Theme

There are a few themes in this book: abuse from the residential school, racism and embracing and dealing with the past.
Abuse haunts people no matter what you do to try to stop it. The abuse from the residential school changed Saul’s life dramatically. Saul was uprooted from his family and forced to go to a residential school as were many of First Nations kids during that time. Saul went to the residential school and faced many hardships and challenges. Saul was forced to watch cruel things that no one should have to watch. He watched kids get beaten by the nuns, he was forced to watch kids die, and he was forced to watch kids get thrown into the ‘Iron Sister.’ Saul was never put in the box himself, but he had to walk past it when getting hockey equipment. “I was never sent to the Iron Sister, but I saw it once. Father Leboutilier and I were stashing the hockey gear in the school’s basement.” This quote is important because it shows that Saul was scared of the Iron Sister and didn’t know what it was at the time. The abuse from the residential school destroyed Saul’s life and throughout the book he has to deal with his past. “St. Germ’s scraped away at us, leaving holes in our beings. I could never understand how the god they proclaimed was watching over us could turn his head away and ignore such cruelty and suffering.” Abuse from the residential school that Saul was forced to experience is one of the most prominent themes in the book.
Racism exists in the First Nations life and haunts them even today. Saul faced racism and it changed him. Throughout Saul’s’ journey he encountered many hardships and hateful people. When he was on the Moose, people didn’t like the team because they were Indian. After one of the hockey games Saul plays, the entire team except him gets beaten up. This was a turning point in the story and highlights just how cruel people can be.  ‘Five words that scared me and angered me at the same time. “They pissed on us, Saul.”’ When Saul plays on the NHL, he faces more racism.  He is benched a lot and he is picked on and hurt by the white players.  Eventually racism causes Saul to quit playing hockey.  This is sad because hockey was the one thing that helped Saul through hard times. 
We need to embrace the past if we want to see change in the future. Saul needed to embrace his past at the residential school and with racism so that he could be free of everything that happened to him. Saul went back to the residential school after it was shut down and remembered everything that happened there. He was forced to face his past and came out stronger.  He finally acknowledge that he couldn’t run from his past anymore.  “When the racism of the crowds and players made me change, I became enraged because they were taking away the only protection I had. When that happened, I knew that the game could not offer me protection any longer.”   He then goes to Gods Lake and throws tobacco in the lake to be able to reconnect with his Ojibway heritage that had been stolen from him at the residential school and through racism. “I took a pinch of the tobacco from the pouch and held it up to the evening star. As I did, the sky eased into purples and blues and indigos. The singing from below rose higher and the great northern lights emerged to dance beneath the unblinking eye of the moon. I cried in great heaving gasps. I let myself mourn.” Saul has embraced his past and is able to finally reconnect with his heritage and move on.