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Foreshadowing
Genre
Explanation and Analysis:
The Marrow Thieves is a dystopian young-adult novel, as well as a coming-of-age (Bildungsroman) story. Frenchie and his siblings grow up in a post-apocalyptic world. This reality shapes their psychological and physical development as they transition from childhood into adolescence and then, finally, into adulthood.
These children must learn to cope with traumas that no adult mind, let alone a youthful one, is equipped to handle. Miig and Minerva protect Frenchie and his siblings to the extent that they can—but, tragically, in order to survive, the children must grow up rapidly. In a non-apocalyptic Bildungsroman, one might expect children to carry hope and excitement for the future; adolescent characters in The Marrow Thieves are worn down, ragged with the knowledge of their dire circumstances. Nevertheless, they persist.
In addition to being a Bildungsroman, The Marrow Thieves is indigenous literature. The intersection of indigineity with post-apocalyptic literature is common (see Louise Erdrich's novel Future Home of the Living God). Arguably, this is because indigenous Americans and Canadians have lived through and are currently living in apocalyptic conditions. Genocide and settler-colonialism have devastated indigenous communities, leading to displacement from traditional homelands, loss of culture and tradition through the residential school system, and high rates of addiction and disease in the communities that remain.
