Louise Erdrich's All You Need Is Love

All You Need Is Love What makes a person relate to a character? In the 1980’s authors began to utilize more imagery in their works to grasp audiences. With each character comes different languages and different view points. When using imagery, the images the author wishes to convey come naturally. Louise Erdrich dug deep into her own ancestry which overtime inspired her short stories, poems, and novels (poetryfoundation). With background knowledge, she has been inspired to write about the relationships between Native and non-Native cultures. Erdrich was inspired by the family bonds and the ties of kinship, along with the inspiring storytellers she grew up with (poetryfoundation). All of these emotions are tied into the her very first short

During the beginning of the story, Lipsha uses his “magical” touch to rid of tired veins not only from Grandma Kashpaw but other elderly women at the nursing home: “I take my fingers and I snap them on the knots. The medicine flows out of me. The touch. I run my fingers up the maps of those rivers of veins or I knock very gentle above their hearts or I make a circling motion on their stomachs, and it helps them” (280-281). Lipsha’s description of healing through physical touch conveys that if one believes the touch is powerful, then the persons positive energy will keep them vigorous. In addition, as the story concludes Grandma Kashpaw hands Lipsha the untouchable beads off of the bedpost that were his Grandpa’s pride and joy. Never in a million years did Lipsha ever imagine his hand would lay on such high authority. As she handed him the beads, “her hand was so strong, squeezing mine” (298). Lipsha did not understand the meaning behind the beads on the bedpost until his grandma lightly squeezed his hand. The touch of her hand made him realize that one should always love his or her surroundings, because nobody knows the last time he or she will enjoy the other’s company. By going in depth with descriptions of physical touch, Erdrich shows that it can truly change a person’s

Kashpaw to fall back in love with Mrs. Kashpaw. During the story, Lipsha shoots a turkey and comes up with a brilliant idea to remove the heart and feed it to his grandpa to cure him of the lose love: “I saw Grandpa picking at the heart on his plate with a certain look. He did not look appetized at all, is what I’m saying” (292). Mr. Kashpaw was very hesitant to take his first bite of the heart and does not glue all the pieces together as to why he is being forced to chew. After awhile Mr. Kashpaw finally gives in and takes his first bite, but keeps the piece in his mouth. Mrs. Kashpaw is so frustrated with him, that she slaps his shoulder blades to make him swallow the heart. As soon as she slapped his back, “He choked real bad. A person can choke to death” (293). In a blink of an eye, death took him without a shadow of a doubt. Lipsha and Mrs. Kashpaw watched as Mr. Kashpaw took his last and final breath. Both of them were not ready for him to pass, but rather to knock some sense into him about how he had recently been acting towards his wife. The author shows the audience that God takes the weak out of situations that they can not