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Hunting by Stars
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Chapter 33-EpilogueChapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 33 Summary: “Welcome to the Leisure Dome”
The women hijack the wooden boxes and lift them into their cars. Miig tries to reason with them but realizes that they are monstrous, despite their smell of perfume and soap. As soon as the women open the boxes, they inject French and the others with a sedative. When French wakes up, he and the family are chained and caged in a shed-like space that is part of an abandoned amusement park called the Leisure Dome. The women have left the train’s conductor and one of the nurses, Theo, tied up at the station. As the family begins to discuss what has happened, Wab asks French if Mitch has betrayed them. French wants to tell everyone the truth about what happened to Mitch, but Miig stops him, implying that now is not the time for French to tell that story.
Two of the MOMS, Shirley-Rachel and Kelsey, enter the barn. They are drunk, and although the group leaders have ordered them not to touch the family, they are impatient to obtain some marrow. They decide to take one person for extraction, and they choose Zheegwon. They are in the process of opening the numeric bike lock on Zheegwon’s chain when Miig intervenes and offers himself instead, claiming that as an experienced Elder, his marrow will have more dreams than Zheegwon’s. The women take Miig away. When they return him later, his shirt is soaked in blood. The women tell the group that they have removed part of Miig’s rib. Rania asks them for medical supplies, and the women comply, knowing that Adelaide will be angry if a family member dies. Rania attends to Miig, stitching his wound with the help of a sewing kit.
The next morning, Adelaide and Elizabeth visit the family and leave Veronica, the youngest of the MOMS, to keep watch. French overhears the women tell the sentry outside the shed that Recruiters have learned about their operation and have asked for a meeting. At that instant, Wab’s water breaks.
Chapter 34 Summary: “Something Wicked This Way Comes”
Agent Mellin is on her way south to the United States to bring back the captured family. Earlier, Mellin received a call from a woman named Adelaide about a cargo of people they had apprehended. Mellin was thrilled to learn that the description of one prisoner matched French. In exchange for the cargo, the woman on the phone wants to immigrate to Canada with her son and obtain a supply of marrow serum. Mellin agreed, preferring to deal with the woman directly rather than involving the US government, who would probably give the captured people asylum.
Chapter 35 Summary: “Bloom”
In the shed, Wab’s labor is underway. Tree and Zheegwon try to free their hands while Rania instructs Wab on how to breathe through her contractions. French, whose cage is close to Wab’s, talks to Wab to soothe her. Miig and Isaac sing songs. Everyone pushes the threat of the Recruiters back to their minds to focus on Wab. French notes that even though Wab is crying out in pain, no one from outside comes to help her. All they care about is that their supply of marrow is alive. Wab has to be her own midwife, and whenever she can, she locks eyes with Chi Boy, who has flayed his hands in his attempts to break free and come to her. Hope arrives when Wab gives birth to a baby girl. She cleans up the baby and holds her up to show Chi Boy their daughter. Chi Boy names her Ishkode, which means fire. Miig says it is a good name for one who will bring change. Meanwhile, Zheegwon announces that he has found a way out.
Chapter 36 Summary: “What’s Yours”
Adelaide packs up her belongings and prepares her ill son, Jimmy, to leave. The lady on the phone promised Adelaide that she would pick up Adelaide and Jimmy once she captured the family and met the MOMS. The lady promised not to reveal the identity of the informant. Adelaide leaves her house and waits with Jimmy for the lady.
Chapter 37 Summary: “Herd”
Zheegwon tells the others that he can remember the first three digits of the bike lock the women used when they tried to take him. Because the code has five numbers in total, they can try to guess the rest of the digits. Tree and French try different combinations. Veronica, the youngest of the MOMS, enters the room with chocolate chip cookies for the group. When she sees Ishkode, she seems overcome with affection and apologizes to the group for their predicament. Wab urges Veronica to do the right thing and free them, but Veronica is afraid that the others will harm her daughter, Angel, if she helps the captives. Veronica suggests that because the Recruiters do not know that Wab has given birth, the MOMS can keep Ishkode secret and safe. Wab senses something amiss with this story and asks Veronica if the MOMS only plan to keep Ishkode so that they can eat her for marrow. Veronica leaves, suggesting that Wab’s fears are true. The group grows frantic at the news, doubling their efforts to break free. Rania discovers a pair of scissors at the bottom of the sewing kit and cuts her ropes. At the same time, French and Tree get the right combination, and Zheegwon’s lock falls open.
As they hear a car arrive, French shouts at everyone to get in their cages and pretend they are still shackled. Fearing that Ishkode will be eaten, a panicked Wab tried to smother the baby. As Elizabeth Purdue appears in the doorway, French shouts for Zheegwon to attack. Zheegwon tackles her, and her head hits the cement. Someone from outside shoots Zheegwon. French opens Wab’s cage and takes the baby to Isaac and Chi Boy. The baby has stopped breathing, so Isaac begins administering CPR. Meanwhile, more MOMS enter, and a battle ensues. Rania is shot and killed. An armed Veronica heads toward French to kill him next, but she is killed by an unknown assailant in black, who enters the shed and reveals herself to be Rose.
Chapter 38 Summary: “How Rose Arrived – A Different Coming-To Story”
The narrative shifts back in time to describe Rose’s journey to this moment. Rose declined to stay with Jean and the others and instead planned to find Miig based on the instructions he left with the Council. She left a crying Derrick in the woods, and Nam insisted on coming with her. Rose and Nam walked through the woods for many days before they met a rebel nurse, who told them that most Indigenous families were heading south for safety. A truck was crossing the border the next day, and she offered to get Rose and Nam onto the truck.
The truck took Rose and Nam to a safehouse in the US, manned by armed men and women dressed in all black. When one of the men brought news that a Indigenous family, including a pregnant woman, had been captured by a vigilante group, Rose immediately knew that these were her people. The man told Rose and Nam that Recruiters were crossing the border to repatriate the family. Rose insisted the others take her to the place where the family was held.
Chapter 39 Summary: “Subtract and Add”
Rania, Tree, and Zheegwon are dead. Ishkode has recovered and is back with her mother. Miig asks the family to pick up their dead and prepare to leave. Chi Boy gently explains that they cannot take the dead as it will slow them down. Miig agrees, and the family lays their dead under a tree, paying their last respects. Miig and Chi Boy take the twins’ hat and Rania’s medal as a keepsake. Nam arrives in a truck to fetch the family. Everyone gets in, and French has a feeling that this time, the group is headed home.
Chapter 40 Summary: “Begin Again”
The family members take turns driving farther south into the American plains. Nam believes the migration means that the schools have won, as they have chased the Indigenous people out of their country. Miig reminds Nam that borders are imaginary; as long as they honor the original people of the lands they visit, they will never lose. The family stops at a small patch of trees to bury Rania’s medal and the twins’ hat. Later, French talks to Miig to ascertain how much the elder has surmised about the actions French took to escape from the school and to keep the family safe from Mitch. Miig reassures French that the boy only did what was necessary. French learns that Minerva’s last name is Eliott and realizes that Marguerite Eliott, one of the school inmates who gave French a message, is Minerva’s daughter. French knows that he needs to save Marguerite and the others whom he captured.
When French and Rose are finally alone, they hug and kiss. Rose tells French that she was never romantically involved with Derrick, which is why she came looking for him and the family. French does not tell Rose what happened to him and Mitch. He is with her and alive, and for now, that is enough.
Epilogue Summary: “The Girl Who Would be Loud”
Rose wakes up in the middle of the night and goes into a field. She remembers her grandmother and Minerva, the ancestors who are now hung as starry portraits in the night sky. When Rose was a girl, she wanted to be a Jingle Dress dancer. Jingle Dress dancers are healers who wear regalia, a dress lined with silver cones. The sound of the jingling cones has a healing property. Rose’s grandmother had told her that the Jingle Dancers performed at powwows, their skirts heavy with 365 jingles: one for each day of the year. Later, Minerva showed Rose the jingles she crafted herself from old tin cans. Rose has kept these jingles. She now walks to Wab and Chi Boy’s tent and tucks the jingles next to Ishkode. Although Rose can sense trouble coming their way, she knows that Ishkode will be loud. Ishkode will dance and fight because her ancestors have dreamed that for her.
Chapter 33-Epilogue Analysis
As the novel’s pace accelerates to its climax, the action-packed descriptions highlight many of the novel’s recurring themes, and as the family confronts new dangers, the motif of migration shows many disparate paths converging into a new version of unity. Although the novel concludes with the family embarking on yet another journey, this one is far more hopeful than the family’s previous adventures. However, the perilous nature of the family’s journey to Albany, New York highlights The Impact of Greed on Indigenous People and the Environment, for as the family members flee from the threat of the Recruiters, they nonetheless fall prey to unforeseen threats. This development underlines the sense of mortal danger that always surrounds Indigenous people in the novel’s world. The fact that the Indigenous peoples travel through a literal railroad is also an indirect homage to the Underground Railroad of United States history, when enslaved people escaped their enslavers via a sympathetic network of guides and safe havens. By referencing the Underground Railroad, Dimaline roots the novel’s dystopia in historical reality and forges a sense of solidarity between the Indigenous people in the novel and Black people. Significantly, many of the people helping the Indigenous people are non-white, such as Rania, the nurse from Pakistan. This pattern establishes a sense of community among various peoples whom colonial perspectives have often labeled as “Other.”
When the family’s journey is interrupted by the MOMS, their hope for safety and freedom is contrasted starkly with the cruelty of their confinement in Shirley-Rachel’s shed. As the family languishes in chains and the heavily pregnant Wab is “locked in a cage not much bigger than a kennel” (324), the direct comparison of her confines to a dog crate implies that the MOMS consider the family to be little more than neglected animals. Ironically, the area in which they are confined bears a sign that reads, “Welcome to the Leisure Dome” (324), and the contrast between the banal words and the inhumane conditions highlights the underlying message that injustices and atrocities can take place even in the most innocuous of settings. Thus, this section employs multiple examples of irony, contrast, and paradox to illustrate the banal face of evil. For example, when Miig tries to reason with Shirley-Rachel and Kelsey, French notes that the bright personas of the MOMS barely hide their violent, irrational streak, and he concludes that the family has been “grabbed by monsters, even if they did smell like floral perfume and strong soap” (323). Similarly, their perspective of the family members as commodities rather than people is highlighted when Shirley-Rachel and Kelsey are impressed by the size of the group and callously remark, “So much meat!” (329). Even the softer members of the MOMS are shown to be pernicious, for although Veronica expresses regret over Wab’s condition, she makes no move to help her. Likewise, in the final confrontation, Veronica’s soft veneer has evaporated, and in its place is pure anger that her daughter’s source of marrow may be getting away. The motif of non- Indigenous people consuming and cannibalizing Indigenous bodies continues with Veronica’s hint that the MOMS plan to harvest the newborn Ishkode. The image of the cannibalizing, greedy human may also be linked with the wendigo motif that is common to the lore of many First Nations peoples, including the Cree. A wendigo is a murderous and cannibalistic spirit that is born when a human becomes too greedy, they turn into a wendigo. The climactic scene therefore showcases an extreme version of The Impact of Greed on Indigenous People and the Environment.
However, the dark and visceral cruelty of the MOMS is juxtaposed with the redemption symbolized by Wab’s pregnancy and labor, which emphasizes The Importance of Hope in Bleak Times. In a world where climate change and plagues have made procreation difficult, the birth of a child implies that all is not yet lost. Despite myriad attempts to erase Native identity and voices, hope is asserted in the figure of the crying infant, a child destined to “be loud” (386). Even Wab’s intense labor offers hope because the entire family labors with her. As the baby comes, French states, “We all rocked with [Wab], counting, yelling out encouragement, breathing with her” (347). And when the baby cries, French exclaims in euphoria, “We had a child” (347). The family’s experience of communion promises hope for the future and is contrasted with the divisions and betrayals that characterize the MOMS, for although the MOMS initially seem united, they are soon revealed to be conspiring against each other. However, the innate spirit of betrayal that motivates the family’s captors also highlights the deep authenticity of the family members’ connections to one another.
Rose’s arrival at the shed constitutes a deux ex machina, a narrative device in which characters are miraculously rescued from an impossible situation. Additionally, Rose’s decision to follow the family is an example of her intuition. Rose is a character who draws from her own instincts and from the wisdom of her loved ones and ancestors, and this intuition tells her that French has not turned against his people, despite all the evidence to the contrary. By never giving up on the family or French, Rose becomes a beacon of community, hope, and resilience. Though the last few chapters are colored with grief due to the loss of Tree, Zheegwon, and Rania, the narrative also contains a sense of rising optimism. The family mourns and honors their dead, but the mourning is bittersweet because they know that the dead are always connected to the living. Likewise, Rose’s memory of the Jingle Dress Dancer is a symbol of the continuity between the departed and the living. In the Jingle Dress Dance, women wear regalia ornamented with “jingles,” or metallic silver cones. The dance is performed at powwows, and the music of the jingles is said to have a curative property. In Rose’s world, the dances and powwows have already stopped because of the hunting of Native peoples. Even so, the memory of these traditions is kept alive in stories, such as those of Rose’s grandmother. As the novel ends, Rose gifts Minerva’s jingles to Ishkode, drawing a line from her grandmother to Minerva to Ishkode. Rose knows that Ishkode, destined to be loud, will wear the Jingle Dress and make a noise to combat the dark noises rising around them.
As the story draws to a close, the tense action and tragedy in this section are relieved by Dimaline’s lush, poetic prose. Dimaline often uses devices such as repetition to add a musical, incantatory quality to her writing. For instance, throughout Chapter 40, French ends many of his sentences with the phrase “and that was enough for now,” in order to convey the sense of being in the present and taking a breath. These repeated phrases are often an indirect homage to oral storytelling and singing traditions. In Dimaline’s descriptions, nature becomes a regenerative force and a mirror for the reality of characters, establishing the continuum between people and environment.
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By Cherie Dimaline
