The Marrow Thieves Sparknotes

Everyone Has a Story In the novel, The Marrow Thieves, the author does an excellent job at including storytelling of indigenous culture. This storytelling helps French face and overcome obstacles in his way. When RiRi, a girl in their tribe who was beginning to feel like a little sister to Frenchie gets thrown off a cliff to her death, he felt like he failed to protect her. Her death became very destructive towards Frenchie. When Miig saw how much of an impact RiRi’s death has had on him, he tells Frenchie the story of when he lost Issac to the schools. This helped him regain the strength to not only never forget where he is headed, but also to continue living. Another obstacle that French was faced with was the potential loss of his first

RiRi got thrown off a cliff to her death, from one of the two Natives who they thought they could trust. The man quickly ran off into the woods after he killed her, they then realized they are trader Indians who are working for the schools. Frenchie had already lost everyone from his blood family, so this new family was all he had. When he lost RiRi, he refused to believe it, he did not want to accept the fact that she was dead. His head became so scrambled and he was not himself. His anger took over and he ended up shooting the other trader Indian who was the mans partner. Frenchie was going insane and could not handle RiRi’s death, he did not know if he could continue living like this. He says, “I wasn’t really sure of anything. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to run anymore. Maybe I could just sit and wait for the recruiters to pick me up. Maybe I could just use the last bullet I had in my gun to just go away.” (Boyden, p.140) Frenchie is done. He does not want to keep running, he feels like there has been no progress and everything is going wrong. Frenchie has come to the point where he believes suicide is the only solution to make his problems go away. Miig can sense something off with Frenchie, so he calls him up to tell him a story. Miig tells him how even though he managed to escape the school, he still felt like he had no reason to live because Issac did

Rose is his first love, but because he has found his father, he is torn on whether to continued the run with Rose or stay back with his blood, his father and this new family he has become part of and stay. With everything they have done for him, part of Frenchie feels obligated to stay with them. When Rose takes off, Frenchie goes to his fathers room, when his dad sees him he knows what’s bugging him. He begins telling Frenchie the story of when he ran away, and met his mother and immediately fell in love with her. He says “Your mother, she just looks at me real serious, and says, ‘Jean, running only works if you’re moving towards something, not away. Otherwise, you’ll never get anywhere.”(Boyden, p.217) He tells this story to help Frenchie understand it is time to move forward and start his own life and family. Hearing this story and his mothers words help him make his decision, to go running after Rose. He knows what he has to do, he can not lose Rose. Frenchie says, “Dad?” “Yes, son?” “I have to go.” “I know.”…And he kissed me on the top of the head, just like he used to when I was little. And I felt safe, safe enough to leave him.”(Boyden, p.217) Frenchie knows he must go after Rose, he can not just let her go like that, he must chase after his ambitions. The connection and love with his family will always be there, though