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Chapter 10: Mariah
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Five Little Indians, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Resilience and Redemption
Cruelty and Trauma
Family
Finding Home
Summary
Analysis
Eventually, Kenny finds Lucy and Kendra again. And although he desperately wants to be part of their lives, he struggles to stay in one place for any extended period. But on one visit to Vancouver when Kendra is a toddler, he asks Lucy to marry him. At first, she holds off—she’s afraid he’s just going to leave again. But Kenny he finds work in the city, and for a while, he sems stable. Kendra flourishes. The family spends lots of time together on Kenny’s days off, visiting local parks and the beach. But the urge to flee grows in Kenny, and the Monday after his and Lucy’s City Hall Wedding, he makes breakfast, puts on his work boots, kisses his wife and daughter goodbye, and flees back to the logging camp. Although he regularly sends money home to Lucy, he knows she must be angry and disappointed.
Kenny and Lucy try very hard to form a stable family for themselves and for their daughter, but the unhealed wounds of their residential school experiences continue to fester, poisoning their attempts. It’s clear that Kenny wants to stay at least as strongly as he feels driven to leave, and much of the pathos in his story arises from this conflict. He has a noble, loving, and loyal character, but the schools compromised his ability to be the person he truly is, deep down. And this, in turn, visits trauma on Kendra, even though she herself is spared the first-hand experience of attending the residential school.
Themes
One day, Kenny receives a letter from Clara informing him that Lucy has fallen seriously ill and been hospitalized. The kind and understanding foreman gives Kenny his paycheck and a ride to the ferry, expressing his hope that Kenny—such a conscientious worker—will come back after his wife has recovered. Clara is furious when Kenny finally arrives in the city. She berates him for abandoning his wife and daughter. Lucy is initially angry, too, but she soon softens toward Kenny. She knows he can’t fight the urge to flee. But she warns him that if he can’t stop, he’ll owe Kendra an explanation one day. The day after she’s discharged, she encourages Kenny to go back to the logging camp, hopeful that if he leaves before he feels he must, he might also be able to come home sooner.
Although Kenny can’t be the husband and father he wants to be, Lucy and Kendra still have Clara to rely on. And Kenny benefits from Lucy’s love, even if it’s not enough to heal all his psychological wounds. This chapter emphasizes Lucy’s and Kenny’s resilience and their willingness to keep trying and to keep supporting and loving each other even when their efforts are imperfect. And the quiet beauty of their mutual love throws into stark contrast the violence of the system that traumatized them both.
Themes
