Depiction Of Dystopia In The Marrow Thieves By Cherie Dimaline
In the book, The Marrow Thieves by Cherie Dimaline indicates how dystopia has been shown throughout the novel. She portrays this by telling that the government of the society is trying to destroy humanity. The indigenous people are being hunted by the recruiters for their bone marrow and their ability to dream. This is shown through a small group of how they are trying to escape from the recruiters and their survival. Dimaline showcases the importance of all the characters by telling their stories and how Frenchie survived. This shows that the each individual in novel has been through times where they faced problems. As Frenchie faces the loss of his family to the recruiters, the author tells about every individual about what happen to them.
In the novel, dystopia is shown through each characters point of view for various reasons. Throughout this dystopian novel, government is trying to rule the society by killing individuals to obtain their bone marrow and take away their ability to dream. In the book, individuals are being uprooted and displaced from their home which is the North. Finally, Recruiters are trying to hunt individuals, but some of these individuals are sacrificing themselves such as Mitch when he sacrifices himself for Frenchie. With dystopia, hope and culture can get the aspects of living through the hopelessness of dystopia.
To begin with, in this dystopian society, it shows that this society is a ‘dark’ place for the characters. This shows that the characters are trying to escape from the place for their survival and displacement from their home. In a dystopian world the characters are being uprooted from their homes and being displaced as this is a clear indication of a dystopian society. “We walk north, Dad had said then. North is where the others will head…. . I’ll try to find others. We’ll find a way, Frenchie. And up North is where we’ll find home”. This is significant because all the individuals have been separated from their homes due to the recruiters chasing them. Frenchie and his dad are trying to find the rest of the people since they escaped and believe that they will find a way home. As seen in the book ‘North’ signifies home for these characters because they have been living there ever since until the recruiters made a chaos for them. Therefore, in this dark world individuals are forced to run away for their survival as the protagonist Frenchie and his group try to make their way up to North.
Moving on, Indigenous people are being hunted and killed by recruiters for their bone marrow. This is seen when two Indians try to hunt Frenchie and his group, who are identified as Travis and Lincoln. These two Indians are trying to obtain their bone marrow which could be used towards the rest of the society. This is evident when Frenchie says to his mother “that place is a hot spot for Recruiters. It’s a pretty obvious Nish-magnet. . . . There’s no Indians left in this part of the city anyway”. This is important because Frenchie is warns his mom about the recruiters and the Indians. Frenchie knows the place old Friendship Center is a really obvious for them to be caught by the Recruiter. Also, they believed that there were no Indians left in the city, but later on in the story, two Indians who are Travis and Lincoln are known as bounty hunters try to join the group.
Later on, Indians chased the group when the groups finds out about them. Travis ends up killing RiRi and he get shot by Frenchie. This symbolizes the two Indians because of their action towards Frenchie and his group. Therefore, this is a clear indication of dystopia that shows that the Recruiters are evil trying to obtain their bone marrows and ability to dream. F
inally, in the novel, Recruiters are hunting people for their bone marrows to make them lose the ability to dream. All these individuals have been through a painful time where in the situation they had lost hope and ability to dream. With all these characters with ups and downs indicates the reason for losing ability to dream. “And I understood that as long as there are dreamers left, there will never be want for a dream. . . . the bigger dream held us all”. This is significant because characters in the novel had completely lost their hopes for everything for the reason of Recruiters hunting them. Even though with the ups and downs, these characters still have had their hopes up for the ability to dream. This is seen when Frenchie’s brother Mitch had sacrificed himself to the Recruiters to save Frenchie because he knew that Frenchie will make a change and would a good leader. Therefore, ability of dreaming is key in the society which was taken away by Recruiters, this shows that it is dystopia.
In conclusion, in the novel, The Marrow Thieves has shown indication of dystopia through the things characters have faced. This is seen when individuals are being evacuated from their home which is North. The cause of the evacuation was because of the Recruiters hunting everyone down while Frenchie and his father were finding other people for their safety. These individuals are being chased down and killed by the Recruiters for their bone marrow. The reason of this is because the government is trying control all these people and capture them in residential schools.
Lastly, Recruiters are trying to obtain their ability to dream. Recruiters trying to obtain characters ability to dream which has lead all of them no hope for dreaming, but the Frenchie and his group had their hopes up. Individuals believing that their hope for dreaming will be back because their ups and downs, they never gave up and believed they would achieve it. The government is known to be ‘bad’ in the novel because they are hunting individuals for their bone marrow which could be used to control their ability to dream. Therefore, individuals in the book knew that they will not survive from Recruiters, but from the sacrifices some characters made and their leadership lead to them escaping easily and power of dreaming.
