The Marrow Thieves

by

Cherie Dimaline

RiRi Character Analysis

A seven-year-old girl in Frenchie and Miig's family. Miig explains to Frenchie that RiRi came to the group as a baby with her mother, but Recruiters took her mother not long after. RiRi is generally happy, endearing, and sassy. She begins to crave more independence in the weeks before the main story begins, so she starts sleeping in her own tent (rather than with Minerva) and pesters Frenchie to tell her Story. RiRi finally gets to hear Story after Miig notices that she heard Wab's coming-to story, which was extremely violent, and hearing Story shakes RiRi and starts to expose a dark streak in her personality. Frenchie notices that after hearing Story, RiRi becomes more afraid of strangers and more apt to come up with scary or heartbreaking explanations for such things as the pink rubber boots she finds at the Four Winds resort. RiRi dies tragically a week after hearing Story when two Indigenous double agents, Travis and Lincoln, try to expose the group to Recruiters. Lincoln, inebriated, falls off a cliff with RiRi to both of their deaths. Her death is one of several things that motivate Frenchie to lead the group south to the resistance fighters.

RiRi Quotes in The Marrow Thieves

The The Marrow Thieves quotes below are all either spoken by RiRi or refer to RiRi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
).
Haunted in the Bush Quotes

It was painful, but I didn't really mind. The more I described my brother, my parents, our makeshift community before Dad left with the Council, the more I remembered, like the way my uncle jigged to heavy metal. Instead of dreaming their tragic forms, I recreated them as living, laughing people in the cool red confines of RiRi's tent as she drifted off.

Related Characters: Frenchie (speaker), RiRi, Dad, Mom, Mitch
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Story: Part 2 Quotes

"And all those pipelines in the ground? They snapped like icicles and spewed bile over forests, into lakes, drowning whole reserves and towns. So much laid to waste from the miscalculation of infallibility in the face of a planet's revolt."

Related Characters: Miig (speaker), RiRi
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:

"Soon, they needed too many bodies, and they turned to history to show them how to best keep us warehoused, how to best position the culling. That's when the new residential schools started growing up from the dirt like poisonous brick mushrooms."

Related Characters: Miig (speaker), RiRi
Related Symbols: Residential Schools
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:
Rogarou Comes Hunting Quotes

The schools were an ever-spreading network from the south stretching northward, on our heels like a bushfire. Always north. To what end? Now we'd lost RiRi. Now I'd shot a man. Would I even be welcome in the North? I couldn't even protect a little girl.

Related Characters: Frenchie (speaker), Miig, RiRi, Travis, Chi-Boy
Related Symbols: Residential Schools
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
On the Road Quotes

Everything was different. We were faster without our youngest and oldest, but now we were without deep roots, without the acute need to protect and make better. And I had taken up a spot that'd opened up in the middle of it all, somewhere between desperation and resolve.

Related Characters: Frenchie (speaker), Minerva, RiRi
Page Number: 154
Explanation and Analysis:
Loss Quotes

In them, there is always this feeling, an understanding more than an emotion, of protection. It didn't matter what was happening in the world, my job was to be Francis. That was all. Just remain myself. And now? Well, now I had a different family to take care of. My job was to hunt, and scout, and build camp, and break camp, to protect the others. I winced even thinking about it. My failure. I'd failed at protecting, and now, as a result, I failed at remaining myself.

Related Characters: Frenchie (speaker), Minerva, RiRi, Rose, Dad, Mom, Mitch
Page Number: 179-80
Explanation and Analysis:
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RiRi Quotes in The Marrow Thieves

The The Marrow Thieves quotes below are all either spoken by RiRi or refer to RiRi. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression Theme Icon
).
Haunted in the Bush Quotes

It was painful, but I didn't really mind. The more I described my brother, my parents, our makeshift community before Dad left with the Council, the more I remembered, like the way my uncle jigged to heavy metal. Instead of dreaming their tragic forms, I recreated them as living, laughing people in the cool red confines of RiRi's tent as she drifted off.

Related Characters: Frenchie (speaker), RiRi, Dad, Mom, Mitch
Page Number: 43
Explanation and Analysis:
Story: Part 2 Quotes

"And all those pipelines in the ground? They snapped like icicles and spewed bile over forests, into lakes, drowning whole reserves and towns. So much laid to waste from the miscalculation of infallibility in the face of a planet's revolt."

Related Characters: Miig (speaker), RiRi
Page Number: 87
Explanation and Analysis:

"Soon, they needed too many bodies, and they turned to history to show them how to best keep us warehoused, how to best position the culling. That's when the new residential schools started growing up from the dirt like poisonous brick mushrooms."

Related Characters: Miig (speaker), RiRi
Related Symbols: Residential Schools
Page Number: 89
Explanation and Analysis:
Rogarou Comes Hunting Quotes

The schools were an ever-spreading network from the south stretching northward, on our heels like a bushfire. Always north. To what end? Now we'd lost RiRi. Now I'd shot a man. Would I even be welcome in the North? I couldn't even protect a little girl.

Related Characters: Frenchie (speaker), Miig, RiRi, Travis, Chi-Boy
Related Symbols: Residential Schools
Page Number: 147
Explanation and Analysis:
On the Road Quotes

Everything was different. We were faster without our youngest and oldest, but now we were without deep roots, without the acute need to protect and make better. And I had taken up a spot that'd opened up in the middle of it all, somewhere between desperation and resolve.

Related Characters: Frenchie (speaker), Minerva, RiRi
Page Number: 154
Explanation and Analysis:
Loss Quotes

In them, there is always this feeling, an understanding more than an emotion, of protection. It didn't matter what was happening in the world, my job was to be Francis. That was all. Just remain myself. And now? Well, now I had a different family to take care of. My job was to hunt, and scout, and build camp, and break camp, to protect the others. I winced even thinking about it. My failure. I'd failed at protecting, and now, as a result, I failed at remaining myself.

Related Characters: Frenchie (speaker), Minerva, RiRi, Rose, Dad, Mom, Mitch
Page Number: 179-80
Explanation and Analysis: