In The Marrow Thieves, Cherie Dimaline creates a theme of people and objects being lost and found. Whether it be physical or emotional, the things that are lost and found affect the entire plot. Arguably, the biggest loss that happens in the story in the loss of innocence and what that means for the characters in this world. When there is a loss, there must be a change to balance it out.
Without the traditional events that would usually mark a coming of age, characters undergo a change which signifies their adulthood. Frenchie is young and scared at the beginning of the story. His brother sacrifices himself so that Frenchie can escape and he is sick and dying until his finds Miig and the rest of the group. As he grows up, his innocence is protected from the apocalyptic world around him. When they go out hunting to find food, Frenchie doesn't kill the moose he sees even though it would feed them all for multiple meals. The child in him refuses to kill the animal and he "couldn't let it come to this, not for him and not for me" (Dimaline 50). He acknowledges that it's not a physical block that stops him from shooting but a feeling from within that prevents him despite the consequences. Later, when the group first encounters Lincoln and Travis, Frenchie notices that Chi-Boy has left the group to scout area and he is angry at himself for "sitting in the warmth with the Elders and kids" (123). He tries hard to act like the older members of the group but it doesn't come naturally to him because he has yet to experience the change that separates him from the children.
It is not until after RiRi dies and Frenchie wiling kills Travis that he experience the loss of innocence that makes him into the man he wants to be. Seeing RiRi die is the loss that changes him. When begging for his life, Travis switches from addressing Frenchie as "boy" to "brother" (Dimaline 136). Seeing that the child that he had met previously no longer exists, Travis is the first to see Frenchie as he is after the incident, a man. The decision to kill Travis proves that he has changed. This change in Frenchie is clear to both Miig and Rose as they worry for him after loss of RiRi and Minerva. On reflection, Frenchie says that it wasn't a change that he felt but he "just felt... less" (178). While innocence isn't a physical object or a thing that is lost in the same way, it is still something that can be felt all the same especially when it is no longer there. Loss is not always a bad thing for the characters in the book, but it is a thing that forces change.
Innocence is certainly an important theme in the novel and I agree that the moment where Frenchie kills Travis is an important turning point for Frenchie's character. However I think that killing Travis, while it does cause Frenchie to mature, isn't completely a good thing, as it is a memory that continues to haunt him throughout the rest of the book. Even as Frenchie grows into a leader, he also has to let go of his innocence and shoulder a greater burden, showing the cost of responsibility and adulthood.
ReplyDeleteI also think that RiRi herself is a good encapsulation of innocence is well. She always wants to grow up and hear the stories, and when she finally is able to hear the story at the Four Winds about how the Indians are being hunted for her Marrow, she is crestfallen and loses a great deal of her innocence.
For both Frenchie and RiRi, the loss of innocence is strongly felt, and even just these few example from their journeys show the how deeply our innocence and the loss of it affects us.