“I should have listened harder to the crows. Anything that when gathered is called a murder is bound to speak prophecy.”

French’s darkly humorous observation refers to the increased cawing of the crows before he is attacked. The crows are cawing because Recruiters are disturbing the forest, but French refers to Native spiritual traditions about crows being wise tricksters to explain their prophetic cawing. These lines show that Dimaline draws on Native spiritual traditions to enrich the world of her characters.

“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.