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Chapter 23
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Firekeeper’s Daughter, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Justice
Generational Trauma and Bigotry
Ceremony, Pride, and Healing
Love, Honesty, and Respect
Coming of Age
Family and Community
Summary
Analysis
Ron drives Daunis and Jamie to the Edwardses’ house. On the way, Daunis says that in addition to some players, Coach Bobby will be there—he and Grant got to be good friends after a shooting incident a few years ago. Travis, Levi, Stormy, and Mike were playing with a BB gun, and Travis accidentally shot a car window, blinding a woman. The boys wouldn’t say who did it, but Coach convinced Travis to fess up. After that, people shunned Travis. Jamie and Ron are annoyed that Daunis didn’t share this with them, but Daunis, angry at being asked to be a “snitch,” lists several juicy tidbits about locals and says that it’s not okay for them to come here and expect to just see bad guys. They haven’t earned the Sault’s stories.
It’s worth noting that as far as Daunis knows, Travis blinding the woman was an accident—and yet, he suffered majorly for his actions. Is it just, the novel asks, that Travis paid so dearly when he didn’t mean to hurt anyone? However, what’s more important to Daunis in the moment is calling out Ron and Jamie for being disrespectful to her community. She’s not going to just spill the Sault’s secrets because they told her to—if they want to learn what this place is about and get to the bottom of the meth issue, they’ll need to integrate into the community and develop some respect for it.
Themes
At the Edwards house, Daunis identifies all the luxury vehicles belonging to Dana, Levi, Grant, and Coach Bobby, but she insists nice cars aren’t suspicious and Coach won his in a poker tournament. It seems like yesterday Daunis was here as a player, but now, she holds hands with Jamie and realizes he sees all her friends as suspects. As stylish Mrs. Edwards tells people to eat at the table, Daunis thinks it makes sense that she bought GrandMary’s clothing boutique. She remembers overhearing GrandMary saying once that Daunis was going to outgrow the sizes the boutique carried; Mom threatened to leave town if GrandMary ever said anything about Daunis’s body to Daunis. She also insisted that Daunis get to see her Firekeeper relatives. If only Mom stood up for herself like she stood up for Daunis.
Similar to after the first Supes game, Daunis is unnerved by entering a familiar place with a new identity, as an adult. With this new identity comes new concerns: Daunis isn’t a player, so she’s less concerned about the game replays on the TV. Instead, she can focus on the interpersonal stuff going on between the various attendees. This also provides an opportunity for Daunis to realize again that Mom is stronger than Daunis tends to give her credit for, since Mom stood up to her own mom about not making Daunis feel bad for being six feet tall.
Themes
During the meal, Daunis makes sure she’s right next to Mike—she’s going to pretend to be interested in everything she says. As Grant gives Daunis a long look while lamenting that GrandMary won’t be at Shagala, Daunis thinks he’s “kind of a gross pervert.” Mrs. Edwards says that she already ordered a dress for Daunis, so Daunis should come for a fitting soon. As the conversation moves on, Coach Bobby says it’s not too late for Daunis to play national hockey. Daunis tries to hide how painful this conversation is. She can’t follow that dream, but only Auntie knows why. Daunis brings up the NHL lockout (strike) to change the subject.
Though Daunis has known Grant for some time because she and Mike play hockey together, her assessment of Grant as a “gross pervert” seems to have changed since Daunis became an adult. That he continues to make her uncomfortable suggests that Daunis may be more vulnerable than she realizes, even though she is with people she believes she can mostly trust. Again, the novel teases something from Daunis’s past that’s keeping her from continuing to play hockey, and it's clearly something that weighs heavily on Daunis.
Themes
Finally, Mike leads Daunis to his bedroom to set up the BlackBerry. Daunis plans to leave something there so she can come back downstairs, as his bedroom shares a Jack-and-Jill bathroom with Grant’s home office. They set up the BlackBerry, Daunis drops her old phone, and a few minutes after they return upstairs, Daunis heads back down to look for her phone. Daunis locks the bathroom door to Mike’s room, turns on the fan, and then enters the office. She takes photos of Grant’s bookshelves and then tries to access the file cabinet (the office furniture used to belong to Grandpa Lorenzo, so Daunis knows where the secret key is). But the key is gone. Hearing footsteps, Daunis tries to cover her prints in the plush carpet and then opens the door to Mike’s room. He’s right there, and he says he knows what she’s up to.
Daunis’s failure to get Grandpa Lorenzo’s old office furniture open symbolically highlights that Daunis has grown up—she no longer has access to things from her childhood, such as this cabinet. When this failure comes just before Mike concerningly insists he knows what Daunis is doing, it shows how lost Daunis is in her new adult role. She doesn’t yet know how to bring certain things from childhood (whether that be her friendship with Mike or her grandpa’s filing cabinet) into adulthood, and that’s wildly destabilizing. In this situation, if Mike truly does know what Daunis is up to, it could even be dangerous.
Themes
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