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Chapter 36
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
Daunis thinks back to when Lily broke up with Travis over Christmas break. He made lots of grand gestures that sometimes convinced Lily to try again, but they kept breaking up. He began to lose weight and his good looks. Then, the day before Valentine’s Day, Travis offered Lily “love medicine” to take on Valentine’s Day. Lily refused and weeks later, Travis looked like a true addict—he was using meth-X.
It remains mysterious what the “love medicine” actually is, but the fact that good and honest Lily refused it suggests that it’s some sort of bad medicine. And what exactly it is, the novel suggests, is beside the point: Daunis’s main goal now is to keep this information out of the FBI’s hands for fear they’d abuse it.
Themes
Daunis knows now that Travis added the love medicine to meth, but the love medicine wasn’t what he thought it was: it gave a person control, which isn’t love. The kids in Minnesota who took meth-X didn’t get lovesick for girls, but for more meth. Daunis knows she must protect the knowledge of the love medicine. She drops Uncle David’s notebook in Ron and Jamie’s mail slot, feeling good that they’ll only learn what they need to know.
Thanks to Auntie and to her memories of Lily, Daunis comes to a healthier understanding of what love is and should be. It’s not about control, she realizes; it’s about wanting your partner to be okay, even if that means breaking up. Love medicine, which is bad medicine, on the other hand, gives a person control, not a way to honestly and respectfully connect with a partner.
Themes
When Daunis races out her front door the next morning, Jamie greets her with a “happy birthday.” Daunis prays for love this morning and wonders what Dad thought the first time he held her. Midway through their run, Jamie says that Ron is going to Marquette to enter Uncle David’s notebook as evidence. They discuss Daunis’s birthday plans and Daunis asks what Jamie meant when he said she was being clever. He explains that she was too calm, and he knows she’s hiding things—there were only 145 pages in David’s 150-page notebook. Jamie suspects the FBI will figure it out soon. Daunis asks if Jamie can trust that she removed information the FBI doesn’t need, but he simply asks if Daunis can trust him.
Daunis begins her birthday on top of the world and feeling connected to the people (alive and deceased) who love her, like Dad and Jamie. However, Jamie accuses Daunis of not following the rules, something that puts their fake relationship in jeopardy (if Daunis isn’t going to cooperate, there’s no reason for them to keep pretending for the investigation’s sake). But neither can ignore that their feelings for each other are becoming increasingly strong and genuine, leaving it open to speculation whether they’ll be able to reconcile their relationship’s beginnings with how they’re feeling now.
Themes
