Gender equality in The Marrow Thieves

One reason I like The Marrow Thieves so much is that the girls/women and boys/men in the story are treated as equals. In Little Women and Pride and Prejudice, I felt an overwhelming urge to scream at the characters (apart from Jo March) that they could do more with their lives than sit around and worry about their future husbands. Being introduced to Frenchie's adopted family for the first time made me realize how strong-willed the girls are: "The girls had Wab, who at eighteen was practically a woman. She had a vicious keloid slash that split her face nearly in two" (Dimaline 21). RiRi is described as being old enough to swear during games, even though she is still just a child. The combination of these two peculiar characteristics gives readers a sense that Wab and RiRi are tough and resilient. When Rose is first introduced, she is assigned "homestead duties," which means she stays at the camp and looks after Minerva while Frenchie, Chi-Boy, and Miig go hunting. After Frenchie attempts to sympathize with Rose about how staying with Minerva is dull and boring, she replies, "[n]o, not bad at all. As a matter of fact, being with Minerva is pretty nishin" (38). Rather than submit to Frenchie's pity, Rose proves that she got something more valuable out of her time watching over Minerva than food: language. This causes Frenchie to regret his words and teaches him that all parts of camping are important.

Wab's coming-to story reveals her athleticism, the cause of her scar, and her ability to fend for herself when there is no one left to take care of her. She tells her story in a factual, emotionless manner: "I didn't see when they carried me to the broken freezer, when they locked me in and lined up outside. I only saw for one minute when the redhead made his way in first, unzipping his jacket and untying his pants" (85). After reading Miig's coming-to story, and already knowing how Frenchie becomes a part of the family, Wab's story displays yet another way in which the indigenous people are traumatized from the broken system in which white people lock them up to steal their marrow. It is this story that, while tragic, makes it clear that in the woods, these people are just trying to survive. There is no room for discrimination based on gender, age, or experience. Each member of Frenchie's family plays an important role in keeping them safe, and each one has trauma they must deal with every single day.