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Shared: Thematic analysis of the book 'From the Ashes: Jesse…

- - - - Refering to trees as relatives, indicating the children of the land:
        But my relatives, the trees, saw my trouble. “Hide within us, nephew,” they rustled. “Our leaves will darken their way.” Their branches bent and covered my passage; they arched over to save me. Deeper into the poplars, cedars, and oaks I fled, A good three miles. My attackers’ footsteps fell silent, their voices trailed off. (Poem)
      - Going back to home: "I said goodbye in my heart and wished him well and then made my way to the Trans-Canada Highway for the long hitchhike back home to Ontario." (page 166)
        Comment: Throughout the book, Dr. Thistle returned home (Toronto) to his grandparents, to his friends, several times.
      - Reunion at brother's wedding:
        Mom’s family was there, as well, my aunts and about seven cousins my age from Saskatchewan. They sat in a section off to the side by themselves but were super friendly, mingling, laughing, drinking, and carrying on—they were the best dancers in the joint—but I didn’t really interact with them. Jerry stuck by my side, going inside to dance when a song he liked came on, and we shared bottle after bottle until the world spun around us.
        “But my home is Toronto.” I felt like I had to defend my point. “I’m sorry.” It was like they’d been waiting for me to wake up just to ask me this question. (choosing Toronto, land, over Mom)
  - - - “Don’t ever call here again.”“But, Grandma—”“No. Your grandfather was clear: you’re not welcome.” I couldn’t believe what she was saying. (page 161)
        
        Comment: Being rejected himself by grandparents and his buddy Leeroy from his dad in dire need with no food, on the street, left him in nowhere, in his tongue 'adrift'. He reminisced the loss of his girlfriend Karen and considered this situation as a dual loss and finding there's no 'home' for him anymore.
    - - End of friendlship with Leeroy: "I knew then that it wasn’t my place to stay in the car anymore— I don’t know how I knew, but I did. Maybe it was the thought of my mortality that pulled me away, or maybe I didn’t know anything other than abandonment, one of the earliest lessons my dad had left me with" (page 165)
    - - "Others just didn’t want me around when I got back from Port Hope. I showed up pleading for help and they literally shut the door in my face." (page 178)
    - - Brothers don't want him:
        “But my home is Toronto.” I felt like I had to defend my point. “I’m sorry.” It was like they’d been waiting for me to wake up just to ask me this question
- - - - Showing conscience:
        “Listen,” I said. “They killed someone. I don’t believe in hurting people like that. Selling dope and stealing is one thing, but murdering is another.”(page 200)
    - - The ratting:
        “I’D LIKE TO REPORT A murder,” I said. “The cabbie from yesterday—Baljinder Singh Rai.”
  - - - Getting employed:
        "Troy introduced us to job agencies and cheque- cashing places, two things I didn’t even know existed, and we were always the first, along with the other immigrants and newcomers, at the job agency counter at five a.m. to get general labour" page 163
      - Being smart for survival:
        "We soon learned of a better spot where we could get picked up and toil for the day for better money. " (page 163)
      - Begging:
        LEEROY AND I WENT OUT begging. (page 165)
    - - Ketoacidosis: "Sleep was impossible. I was overheating, even when I took my clothes off and kept the car windows down in the zero-Celsius winter air. Leeroy complained of the same intense heat. One of the local street kids told us we were overheating because we were in ketoacidosis—our bodies were too acidic and were digesting themselves, muscles and all." page 162
      - Severe physical pain: "I cleaned the glass away and tried to go to sleep, but my spine and hips were bending and shattering like layers of ice smashing up on a lake shore." (page 165)
    - - Sexual assault: There was a deep pain in my intestines, radiating from my rectum, down across my testicles and penis. I panicked and hobbled over into the washroom and one of the stalls. I wadded up a pad of toilet paper and wiped it across my anus. A dark stain of fresh blood appeared on it. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I ran my fingers over my bum and discovered that I had what appeared to be hemorrhoids. I tried pushing them in but they hurt more than anything I’d ever experienced—I touched them gently again. I’d never had hemorrhoids before, or whatever these were. I tried to understand what had happened, who was around me before I fell unconscious, why I woke up near the washroom, or why what appeared to be my intestines were hanging out of my bum.(page 173)
        Comment: He took some time to get over this. He described it never feeling the same. (page 177) This experience made him cautious though in his ventures on the street.