From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way

Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3, Chapters 39-53

Part 3, Chapters 54-73

Part 4

Key Figures

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Poetry

Verse chapters are interspersed throughout From the Ashes: My Story of Being Métis, Homeless, and Finding My Way, with the poems establishing the tone and theme of subsequent chapters to come. Each of these poems carries symbolism relevant to different experiences and events in Jesse Thistle’s story.

For example, “Indigenous Affairs” appears even before the Prologue, setting the tone for the entire book and hinting at how Thistle’s Métis-Cree background is relevant to his experiences with homelessness and addiction. The poem also references Thistle (presented as an unnamed speaker) fishing change out of the Centennial Flame fountain, an image revisited at the end of the book when it no longer elicits a sense of belonging.

In “A Little Boy’s Dream,” the packed bag with contents of Thistle’s old life symbolizes the feeling of instability and despair that his young self feels in constantly having to move homes. “A Father’s Love” displays the kind of neglect Thistle and his brothers experienced from their father.

In “Windigo,” Thistle uses specific, significant imagery to describe his life on the streets. The harsh conditions and his subsequent addiction ravage his body, and he uses the image of a “windigo” (a mythological creature from Indigenous lore, specifically the Algonquian-speaking First Nations) to describe this deterioration. According to legend, greed and weakness cause humans to transform into these monsters that kill and eat their victims (Pitt, Steve. “Windigo.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 8 March 2018). Thistle likens himself to the windigo; however, he is his own victim, with his greed and weakness causing him to “cannibalize himself.”

In contrast to the imagery drawn from Indigenous lore, Thistle uses a biblical reference in “Solitary Confinement,” framing his feeling of betrayal as that of Uriah by David: Thistle believes himself to be a “coyote / languishing in the land of jackals” (275). This analogy corresponds with Thistle’s circumstances at the time, as the only object he has is a prison-issued Bible.

The Leg Injury

The Prologue opens with Thistle in prison, where he reveals he landed himself there to save his infected leg and life. Thistle’s leg injury is framed as important, as it marks a turning point in his life in multiple ways. The circumstances of the injury demonstrate one of the lowest points of his life, a time in which he lacked support. When he first injures his leg from a fall, no one believes the severity of his injury or rushes to help him; when his leg gets repeatedly reinfected, he lacks a safe space to recover. Significantly, it is when Thistle is attempting to recover from his first surgery that he dreams of the Battle of Batoche, of being carried by horses to a door. He is only released by the horses when he promises to change; in turn, the choices he makes surrounding his injury become a turning point—for worse and for better.

The leg injury is what drives Thistle to desperation, seeking out prison as a safe haven in which to recover. In prison, he receives his first glimmer of hope of a different life when he reencounters education in a different context. After his release, his injury pushes him deeper into a destructive life, as he continually smokes crack to deal with the pain. Eventually, he realizes the depth of his addiction and actively seeks to escape, committing to recovery at Harvest House. Just as the story opened with Thistle in prison, owing to his leg, it ends with him living a different life, with the pain still a part of him. However, he views the pain as a blessing, a daily reminder of everything he has overcome and how lucky he is to be alive.

The Robin’s Eggs

When Thistle steals a robin’s eggs as a child, he explains that they are symbolic of a mother’s love. He steals the eggs hoping to reclaim the maternal love missing from his life. The incident highlights a number of things: Firstly, it shows how, despite having a stable home and people who provide for his basic needs, Thistle still feels emotionally unfulfilled. He feels incomplete and unsettled, and the incident points to the theme of Home as More Than a Physical Space. Secondly, the incident shows how, owing to a lack of agency, Thistle has already fallen into a pattern of exerting power and control in unhealthy ways, such as by stealing and lying. This points to the theme of Agency, Autonomy, and the Power of Choice. Finally, the incident sheds light on Thistle’s character—he is not used to articulating himself and expressing his needs. This inability to communicate reveals a lack of confidants, a product of the instability and disconnect he experiences growing up.