The Marrow Thieves Annotations/notes.

Back into the woods again - pages 91 - 100

imagery/metaphor
- “ the world had gone mad with lush and green, throwing vines over old electric poles and
belching up rotten pipelines from the ground”
- “ it (snow) looked like glitter scraped from the underside of clouds by the scrubby top
branches of the pines.”
Connotation
- “Where dreams were shrouded in fog”
Dreams were not some kind of mystery Francis and others, they are something practical that
can be used in one’s life: 93
“I could dream about it, though. I was thankful for the gift of dreams more than ever.”
Minerva is a kind, motherly soul, and she appreciates her culture and ancestry enough to pass it
down to the younger generation.
“Minerva boiled cedar branches and pine needles into medicine and fed it each of use every two
hours” (page 93)

This is a common motif throughout the novel, that the only way to survive is not to lose your
culture. Francis is drawn toward things, people or situations like that (Minerva introducing the
word Nishin - meaning good), and as a repeated phrase, calls it “old-timey”.
- After listening to Story, Riri has been trying to make sense of what she heard, yet she
pops in dark thoughts from Story in her life.
- “”She was wearing a new pair of bright pink rubber boots… ‘cruiters and they took her.”
94
Page 99
Harsh Imagery/Cacophony
“We found them tied up in a barn, dangling like scarecrows from a rope thrown over a beam”
(page 99)

Miigwans Coming -To Story Page 100 -108

Miigwans was married to a Man named Isaac, they were running (hiding) away from the
recruiters, but got caught, because Isaac was kind enough to shelter three suspicious people.
Both of them were taken to the death camp, but Miig was the only one to escape.

- Miigwans was mentioned by Francis’s father before Francis met the group, which ended
up with Francis meeting Miigwans. Francis’s father also mentioned Isaac, will Isaac also
appear in the novel? Page 102
 Imagery
- “ It was more because he (Isaac) felt he had value as a poet than the fact that
that he was a pale, green-eyed half-breed”
- Metaphor/connotation
- “He had a soft spot for strays.” page 101
Metaphor/allegory:
“The ones that pulled themselves up like wooden monsters coming to attention
across the land back in the 1800-monsters who stayed there, ingesting our
children like sweet berries, one after the other, for over a hundred years” Page
106

He’s telling his story to Francis

Finding Direction page 109 - 118

Page 108

“Have the hope to put one foot in front of the other" - a metaphor for saying for
having the hope to keep going here it's literally meaning because they have to
walk up north.

Page 109 - Personification “ allowing exhaustion to make the decisions” -

Exhaustion being the cause for their cozy set up to fall asleep after a hard day.

Pages 118 231 to ( a bit of the second third and the last third)

Summary Riri is taken from them, by Indians, who work for the governmental
authorities (the recruiters). The group is thrown into grief, and Frenchie, for self
defense, kills one the two men who hurt Riri.
- Author’s message on morality:
- Even if people come from the same culture, their environment, (in
extreme situations such as the novel’s apocalyptic world) coerces them
into acting in ways that, before they would find impossible to do.
Therefore, true kin is when you have the same spirit and mind and are
heading for the same goal together.

Minerva, seen as an old, crazy woman with deep stories and hidden wisdom, sacrifices herself
to the recruiters right after Riri died. She does this so as to keep the group clear of any danger
while heading up north.
(page 150) “ I hung my head over the edge and for a moment… ‘clear’ said another recruiter”

The group's goal was to get Minerva again, but they failed in their plan, as Minerva was shot by
a recruiter.
After traveling for a while, Frenchie and the rest of the group are discovered by another larger
group, which they later realized were indians - one of them being Frenchie’s father. Rose and
Frenchie went through a lot of conflict with each other, mostly due to jealousy and Frenchie’s
loyalty to his father. But soon, after forming a new group with younger people, Frenchie and
Rose left the camp and soon began to search for some people who could guide them like
Miigwans (who remained at the camp). They came across a smaller camp full of a diversity of
different people. Frenchie later realized that one of them was Isaac. He led him to Miigwans and
they were reunited. Frenchie now understood how powerful their ability to dream was, and how
it can be manifested in real life.

Outstanding literary devices:

Imagery
-
Metaphor
- “But you don’t turn your back on a dangerous animal. Only squirrels
should be able to see your spine”
- They underestimated Lincoln what he was capable of - hurting a child
(Riri)
Simile
- (imagery) page 146
- “Jumping a narrow gorge and crossing a clover filled clearing like gazelles
with packsacks”
Personification
- Page 109 - Personification “ allowing exhaustion to make the decisions” -
Exhaustion being the cause for their cozy set up to fall asleep after a hard
day.
-
Plot -
Conflict - Frenchie conflicts with his outer environment in order to survive, the
recruiters being the main antagonists.
Frenchie also has inner conflicts such as conflicting on what is the correct action?
- “It didn’t matter what was happening in the world… I failed at remaining
myself.” page 180
Character arch:

All characters had separate back stories and character arcs.

Miigwans learned to accept his life and move on from his life that he built with
Isaac.
Wab learned to move on from her trauma and learned to love and accept her life
(Chiboy)
Rose didn’t change much, she was a supporting character (static character)
 The story was mainly about Frenchie and he is a dynamic character. He went
from being a lost child, who was protected by the sacrifices of his family, to a
responsible youth, who had the ability to love and protect his new family and his
love (rose).

My favorite quote is the last quote of the book:

“and I understood just what we could do for each other, just what we would do for the ebb and
pull of the dream, the bigger dream that held us all.”