The Marrow Thieves Themes

The Marrow Thieves introduces the reader to a horrific post-apocalyptic world in which the majority of the population has lost the ability to dream—everyone, that is, except Indigenous populations, which are being targeted, kidnapped, and taken to residential schools where their bone marrow (which holds the ability to dream) is harvested. The novel follows Frenchie, a sixteen-year-old Métis boy, as he travels north with other Indigenous children, as well as middle-aged Miig and elderly…

It's telling that Miig introduces the eight children and young adults with whom he travels as his family—given the trauma they've all experienced and the fact that many of their blood-related families have been broken up, a makeshift chosen family is the only kind of family that most of the novel's characters will ever have. However, this is a difficult proposition, especially for Frenchie: he often dreams of his brother, Mitch, who sacrificed…

The world presented in The Marrow Thieves is one in which Indigenous people have been reduced and flattened—in the eyes of the white government—to be nothing other than a commodity. Those who are on the run must contend with the horrific, dehumanizing fact that to many, they're something less than human. As the novel unfolds, Dimaline highlights the many forms of trauma that the Indigenous community is forced to shoulder, from physical violence to emotional…