Hunting by Stars

“Walls only slowed you down. Walls left you without options.”

Walls and buildings are recurring motifs in the novel and emphasize the frustrations and limitations of both literal and metaphorical confinement. Walls are literally a prison for French, who is held in a residential school. However, walls are also a metaphor for the ways in which technology tries to contain the earth. Similarly, colonial mindsets require Indigenous people to suppress their own culture and assimilate.

“There had never been someone who had moved him the way Rose did, who had reminded him that life in this apocalypse was more than just survival, or at least it could be.”

French’s feelings for Rose illustrate the idea that love provides hope even in the darkest of times. French and Rose’s mutual longing provides each of them with compelling reasons to take great risks to find each other and rejoin their family, and this additional level of connection intensifies the tension of the narrative as the threats against the characters accelerate.

“It was his responsibility as a father to give his child a map to find the way forward. There was no forward movement without truth.”

Chi Boy tells his unborn baby his brutal experiences because Chi Boy wants the baby to survive. It is only when the child knows the truth that they will be able to prepare for it. Chi Boy’s statement can be interpreted as Dimaline’s broader comment on her decision to include violence in her book. Chi Boy’s statement implies that even young readers need to understand the perils of the world so that they can survive it and change it for the better.

“And then, when they tossed us into boarding schools to kill the Indian in the child…well, then we had to hide them so we wouldn’t just shrivel up. So, we’d still fight for the things that made us who we are.”

The vision of French’s mother refers to a detail from recorded history. In an 1982 speech, American military officer Captain Richard Henry Pratt described his approach toward assimilation by callously declaring, “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” The Canadian residential school system wholeheartedly embraced this approach, and French’s mother links this real-life aspect of history with the characters’ current predicament, for now people are actually killing the Native peoples by taking away their marrow and stealing their ability to dream.

“The world around them was lush to the point of opulence and they were kids again left to roam the garden. […] Earthworms slid slow bodies over one another like busy fingers in the soil. And everywhere was the smell of dirt. Real dirt, rich dirt, dirt meant for growth.”

Rose’s description of the wild is an example of the author’s poetic descriptions of nature. As she compares the earthworms compared to fingers, this simile links creature, soil, and human. The natural descriptions in the text often show how the earth is healing itself, growing back, and reclaiming its lands after the ravages of human activity. These interludes also provide moments of relief in the tense structure of the narrative.

“After that, I was escorted down endless hallways, and left to sit in a meeting room like the one where I’d talked with Mitch before I knew he was Mitch—which was before I knew he wasn’t Mitch at all.”

French’s internal monologue refers to the doubled loss of Mitch, for although French has found his brother, he soon realizes that the true Mitch of his childhood is lost to him forever. Significantly, French now associates Mitch with the institution’s bleak hallways and rooms, and this shift marks French’s estrangement from his once-beloved brother.

“Our lands are who we are. That’s not something easily replaced.”

Rose’s comment to the Chief shows her innate wisdom. When the Chief suggests that the Indigenous people have not lost anything that cannot be replaced, Rose reminds him that the loss of lands is colossal. In Native knowledge systems, a community’s lands are sacred because they stand as connections to the past and the future. The Indigenous people have not lost their ability to dream because although they have been physically displaced, they live in their lands via story and memory.

“For so long […] [t]he wasp sting of capitalism was left to grow malignant without proper care. And wasps can keep on stinging once they begin. They don’t die like bees, so they don’t have to be as committed to the damage.”

Miig’s words during story time use the metaphor of wasps to describe capitalism, the economic and political system driven by private ownership and profit. Capitalism requires people to keep acquiring land and resources for themselves, rather than sharing communal resources for widespread benefit. However, because resources are in short supply, capitalism cannot proceed unchecked. Capitalism can afford to keep stinging like wasps because stinging does not make a wasp die. However, humans, like bees, do die and wither after inflicting a sting.

“‘Ah, youngest is around eight or nine. Easy cargo.’ He laughed without looking up.”

As French is briefed about his final test, the dehumanizing words that the prep Agent uses for the Indigenous people being targeted nearly cause French to drop his cover. The Agent’s callous reference to a child as “easy cargo” shows how profoundly systematic cruelty can objectify people. Because the targets are seen as less than human, hurting them becomes easier.

“Humanity behind walls is highlighted. Humanity in the woods is insignificant. And because of it, I could take deep breaths and think of things other than myself.”

As French enters the wild after his time in the schools, he stops noticing the way he stank in the facility. This is because the smells of the wild dilute his own smells. Freed from the confines of his humanity, French’s thoughts also become wilder. French’s shift in perception shows the advanced perspective that many Native cultures have about the relationship between humans and their environment.

“I didn’t like him saying Indian. […] He hadn’t earned it. You need to love something before you can tease about it.”

Mitch calls French an “Indian” because of French’s ease with navigating the wilderness. French notes that although he and his friends sometimes also call each other “Indian,” the word feels odd and inappropriate coming from Mitch, for he uses the term as mockery, whereas French and his family use it as an endearment.

“If we change the institutes to focus on farming newborns, we can cut-out all the messy, in-between bits. And it means there will be a chance for more of us to integrate. To live like normal people.”

Throughout the novel, French has hoped to bring back the old Mitch. However, French’s hopes are killed when Mitch rhapsodizes about the next phase of the marrow harvesting program, in which Recruiters will harvest newborns for their marrow. In Mitch’s mind this move will spare adult Indigenous people, who can then integrate into settler society like “normal people.” As French feels horror at Mitch’s words, he finally realizes that his brother is lost forever.

“Sometimes you risk everything for a life worth living, even if you’re not the one who’ll be alive to live it.”

After French makes another impossible decision by killing Mitch to save his found family, he recalls Chi Boy’s words. Highlighting The Importance of Hope in Bleak Times, Chi Boy’s statement emphasizes the fact that individual sacrifices are often required for the sake of future generations.

“Being dead is not the worst. Being a traitor is.”

When Rose reaches the camp, she realizes that Bullet and the others think French is dead. She bitterly tells them that his fate is far worse, for she believes that French has turned into a traitor. Rose’s despairing words show the depth of her sorrow at French’s seeming conversion. However, by the novel’s end, it is made clear that a part of Rose never really believed that French would change so drastically.

“Moms do what is best for the children. Always.”

The motto of the MOMS is ironic, because it is self-serving to the point of caricature. The members of the MOMS believe that they are in the right because they want to secure a future for their children at any cost; however, their vision of the future sacrifices everyone else’s children for the sake of their own.

“We don’t harm children […]. Why even bring up our children?”

Miig’s exchange with Shirley-Rachel and Kelsey is significant because it showcases the hypocrisy of the MOMS, who represent a banal form of apathetic evil. Miig asks the women to let the family go, reasoning that the women don’t seem like the sort of people who would harm children. In this case, Miig is referring to Tree, Zheegwon, and Slopper. The women’s bewildered, cruel answer shows that their concept of children does not extend to those they consider to be “Other.”

“The moon never looked like anything other than itself, even when it changed, chasing itself from sliver to full to silver. But it had this ability to remind you of exactly the thing that haunted you. […] Tonight […] it was loss, a rib-shaped absence.”

Dimaline often uses poetic language to relive the tension in fraught scenes. In this evocative passage, the moon is personified to reflect the feelings of the family. Its shape seems to resemble Mitch’s removed rib, and the celestial silence of its watchful presence highlights a profound sense of absence.

“And you can live with keeping a newborn in an animal cage? I can’t even stretch out. It’s all blood and water in here. I’m in pain in here.”

This passage highlights the hypocrisy of Veronica, who tells Wab that she cannot help because if the MOMS do something to her own daughter, Veronica could not live with herself. Faced with the imminent death of her own newborn, Wab lashes out to criticize Veronica’s cruel double standards. Wab’s words also bring home the raw horror of her confinement, for she and her infant are locked in the bloodied cage in which she has just given birth.

“You’re my community, Nam. We got this. Whatever this is, whatever happens, we got this.”

Rose’s comforting words to Nam after they leave Derrick behind and head to find the family show the importance of found family. Nam and Rose have hope because they have each other.

“‘Listen, you know that this is not exactly a neutral zone. In fact, it’s kind of the opposite.’ ‘Yeah,’ Rose was already on her feet. ‘But it is a slim shot in hell.’”

Rose wants the underground fighters to head to the shed as soon as she learns that her family may be there. The fighters hesitate because the mission is dangerous. However, Rose’s words show that she is ready to chase the smallest glimmer of hope to rescue her family. This moment establishes Rose as a brave, decisive character, and it also underscores the importance of found family in the lives of the characters.

“‘Bitch, I’m from the rez,’ Nam called back. ‘I’ve been driving since I got out of diapers.’”

Dimaline uses moments of irreverent humor to relieve the tension in the text. When the family wonders if Nam can drive the truck in which they are escaping, Nam’s insouciant reply is typical of a teenager and is designed to appeal to a teenage reader’s appreciation for rebellious moments. The passages also refers to an in-joke about the stereotypical love for driving cars in reservations.

“The only thing we have to worry about is who the original people are so we can honor the lands we are on, and if we do that and remember to keep doing that, they don’t win. They never win when we remember.”

Miig’s important statement lays down a new, radical approach for inhabiting new lands. As the family members travel across the American plains, they too are looking for a spot to settle. However, they are determined to settle the land ethically, by honoring those who lived on the territories before them and becoming stewards of those territories on behalf of the original inhabitants. By remembering and respecting the inhabitants and the land, they will stay connected to their new context.

“I was warm, and I was breathing, and that was enough for now.”

As the novel ends, French is weighed down by the impossible choices he has made. He has yet to tell Rose of these choices, and he knows that the coming days will not be easy. However, this passage conveys his need to focus on the present and give himself a reprieve. French’s words show the importance of appreciating every moment of survival.