The Marrow Thieves: Life-Changing Internal Conflicts Is it the experiences that someone has that make them who they are? Or how they overcome and deal with the internal conflict they go through that does? Well, the character of Frenchie in The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline can answer this. This quote by Anthony Brandt, “Other things may change us, but we start and end with family.” can be used to describe the premise of Frenchie’s life, and how the change he goes through affects him. The book takes place in a future world where only indigenous people are able to dream, so they are hunted for their marrow to cure the rest of the world. The story follows Frenchie, a 16-year-old, Métis boy who has been on the run from Recruiters for years. …show more content…
These life-changing experiences are not what change him, but the different forms of internal conflict within Frenchie that rebirth him as a person. Frenchie first experiences this internal conflict with grief and hopelessness after the death of his brother. He then goes through an internal cognitive dissonance and has to kill a man to save his family. But his last internal conflict, potentially the most important one, comes when he reunites with his father, who he thought was dead, and his relationships with others change. The first and potentially most important time Frenchie experiences an internal conflict is when he is grieving after his older brother Mitch is captured by the Recruiters. At the outset of the novel, Frenchie and Mitch have lost both of their parents and now were living in a treehouse, with Mitch taking responsibility for Frenchie as an older brother. But when suddenly the Recruiters find them, to protect Frenchie, Mitch sacrifices himself and is taken. It is after his brother's death that Frenchie is consumed by guilt and thinks he is going to die. After Mitch’s death, Frenchie says “Mitch had sacrificed himself so I could …show more content…
When Frenchie and his new family are heading north they come across 2 indigenous men by the name of Travis and Lincoln who invite them to dinner. This turns out to be a trap and Frenchie is awoken in the middle of the night to his family being held at gunpoint, and after a series of events, RiRi is killed by Lincoln and Frenchie is standing pointing a gun at Travis. Out of rage, Frenchie pulls the trigger, and he sees the world differently. He says “Something had changed since I fired the gun, since I’d killed Travis. It was like a colour had ceased and now the world seemed dull.” (139) Frenchie now sees the world as an even more miserable place than before. This goes back to the idea that it's not necessarily the event that changes him but what goes on within Frenchie that makes him into a new person. This is the supreme ordeal of the novel, Frenchie is now facing his most dangerous situation yet, and it also goes on to be his toughest internal conflict. Equally important, Death is a very prevalent theme throughout the novel, and this is a new form of how death changes Frenchie. In this new situation, Frenchie for the first time makes a decision that leads to his metaphorical rebirth. He is now a tougher person and has now felt a new sense of
His overall response to the treatment was good. Braydon stated that he will work on his behavior this
The attitude of the novel is varying, and as expected of any good novel, there are many different parts, with the ability to provoke a myriad of profound emotions. In the first third of the novel, the reader is just beginning to acquaint themselves with the different characters. Furthermore, the abrupt changes in setting could give even the most placid individual whiplash. The main feeling that comes across is empathy. The Parisian people are living in the most destitute conditions with nothing to eat and no place to escape to.
I shuddered. I didn't want to know what they did. And I didn't really want to know if I'd be capable of doing it” (Dimaline 48). Here we see he begins to question if he would really stick to his current morals and be any different than the recruiters who were killing his people. This demonstrates how human nature is influenced by circumstance and the emotions and instincts that are evoked out of the circumstance because Frenchie infers through
The novel The Marrow Thieves (2017) by Dimaline is about violence. It explores the violence Indigenous people have experienced throughout times of environmental ruin and government oppression. In the novel, Frenchie is a 16 yr old boy who was original with his brother, Mitch, since he had recently lost both of his parents. They were hiding in a treehouse located somewhere in Canada but suddenly, they were found by recruiters, people sent by the government to detain Indigenous people. The world had been destroyed by natural disasters.
It changed him by making him realise he should let his emotions
He tells the story of how he moved out from New York to France to learn French. In his attempt to learn the language he comes across a rather mean teacher who influences the way Sedaris learns French. Sedaris’ tone in his essay is generally casual. The use of causality makes the essay more identifia-ble to the reader.
Izaiha Espericueta Cunningham English 1-2-Period 6 23 April 2023 The Marrow Thieves The theme of the The Marrow Thieves, survival comes at a cost, is best demonstrated by characterization. This can be explained numerous times throughout the story where some cases are that the main protagonist, Frenchie, experiences losses within the story, first being his loss of his brother, the loss of RiRi, and eventually the loss of Minerva. The loss of Minerva is the best example as the way the characters feels is demonstrated best by the quote, “Sometimes you risk everything for a life worth living, even if you’re not the one that’ll be alive to see it” (Dimaline 152).
Firstly, Frenchie regrets being unable to protect his family because he feels like he failed them and himself because he couldn’t keep them together. Frenchie says “I winced even thinking of it. My failure. I’d failed at protecting, and now, as a result, I failed at remaining myself” (Dimaline 180). Frenchie was saying that he feels bad for not being able to protect his family.
In the story “The Marrow Thieves” by Cherie Dimaline, a young Indian boy by the name of Francis, or Frenchie, is forced to live in a harsh world ruined by global warming and one that has lost a great ability, many have lost the ability to dream. Those who cannot dream have discovered this ability can be uncovered through the bone marrow of Indigenous groups, putting Frenchie in significant risk, and resulting in his family being lost to the corrupt environment. Despite being alone, he eventually finds refuge in a group of survivors of varying age who welcome him as one of their own. Although he is no longer alone, he is still faced with many hardships. Along the way, he is riddled with feelings of grief as he sees those around him being taken
Now he is able to laugh and have fun with others. He has grown into a person who values relationships. He does not care if others believe he is not tough or cool now. He admits that he was scared. This is a substantial change from before.
This made him want to treat everyone like angels even more and made him a overall better
It was there morbidity. This was the real issue between us as it had been between her and my father,”(45). James’s mother is desperate to cure her son of his lies, so much as she doesn’t realize that she is hurting him. James’s mother is distraught and is upset with the fact that he is an outsider and unlike his other siblings. Because his mother does not understand his problem James is yearning to get away from her and find out who he can be without being under the influence of her.
He gains a new sense of confidence and identity due to the adversity he
He also learns not to judge only by someone's past or the outside.