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Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Marrow Thieves, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Cyclical Histories, Language, and Indigenous Oppression
Family and Coming of Age
Humans and Nature
Trauma, Identity, and Pride
Summary
Analysis
The Council has a man in the schools, Father Carole, who passed along what happened to Minerva. According to Recruiters' logs, Minerva had been easy to bring in, though possibly insane—she only sang and wouldn't or couldn't speak English. They prepared her for the process. One recruiter raced to the restroom, while one stayed to watch the Headmistress and the Cardinals perform the procedure. Minerva hummed as they connected wires to her body, but then she began to sing. She called on her ancestors and put all the dreams in her bone marrow into her song. The Cardinals and the machine couldn't deal with the song. The Council realizes now that Minerva had been collecting dreams in preparation for this day. The system failed and started a fire.
Minerva's choice to sing a traditional song when they hooked her up to the machine was a way for her to show how proud she is to be Indigenous, and how secure she is in her culture. While it's unclear if she knew that she'd set the school on fire, the fact that her song had this effect suggests that this pride (and specifically, the language, songs, and stories in the language) can be weaponized to actually destroy the schools. While the schools seek to deprive Indigenous people of their language, asserting the power of the language decimates the schools.
Themes
Father Carole visits the school the next day to investigate. The once-imposing school is now melted and broken. The fence is down. Several camping Indigenous people followed Father Carole closer to the wreckage, and they pulled the smoky air over themselves in prayer.
Praying in the smoke from the school shows how meaningful Minerva's victory is for all Indigenous people, as it reminds them that they need to be proud of their identity and their culture in order to make it out of their dire situation alive.
Themes
