Hunting by Stars

Rose, a 16-year-old girl whose father is from Barbados and whose mother is Indigenous Canadian, is the second protagonist of the novel. She is described as being beautiful with curly hair and is known for being a skilled fighter. She was brought up by her grandmother and her brothers and came to be rescued by Miig after the elders died. Rose has been taunted throughout her childhood for her dark complexion and curly hair. In The Marrow Thieves, Rose and French fall in love. Rose is shown to be “quick to any emotion” (13), fast at decision-making, and intuitive. As soon as French is abducted, Rose decides to search for him despite having few clues to his whereabouts. She relies on her instincts and intuition to forge her path, and her journey takes her into many perilous situations, such as being imprisoned in the house of the egomaniacal Chief and being drained of her blood. Like French, she does not lose hope in the face of danger. One of Rose’s distinguishing characteristics is her connectedness with the language and intuitive wisdom of her cultural traditions. Rose has learned Cree from Minerva, the Elder of their group who died in The Marrow Thieves, and she frequently uses Cree words like “mosom” (41). Rose has also preserved the jingles that Minerva made and passes them on to future generations. Thus, she knows her specific place in history and acknowledges it.

Rose is also able to feel a connection with everything and everyone that touches her emotionally. Rose describes this as feeling invisible, painless threads connecting her to “who she was, where she had been, where she belonged” (149). In the Chief’s house, Rose feels one of the threads get tangled and call for her attention. In a dreamlike sequence, she traces this snagged thread to Derek’s room and realizes that he is in trouble. Later, a similar sense of connection compels her to give Minerva’s jingles to Ishkode. While Rose’s courage and intuition makes her act quickly, these qualities also compel her to make rash decisions. For instance, Rose exposes Derrick to danger when she rushes to explore the Chief’s house. Rose is also shown to long for a sense of belonging and family. Although circumstances have forced her to grow up quickly, often misses her grandmother and Minerva. When Jean invites Rose to stay at their camp as a daughter, Rose is tempted because she has not been a daughter for a very long time. It is partly this desire for belonging that makes her look for French, since he has come to be her family. As the novel ends, Rose has begun to form her own community, as shown when Nam claims her as their family. She has also learnt to temper her impulsiveness with planning, such as when she meets the underground network and requests their help to save French and the others. Because of her drive to save those who need help, such as Nam and the family, Rose is associated with hope and resilience. She is a round character who grows to understand the value of patience.

Mitch is an important character in the novel who symbolizes the toxic effects of cultural alienation on individuals and families. As French’s older brother by one year, Mitch saved French from Recruiters when the two were children. In French’s memory, Mitch is heroic and self-sacrificing. When the Recruiters break Mitch’s leg while kidnapping him, Mitch develops a permanent limp due to delayed medical attention. Mitch is taken to a residential school as a child and is starved and brainwashed into adopting a colonialist perspective of politics and religion. Although this religion is not explicitly named, the text implies that it is a form of Christianity. When he and French meet again, Mitch now believes that it is the Divine plan for Indigenous people to sacrifice their marrow for the rest of the population, and that once the current global crisis is overcome, Indigenous people will be equal to everyone else. Mitch’s views allow him to be promoted in the bureaucracy, and he willingly aids the government in persecuting his own people.

Seen through French’s eyes, Mitch has changed irrevocably. When French first meets Mitch, Mitch is dressed like a bureaucrat in an ill-fitting coat, which is a metaphor for the fact that Mitch has lost his place in the world. While Mitch first joined the Recruiters as a survival mechanism, much like French does, it soon becomes clear that Mitch and French are polar opposites. While French is morally conflicted about his choices and continues to hold onto his own belief systems, Mitch genuinely believes that his cause is just. He does not experience doubt while turning in Therese and Sunny, the mother-daughter pair, and he does not flinch at the ghastly prospect of Wab’s newborn being harvested for marrow. Thus, Mitch serves as a foil for French’s character. Mitch does not like being reminded of their childhood, and he is ill at ease in the wild, preferring the sterility of the institution’s buildings. This discomfort shows that Mitch has been spiritually separated from his own self. Although French loves his brother, he must kill Mitch to save his found family. Mitch’s death therefore gains an element of tragedy, because the profound effects of indoctrination have erased the ties between the two brothers. A flat character, Mitch does not evolve over the course of the narrative.

The Elder of French and Rose’s family, Miigwans (Miig) is a middle-aged Indigenous man who embodies the virtues of grace, patience, and wisdom. After Minerva died in the first book of the series, Miig became the parent-figure of his found family. Miig has been instrumental in rescuing many of the characters in the book, including French, Rose, Tree, and Zheegwon. French describes Miig as graceful and poised even in his shabby clothes. Recently reunited with his husband, Isaac, Miig does not have the luxury of spending much time with him. As the novel begins, the crisis of French’s abduction looms large, and Rose’s departure and the threat to Wab and Chi Boy’s baby increase the danger to the family. Miig has to make the difficult choice to leave Rose behind and uproot the family once again, moving them south. This decision shows that despite his love and concern for all members of his found family, Miig must force himself to act with patience and responsibility for the greater good of the group. When the need arises, Miig is even willing to sacrifice himself for the younger members of his group, such as when he asks the MOMS to take his marrow instead of Zheegwon’s.

Miig is also associated with the continuity of tradition, knowledge, and language. He is responsible for remembering and passing on the details of Story by telling the family the tale of how the world came to be in its current predicament. One of Miig’s characteristics is that he lets every member of their family tell their own tales, refraining from silencing the voices of others. This dynamic stands in sharp contrast to the Chief, one of the novel’s antagonists, who is a caricature of Miig’s wise leadership role. Like Rose, Miig is also intuitive. He knows instinctively that French pretended to join the recruiters to save himself, and he also surmises that French killed Mitch. Despite this knowledge, he has compassion for French and does not judge him harshly. Miig therefore symbolizes wisdom, guidance, sacrifice, and intuition.

Wab and Chi Boy are 18 or 19 years old at the start of the novel; they are a romantic couple. Wab is heavily pregnant and is just weeks away from giving birth. Chi Boy is shown to be a devoted partner to Wab. Both have a history of trauma. While Chi Boy grew up in foster homes and was hunted by settlers, Wab was raped in her childhood. Chi Boy is depicted as extremely tall, while Wab is described as beautiful. Wab has a huge scar running down one side of her face and shutting one eye, a result of her childhood trauma. Chi Boy and Wab’s scars symbolize their courage and resilience in face of oppression. While Chi Boy uses few words, Wab is fierce, confrontational, and incisive. For example, when Veronica compliments Wab on her infant even as Wab is chained in a cage, Wab notes the banality of her statement and scathingly remarks, “Maybe one day our kids can play together. Oh, wait…” (354). Wab and Chi Boy have a harrowing moment when they realize that the MOMS might steal their newborn daughter Ishkode to harvest her marrow. In a desperate attempt to spare her child this fate, Wab tries to smother Ishkode to prevent the baby’s torture and suffering. This act symbolizes the helpless position in which Wab finds herself. Ishkode survives, which represents the persistence of hope. However, Wab’s actions have changed her, making her quieter, and she must find a way to forgive herself.

The identical twins Tree and Zheegwon are 13 years old at the start of the novel. They are described as physically beautiful, though their bodies are marked by signs of maiming and disfigurement. The pinkie fingers of both boys are missing, and their backstory reveals that they were hung upside down in a barn by settlers, and cut and bled for the curative properties of their body. Despite this brutal past, Tree and Zheegwon are optimistic and fun-loving, and they function as younger brothers to French and the older teenagers of the group. At the end of the novel, the twins are shot and killed by the MOMS. Their tragic deaths show the ways in which children are made to suffer during conflict and war.

One of the antagonists of the novel, Chief Henry Williams is a corrupt Indigenous man who has lost the ability to dream because of his greed. As a foil to Miig, the Chief rules over his family with an iron fist, appropriating their dreams and stories. He traps Rose and her companion Derrick for their blood, which he feeds to his non-Indigenous wives on the false promise that it will cure them of the ravages of the plague. In return, he takes sexual favors from them. Depicted as grandiose and chauvinistic, the Chief wears his hair in a long braid and playacts stereotypes that settlers have about Indigenous Canadians. Thus, he exploits his heritage and culture for his own selfish ends. The Chief is allied with capitalistic and exploitative forces, and he even sexually abuses his sister’s child, Nam. The Chief’s storyline ends when Nam kills him so that Rose and Derrick can escape. The Chief’s character shows that even Indigenous characters in the novel can commit the same crimes as their non-Indigenous counterparts.

Described as strict, Agent Mellin is an antagonist in the novel. She is a senior agent at the school where French is imprisoned and has a business-like, efficient manner that belies her innate cruelty. Although Mellin has the appearance of a business executive, her job is to supervise the marrow extraction of residents. Marrow extraction is a painful and debilitating process that ultimately leads to death. French notes that Agent Mellin has red hair and wears business suits with no adornments. Though she projects a neutral front, she is quick to send French into a torture chamber whenever she feels that he is slipping up in his training. She also uses dehumanizing terms for Indigenous people, and she later tracks French to the United States, intent on his recapture. Mellin’s character shows how institutions and bureaucracies can systematically brutalize individuals.