The Marrow Thieves is a novel that uses external conflicts to explore how characters form bonds and handle their struggles. Frenchie and his fellow survivors must work together to survive the environmental apocalypse and the constant threat of Recruiters stealing their bone marrow. The characters are constantly protecting each other, sometimes even willing to sacrifice their own lives for each other. While Frenchie at first is willing to sacrifice his life for his family, he later learns that all members of a family are equally important.
The novel opens with Frenchie and his older brother Mitch. At this point in the story, they are all each other have, moving constantly to avoid being caught from Recruiters. Despite their efforts, they’re soon surrounded, with no way of escape. Mitch turns to Frenchie, telling him, “[you] are going to climb out the back window and onto the roof, as low down as you can get” (Dimaline, 2). When Frenchie tries to get Mitch to come with him, Mitch refuses, saying “[too] late, buddy; they know someone is up here, just not how many someones” (3). Mitch is taken away and presumably killed for his bone marrow. However, due to his sacrifice, Frenchie is able to escape. While this act was for Frenchie’s benefit, it goes on to haunt and greatly affect Frenchie.
He later has nightmares of the event, describing how, “I had to hold on to the trunk with everything I had; I knew that if I didn’t I’d fall and Mitch would be angry... I couldn’t let them take him again” (39). Many other characters in the novel are also haunted by the trauma of their past. Mitch’s self-sacrifice, however, influences Frenchie outside of his dreams. The group later travels to a Four-Winds resort. While this could offer them shelter and resources, they’re blocked by a potentially electrified fence. One of the only adults in the group, Miig, is prepared to climb the fence and risk the shock. However, before Miig climbs, Frenchie “took two chain links in [his] fingertips” (57). While not explicitly stated to be related to his brother’s actions, it's natural for Frenchie to have developed his belief in self-sacrifice after his brother did so for him.
However, Frenchie’s outlook on self-sacrifice is challenged by Miig. Miig berates him for the act, telling him, “[no] one is more important than anyone else, French... no one should be sacrificed for anyone else” (58). Here, Miig directly contradicts something Frenchie learned from his family. Neither character draws explicit parallels between Frenchie’s act and his brother's. However, Miig is helping Frenchie to challenge ideals he still holds from the traumatic incident. This moment between Miig and Frenchie is an early scene showing Frenchie’s growing understanding of family, as Miig tries to help Frenchie understand the importance of every member and grow past his earlier held beliefs.
Self-Sacrifice was not a theme I had considered strongly while reading this novel, but on further reflection I agree this is one of the major internal struggles Frenchie overcomes. Beyond your description of Mitch’s impact on Frenchie and the conversation between Frenchie and Miig at the electric fence, this theme surfaces again at the end of the novel when Frenchie must decide whether to go after Rose or not. As she is saying her goodbyes, Frenchie hides in a tree so he doesn’t have to confront her or the decision he must make. As he hides he confesses that he “[hates himself]” for avoiding Rose and not going with her, but he justifies it with the duty he feels towards his father (214). He convinces himself he has no choice, asking “[b]ut what could I do?... I couldn’t just leave my dad; it would kill him” (214). Just like at the electric fence, or at other moments when Frenchie took risks looking after the safety of the group, he is sacrificing a part of himself, a chance to be happy with Rose, because he does not want to hurt his father by leaving. This develops the theme in a new way, putting Frenchie into an emotional conflict about sacrifice, rather than the black and white, life or death situation at the electric fence. Despite the conversation with Miig which taught him that self-sacrifice is not always good, I believe Frenchie has regressed due to the guilt he feels over losing RiRi. Self-sacrifice is appealing not only because it helps people who we love, but also because we can feel that we deserve to sacrifice something as payment or punishment for failure in our past. Frenchie cannot stand to fail another person, and so he resolves to stay by his father’s side despite his desire to go after Rose. It takes another conversation with his own father, who can sense Frenchie’s internal struggle, to remind him that self-sacrifice is not always the noble thing to do. His father tells him about something Frenchie’s mom taught him when they were younger, “running only works if you’re moving towards something, not away” (217). Frenchie learns that by sacrificing his happiness for his father, he is only running away from the guilt of disappointing him and not running towards something. After this conversation, Frenchie tells his father that he has to go, and his father responds with “I know” (217). This conversation is healing for Frenchie two-fold; first, because he is reminded by his father that self-sacrifice is not always a noble thing to do, and second, because his father understands why Frenchie has to go, releasing Frenchie of the guilt of leaving his father behind. This leads to the emotional resolution of the novel, as Frenchie has learned to balance his own needs with sacrificing to help his family, and he reunites with Rose.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it is not a major theme in the novel, the concept of self-sacrifice can be seen multiple times throughout the story. Your interpretation of self-sacrifice was heavily influenced by internal guilt. You mentioned that Frenchie hated himself for having to make a decision between having to choose to follow Rose or staying behind with his father. He feels guilty for having to make the choice given the memories he has of both parties. However, I believe that self-sacrifice in the novel was used to show a sense of care for others, rather than being motivated by guilt. The first instance in the novel is when Mitch sacrifices himself so Frenchie can escape from the recruiters. Mitch serves as a distraction when he says “Tabernacle! Come get me, devils!”(Dimaline 3), which allows for Frenchie to hide from the recruiters. Mitch sacrifices himself so his brother could continue living. Then the same thing happens later in the novel, when Frenchie is with his new family. Minerva sacrifices herself to allow the entire group to stay hidden from the recruiters. This was clear when the group realized that “Minerva had moved the ladder sometime in the night”(151). Minerva separates herself from the group so the group could remain unnoticed while she was dragged away. Rather than being driven by past guilt, the self-sacrifice in the novel was done out of kindness, to allow family to continue living.
ReplyDelete