he thinks that the sky to the north is black and the schools keep coming. He wonders if going north is pointless, and wonders if anyone will welcome... (full context)
Found
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
...sees that the people are Indigenous. The captors suggest that Frenchie is working for the schools. Frenchie says that he's killed "snitches." The captors confer and one woman jogs away. Frenchie... (full context)
The Miracle of Minerva
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
Father Carole visits the school the next day to investigate. The once-imposing school is now melted and broken. The fence... (full context)
Loss
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Humans and Nature Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...asks if they need to discuss that Minerva found the key to beating the residential schools, but Miig insists that Minerva had the key all along—they just needed to listen better.... (full context)
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...vials into the ground and says that after they get Minerva, they'll shut down the schools. Miig tells Frenchie that he knows he'll do that. (full context)
Lost and Found and Lost
Family and Coming of Age Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...Frenchie his pouch "for safekeeping," and says that it can't go back to the residential schools. The plan is to wait for the convoy, disable the drivers, and save Minerva. Frenchie... (full context)
Kiiwen
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...and nobody mentions that in losing Minerva, they lost the key to taking down the schools. They travel for ten days and then set up camp. Summer arrives over the next... (full context)
Locks Mean Nothing to Ghosts
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
Trauma, Identity, and Pride Theme Icon
...in Cree. The women say that they're helping to keep people out of the residential schools; they were nurses and snuck children out of the hospitals. Clarence speaks to the man... (full context)