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Travis
Miig's husband. He's of mixed European and Anishnaabe descent and looks more European than Indigenous in appearance, with green eyes and light skin. He was a poet and somewhat of a linguist, and is fluent in the Cree language. Miig, who spends the majority of the novel believing that Isaac died in the residential schools, notes that Isaac's trusting nature was his downfall: he trusted three Indigenous guests who turned out to be agents for the schools. After Isaac’s supposed death, Miig carries a glass vial containing Isaac's bone marrow with him. Later, Frenchie recognizes Isaac for who he is, thanks to the buffalo tattoo on the back of his left hand—his and Miig's "wedding ring." Frenchie discovers that, because Isaac dreams in the Cree language, he can be the key to destroying the residential schools.
Isaac Quotes in The Marrow Thieves
The The Marrow Thieves quotes below are all either spoken by Isaac or refer to Isaac. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Miigwans' Coming-To Story
Quotes
Isaac didn't have grandparents who'd told residential school stories like campfire tales to scare you into acting right, stories about men and women who promised themselves to God only and then took whatever they wanted from the children, especially at night. Stories about a book that was like a vacuum, used to suck the language right out of your lungs. And I didn't have time to share them, not now.
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Finding Direction
Quotes
He'd lost someone he'd built a life with right in the middle of that life. Suddenly, I realized that there was something worse than running, worse even than the schools. There was loss.
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Locks Mean Nothing to Ghosts
Quotes
I heard it in his voice as Miigwans began to weep. I watched it in the steps that pulled Isaac, the man who dreamed in Cree, home to his love. The love who'd carried him against the rib and breath and hurt of his chest as ceremony in a glass vial. And I understood that as long as there are dreamers left, there will never be want for a dream. And I understood just what we would do for each other, just what we would do for the ebb and pull of the dream, the bigger dream that held us all.
Anything.
Everything.
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Isaac Quotes in The Marrow Thieves
The The Marrow Thieves quotes below are all either spoken by Isaac or refer to Isaac. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Miigwans' Coming-To Story
Quotes
Isaac didn't have grandparents who'd told residential school stories like campfire tales to scare you into acting right, stories about men and women who promised themselves to God only and then took whatever they wanted from the children, especially at night. Stories about a book that was like a vacuum, used to suck the language right out of your lungs. And I didn't have time to share them, not now.
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Finding Direction
Quotes
He'd lost someone he'd built a life with right in the middle of that life. Suddenly, I realized that there was something worse than running, worse even than the schools. There was loss.
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Locks Mean Nothing to Ghosts
Quotes
I heard it in his voice as Miigwans began to weep. I watched it in the steps that pulled Isaac, the man who dreamed in Cree, home to his love. The love who'd carried him against the rib and breath and hurt of his chest as ceremony in a glass vial. And I understood that as long as there are dreamers left, there will never be want for a dream. And I understood just what we would do for each other, just what we would do for the ebb and pull of the dream, the bigger dream that held us all.
Anything.
Everything.
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