LaRose

Boarding schools symbolize the pull between traditional Ojibwe culture and the oppressive whitewashing the American government attempted in order to eliminate Native American populations. The author ties the characters’ history to boarding schools through the name LaRose. “The history of LaRose is tied up in those schools. Yes, we wrote our name in places it would never be found until the building itself was torn down or burned so that all the sorrows and strivings those walls held went up in flames, and the smoke drifted home” (134). Boarding schools indicate a substantiation of boundaries, dividing that which is Ojibwe from that which is white. The boarding schools act as methods of imprisonment, preventing Ojibwe children from learning the knowledge of their elders and alienating them for their natal culture. These children only have two means of escaping the boarding school: the institution must be physically destroyed, or the laws and regulations which keep these systems intact must be destroyed. For example, when Landreaux and Romeo escape, they willingly disobey the cardinal rule of the boarding school, thereby threatening the overturn of the entire institution. Of course, the system’s clutches extend into the police force, so they are eventually captured and returned to the boarding school where they face further torment.