Fire Exit

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of addiction, illness, mental illness, and death.

“I’d gone along for too long with Mary’s plan to lie and say that the girl was another man’s, an enrolled Native man’s, so that she, our daughter, would be on the census, Mary’s Penobscot blood plus Roger’s, giving our daughter Elizabeth exactly what she needed to be enrolled.”

The emphasis on “blood” here is central to the novel’s thematic exploration of Cultural Heritage, Identity, and Belonging. Charles’s identity is rife with complexity, being neither fully white nor fully Penobscot. The fact that Mary needed to claim a different man as the father to secure Elizabeth’s tribal enrollment speaks to the rigid and painful nature of blood quantum laws in Indigenous communities. The use of “blood” evokes both the biological and cultural notion of belonging, reinforcing Charles’s alienation. His daughter’s enrollment became a source of emotional pain, highlighting how these types of customs shape personal and familial relationships.

“Going to AA makes you think a lot about the past and how it shapes you.”

This quote illustrates the importance of self-reflection in Charles’s character arc and in his recovery, which requires understanding of how past experiences influence present behaviors. This line also connects to the literary device of narrative reflection, where Charles’s voice is shaped by his retrospective thoughts on family, identity, and pain.

“In the morning Fredrick acted as if nothing had happened. He went on living. And this is important, because it’s when, I think, I learned to push on through an untrue story that pushes back.”

Fredrick is no longer living by the time Charles begins to narrate his story, but he still looms large over the narrative. In this scene, Fredrick has chosen to believe Charles’s story over that of the tribal chief and has remained supportive of his stepson in the face of some damaging rumors.