Although The Marrow Thieves is technically a YA novel, it still abides by certain conventions of children’s literature. One way that it is similar to children’s literature is through its plot, which is a classic home-away-home plot. In children’s literature, this plot involves a character’s growth split into three parts where they: become frustrated by parental control that limits their autonomy, leave home to gain autonomy, and then eventually come back home to parental control due to the comfort and safety it provides. The Marrow Thieves is a home-away-home story, yet, the way that it subverts the typical structure of this plot allows the novel to critique society, examine the protagonist, Francis’ maturation into adulthood, and to explore the notion of family in a way that is closer to YA fiction than it is to children’s literature. Firstly, the inciting incident is indeed something that drives the Francis away from his home. However, instead of being driven away by a strict parent, he is forced to run for his life from a strict government that wants to harm him. The effect that this has is that it allows for the novel to make social critique on government systems both past an present. One example of this is occurs during a passage in which Jean, Francis’ father, recalls “‘Miigwans say[ing] the Governors’ Committee didn’t set up the schools brand new; he says they were based on the old residential school system they used to try to break out people to begin with, way back’” (5). The persecution of Indigenous peoples’ for their bone marrow in this fictional novel is directly related to the very real residential school system that harmed very many people, thus, the novel criticizes the residential school system. Secondly, Francis’ ensuing journey is filled with moments where like in a home-away-home plot, he can make decisions for himself. The difference here, is that instead of playing the part of an adult, he must instead, become the adult and make decisions not just for himself, but also his group. An example of this is when Miig instructs Francis, telling him that “‘sometimes, you have to not bring things into the open, put them aside so that people have the hope to put one foot in front of the other” (108). According to Miig, Francis must learn the adult skill of concealing information when necessary for the greater good of the group. By approaching the “away” component of the plot from a teenager-adult character growth standpoint, the novel adds an additional later to character autonomy not often present in children’s literature. Lastly, the novel then plays on the third component of the home-away-home plot by placing Francis in a position where he must make a decision between his biological family, and his found family. This is different than a typical home-away-home plot because instead of the child protagonist having the easy decision to come home to a family, the novel explores the definition of home by having Francis face the dilemma of whether “home” and safety is defined as the family that he was born into, or the family that he has found during his time away from his biological family. Social critique, personal identity, and notions of home are all explored in The Marrow Thieves through both the use and subversion of a home-away-home plot.
Dimaline, Cherie. The Marrow Thieves. Altona, Cormorant Books, 2023.
