The Marrow Thieves - Literary Analysis Essay

Introduction

Cherie Dimaline wrote the book mentioned above, and it discusses a dystopian society. The book describes the World in 2050, where the latter has been immensely destroyed by global warming. A more significant majority of people are killed by occurring natural disasters such as Tsunamis, Tornadoes and devastating earthquakes. As a result of these unfortunate outcomes of natural disasters, people are destroyed psychologically which leads them to perform inhumane acts aimed at torturing the remaining population. In addition to this, people have lost their ability and will to dream. However, there is only one region in the whole World consisting of indigenous people who can dream, Canada (Dimaline, 2017). The unique feature that enables the people of Canada to dream is their distinct born marrow. Due to the demand of their born marrow, marrow thieves start hunting them down, but the Indigenous people of Canada stay hidden, as it is the only means of survival left for them. This paper aims at providing commentary for the book, by discussing its major themes and their relation to indigenous literature.

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Several themes are present in the book, The Marrow Thieves. Theft is one of the main themes present in the book. It's evident that the book discusses on a group of marrow thieves who hunts down the Indigenous people from Canada to steal their only means of survival which would allow them to dream again, that is, their born marrows. Aside from taking born marrows, the nomadic people of Canada are forced to contend with the theft of their stability and security which was once free to everyone, before the scientists realized the key to being able to dream again. The security and stability are stolen in such a way that the Indigenous people are living in fear and uncertainty (Diaz, 2017). This is proven by Frenchie, the main character in the story, who decides to go with Rose despite the security that his father had promised upon his stay.

The second major theme present in the book is indigenous knowledge. The marrow thieves are non-indigenous people, and they try to steal the knowledge that is possessed by the indigenous people, that is, the knowledge of dreams. Knowledge of the indigenous people is witnessed through Minerva, who is an elder when he destroys one of the "schools" responsible for extracting bone marrows from Canadian captives. The schools are also vital in symbolizing the history of Canada in attempting to appropriate indigenous knowledge in the process of killing indigenous people. The third major theme is bodies. The latter are the ones hunted by the thieves, and aside from their content, which enables people to dream, they also act as memory repositories. The theme of the body is personified by Minerva when we learn that he is the keeper of an original song and language (Rose, 2017). The body also describes the violence as they contain indelible marks. Wab, another character, explains how the marks on her face resulted due to rape from the marrow thieves as illustrated by the author. As a result, the body to this remarkable character reminds her of the painful struggles she has had to go through to survive.

The above themes are very crucial in explaining the struggles that indigenous literature has gone through before becoming a distinct literary genre. For instance, the indigenous knowledge contained in the subject is very crucial as it has enabled the type of literature to proliferate over the recent years (Ramji, 2018). People have discovered the importance of indigenous knowledge in indigenous literature, and as such, people are interested in it which raises its popularity. Theft of knowledge is common in literary genres, and hence its significant to Indigenous literature provided proper acknowledgment of the stolen information is done.

The book is essential as it discusses in the future that we are going to experience. For instance, it highlights on global warming which is a challenge that the global community is currently facing. Therefore, the book creates the fervent desire of the need for change to ensure that global warming does not destroy our future just like the book projects. Thieving is also common in our contemporary World. The book raises the importance of people security and stability. Thieves have been known to affect the previously mentioned aspects. A solution should be implemented to ensure that such activities are abolished, and people could live without fear and hidden for their survival. As such, the book had an impact on me as it discusses the modern challenges that many people face today. I believe it's imperative that people get to learn about the book so that it could help the greater population, globally.

Lastly, due to the literature review of the book done in the essay above, I believe it is crucial, and I would give it a five-star rating. I believe the book should be chosen as the top book for turtle island reads as its events coincide with the struggles through which indigenous literature had to go through before being established as a distinct literary genre. Its themes are crucial in a modern day setting as it has been discussed before and if the book is made the top book at Turtle Island reads, it would be able to reach many people and change our future.

References

Diaz, S. (2017, November). Cherie Dimaline On Erasure, the Power of Story, and "The Marrow Thieves". Retrieved from SLJ: https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=cherie-dimaline-erasure-power-story-marrow-thieves

Dimaline, C. (2017). The Marrow Thieves. Boston: DCB Publishers.

Ramji, S. H. (2018, June). The Marrow Thieves author Cherie Dimaline remains true to her role as a Metis "storykeeper" amid international acclaim. Retrieved from Quill and Quire: https://quillandquire.com/omni/the-marrow-thieves-author-cherie-dimaline-remains-true-to-her-role-as-a-metis-storykeeper-amid-international-acclaim/

Rose, J. (2017). The Marrow Thieves. Canada Reads, 5.