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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the legal name of the character who goes by the nickname of Frenchie?

2. What kinds of objects does Frenchie observe Minerva cleaning and storing for a mysterious purpose?

3. When the narrative opens, Frenchie and his brother have been staying in a treehouse for how many days?

4. The phrase "a plague of madness" (44) was applied to what condition when the condition first emerged?

5. Which activity does Frenchie describe as both productive and painful?

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the symbolism of the freezer featured in Wab's Coming-to Story?

2. What is the symbolism of the whistle featured in the opening chapters of The Marrow Thieves?

3. What shared goal is agreed upon by Frenchie and Rose by the end of the chapter entitled Magic Words?

4. Discuss Dimaline's use of the dream motif to create a particular mood in the chapter called Haunted in the Bush.

5. Discuss Frenchie's paradoxical feelings about the act of remembering.

6. When the chapter called A Plague of Madness begins, there has not been a Recruiter sighting for how long?

7. Provide evidence from the chapter called The Four Winds to prove that Frenchie's group has rites and traditions.

8. With which character does Frenchie begin to spend more time in the chapter called Haunted in the Bush?

9. Provide evidence for the conclusion that Frenchie and his brother Mitch are not getting their basic needs met during the time when the novel opens.

10. For what reason does Dimaline sometimes include slang and profanity within the narrative?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

What is the function of Minerva's character within the novel? Discuss the characterization methods used by Dimaline in depicting Minerva and include in your discussion the reasons that Dimaline portrays Minerva in these particular ways.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss Dimaline's choice to tell the story of The Marrow Thieves using the first person point-of-view of Frenchie, with the exception of each main character's coming-to story. What elements of the novel's themes lend themselves to this choice and what are Dimaline’s intended effects on the reader?

Essay Topic 3

Discuss how and why Dimaline instills three different humanist messages into the narrative of The Marrow Thieves.

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