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Love Medicine Sparknotes

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The award winning novel Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich contains various viewpoints from Native Americans of the Chippewa tribe. Many of the stories in this book contain some sort of heartache or struggle due to an affair or some external source, but interestingly there is one relationship that is not strained in that way. Instead, it is the conflicting ideas of a mother-daughter relationship. Even though Zelda Kashpaw and her daughter Albertine Johnson at first seem to be a living dichotomy, they realize the need for each other. Zelda Kashpaw is a Chippewa and aligns herself to the traditions of her family and tribe, except for one major decision. The first time we meet Zelda in this book, she is helping prepare the pies and cleaning for …show more content…

After reading about June’s death, Albertine’s point of view is the first to be seen by the reader. She has run away from home because she could not handle being around her mother anymore and is pursuing a career in nursing. Her mother disapproves of this based on her comment “Oh my, are you going to be a career girl?”. This was said after hearing Albertine state “I’m not interested anyways” during the discussion about marriage. So, Albertine has shrugged away the notion of fulfilling the traditional role of a woman by not wanting to get married and seemingly not wanting to have children. In fact, we learn from her cousin Lipsha Morrisey, Albertine goes a step further by wanting to become a doctor because nurses tend to be women whereas doctors are usually men and being a nurse was “not good enough for …show more content…

In “A Bridge” we are witnessing the time shortly after Albertine ran away from home. While in Fargo she is “officially out of money” and does not have a plan, so she waits at the bus station. Upon seeing a Native man who appears to be a Chippewa like her, she follows him and eventually spends the night with him. Even though she was running away from the life of being a Chippewa woman, she found herself partially returning to that existence. As far as we know, the closest thing to a romantic relationship for her was with Henry Jr., a member of her own

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In "Love Medicine" by Lousie Erdrich, the main character Lipsha Morrissey tells a few different stories, also is trying to help his Grandpa find the faithfulness he once had with Grandma. During the story Lipsha learns a few different lessons. Lipsha learns two important lessons while in the slough. The first lesson Lipsha learns is to be grateful for life. Lipsha says to himself "Lipsha Morrissey, you're a happy S.O.B who could be covered up with weeds by now down at the bottom of this slough, but instead you're alive to tell the tale."

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1518 Words | 7 Pages

Theda Perdue`s Cherokee Women: Gender and Culture Change, 1700-1835, is a book that greatly depicts what life had been like for many Native Americans as they were under European Conquering. This book was published in 1998, Perdue was influenced by a Cherokee Stomp Dance in northeastern Oklahoma. She had admired the Cherokee society construction of gender which she used as the subject of this book. Though the title Cherokee Women infers that the book focuses on the lives of only Cherokee women, Perdue actually shines light upon the way women 's roles affected the Native cultures and Cherokee-American relations. In the book, there is a focus on the way that gender roles affected the way different tribes were run in the 1700 and 1800`s.

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As she was not a doctor,

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Throughout history, there have been many literary studies that focused on the culture and traditions of Native Americans. Native writers have worked painstakingly on tribal histories, and their works have made us realize that we have not learned the full story of the Native American tribes. Deborah Miranda has written a collective tribal memoir, “Bad Indians”, drawing on ancestral memory that revealed aspects of an indigenous worldview and contributed to update our understanding of the mission system, settler colonialism and histories of American Indians about how they underwent cruel violence and exploitation. Her memoir successfully addressed past grievances of colonialism and also recognized and honored indigenous knowledge and identity.

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1809 Words | 8 Pages

Allusion Throughout Love Medicine Louise Erdrich used allusions to refer to different events that effected Native American culture and their life on the reservation. Vietnam, John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon, and differrent laws surrounding the relocation of Natives were referenced in this piece. Erdrich used allusions to refer to childrens programs like Road Runner and Tarzan. She used Tarzan beating his chest to to convey the emotional prayer he was giving in the church and Howard Kashpaw’s evening televisions show to lead Lishpaw MOrrissey to some deep thoughts about life. However, the more prominate allusions were those that refered to the government deal to give the Native Americans back their land although their land wasnt the same as the one they got back.

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602 Words | 3 Pages

Love Medicine: Native American Culture through the Generations Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich is a novel depicting Native American culture over a span of fifty years. This novel does a phenomenal job of showing the transformation of Native American culture over the years 1934-1984. The book has many themes that are very relevant to Native American heritage, assimilation, and survival.

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1246 Words | 5 Pages

Questioning Tradition Typically, the phrase higher power is associated with that of a god-like figure. When thought of as such, this power is not directly accessible to an individual character within a story. The phrase ‘higher power’, however, could be used to refer to many different forms of power. Throughout the short story, Love Medicine, by Louise Erdrich, higher power becomes a term associated with selected types of power.

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589 Words | 3 Pages

Walter discourages it and proceeds with, “Ain’t many girls want to be a doctor” (Hansberry 38). In this section, Walter recalls that the fundamental standard for women in their society is that women cannot become doctors. This is simply because it is not the norm for them. This challenges Beneatha to keep pursuing this dream because she may feel unaccepted in society if she chooses this career.

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“Here I am, where I ought to be. A writer must have a place to love and be irritated with.” (“Where I ought to Be: a Writer’s Sense of Place”). Whenever she's at a place, she loves to write, she feels inspirational. Louise Erdrich is an enrolled member of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, a band of the Anishinaabe.

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Without Ann’s early experiences as a teacher, she wouldn’t have had as much motivation to teach medicine later in life. To further her education she apprenticed herself to a Quaker doctor named Nathaniel R. Moseley and began teaching health and hygiene classes. In the early 1840s she began teaching physiology and hygiene to all-female classes. Her view was to educate women about their bodies. In 1849, Ann applied to various medical colleges but was turned down consistently based on gender.

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592 Words | 3 Pages

She first decided that she would be a physician following an interaction with a fatally ill friend of her mother, where the patient had expressed that, “she knew a woman doctor would have known what to do to save her.” (Hobart and William Smith) This statement first inspired her to pursue the field of medicine, but what she did following the conversation is what is truly notable. She put her mind to it, decided that nothing would stand in her way, and didn’t quit until she achieved her goal. The determination that she portrayed through her actions inspired women and girls all over the world, including myself, to fight for what they want.

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Many effects of these casualties can be found within Sherman Alexie’s collection of short stories, Blasphemy. Several of these tales show Native Indians experiencing a great deal of trials, tribulations, and unfortunate circumstances. Stories such as “War Dance,” “Basic Training,” and “This Is What It Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona,” display a generational disconnection between Native Indian fathers and their sons. In no way am I saying there was no kind of father-son relationship in these stories because there is; however, there is tension from the younger generation of Native Indians and their parents. In “War Dance”, the last narrator states “I would always feel closest to the man who had most disappointed me” (Alexie 74).

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Maya Angelou made the statement, “The ache for home lives in all of us, the safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned.” This quote makes note of one of the most basic human desires to find a space where they belong, a place to call home. When a person works hard to chase their dreams, it is often with the underlying goal to get to a place in their life where they truly feel they have made a home for themselves. This longing is only more intense among people who have lost their home, or have had it taken away from them. A prime example of this is the Native American people whose land was sacrificed by the people who invaded it.

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The novel explores themes of family, identity, and trauma. It revolves around a group of Native American characters fighting against the government’s plans to terminate the tribe and displace them from their land. The characters’ experiences

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Although Native Americans are characterized as both civilized and uncivilized in module one readings, their lifestyles and culture are observed to be civilized more often than not. The separate and distinct duties of men and women (Sigard, 1632) reveal a society that has defined roles and expectations based on gender. There are customs related to courtship (Le Clercq, 1691) that are similar to European cultures. Marriage was a recognized union amongst Native Americans, although not necessarily viewed as a serious, lifelong commitment like the Europeans (Heckewelder, 1819). Related to gender roles in Native American culture, Sigard writes of the Huron people that “Just as the men have their special occupation and understand wherein a man’s duty consists, so also the women and girls keep their place and perform quietly their little tasks and functions of service”.

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