ipl-logo

Supernatural Powers In Louise Erdrich's Tracks

899 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Arguments on science and religion essay

Supernatural Powers
Thesis: One controversial issue in Louise Erdrich's Tracks concerns Fleur’s supposed supernatural powers. While some readers argue that Fleur’s powers can be explained scientifically, my own view is that her powers are supernatural.
Quote 1: “. . . he tried to burn the house down. But though he threw kerosene repeatedly against the logs and even started a blaze with birchbark and chips of wood, the flames narrowed and shrank, went out in puffs of smoke . . . The last won out. He finally dropped the tinders and helped me drag Fleur along the trail ” (Erdrich 3). When Fleur is found to be the only Pillager to survive the sickness, Pukwan attempts to burn down the house containing the bodies of those that did not survive. Many people said Nanapush and Pukwan should have done the right thing right away and buried the Pillagers. They said this because of fears that the spirits would cause issues in the future due to their unrest. Pukwan kept trying to burn the house down, using many different techniques, but failed …show more content…

Why would someone use their supernatural abilities on something as simple as a card game? On the contrary, Russell would have been eventually caught by the other people playing if he were reading the cards, so he is not a viable option in the counterargument. Also, there is a high chance that Russell would have made a mistake in the amount of games that they played. Pauline even says that Fleurs winnings were ‘too consistent for luck’ which again supports that Fleur has supernatural abilities. Fleur eventually breaks her consistency, but keeps her winning streak. Why wouldn’t you use your supernatural abilities when it came to winning? Many examples have been provided to display Fleurs supernatural abilities, and the extension of the powers through the

Show More
Related
581 Words | 3 Pages

How is your feeling when you are falling in love? Most of the people say “it is awesome” because they “fall in love with the most unexpected person at the most unexpected time.” How do show your love? Every person has his or her own ways to show his or her love; therefore, Erdrich’s character – Grandma Kashpaw in Love Medicine also has her own ways.

Read More
1865 Words | 8 Pages

In schools across the world, children learn that, despite rampant injustice committed by a few, there is still good in the honorable majority of mankind and the promise of righteousness under the law. These children mature idolizing both superheroes in society and those existing on the big screen, teaching that right will trump wrong and that good will prevail over evil. Unfortunately, however, this is not an all-encompassing theme outside of the fictional realm. In Louise Erdrich’s The Round House, Geraldine Coutts, a rape victim on a Native American reservation, finds only injustice in the very judicial system that sought to protect her.

Read More
1149 Words | 5 Pages

In the novel Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, main character Billie Jo faces several challenging obstacles throughout her lifetime. Getting through these obstacles is the only way Billie Jo can learn to forgive her father as well as herself for their mistakes. Once she learns to stop feeling resentful, and let go, Billie Jo will be able to grow up. The first major challenge Billie Jo faces is when a fire breaks out in her home. The fire ignites when Billie Jo’s mother mistakes a pail of kerosene for water, where,“instead of making coffee, Ma [makes] a rope of fire”(87).

Read More
1091 Words | 5 Pages

Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury is one of a must­read book for all ages. The book tells the story of a fireman whose life takes an unexpected turn when he meets his new neighbor. Guy Montag, the fireman, then he have to face many challenges and overcomes his own fears. Montag’s society forbids its people to read any kind of books because they don’t want their people to be able to think for themselves. Much like our society today, in a way.

Read More
497 Words | 2 Pages

The skepticism of Aanakwad led the father to believe that he “saw Aanakwad swing the girl lightly out over the side of the wagon” (Erdrich 393). Louise Erdrich plays with the reader’s assumptions to prove a point; there is more to a story than stated. “The Shawl” portrays traumatic family issues originating from the narrator’s grandparents. Erdrich shows the parting by describing the lasting and detrimental effects on the family each generation.

Read More
1047 Words | 5 Pages

Can mere mortals with hold magical abilities? In the Lake of The Woods, a mystery war novel written by Tim O’Brien, whose major theme is that not every problem has a solution, but may present a different outlook on the problem and aspects surrounding it. The main character, John Wade, uses magic to hide his manipulation and deception in order to put on a smiling face on a daily basis. As a result of wanting to carry on his deceit, he ventures into the political world, while putting his wife,Kathy Wade, through misery. Kathy hated the political life style and gatherings, in this degree she was secretly relieved when he was unable to become a U.S. Senator.

Read More
1186 Words | 5 Pages

“Only two weeks ago, he had beaten fwadaus for spilling a pitcher of milk. She’d fallen and hit her head, knocking herself unconsciously for thirty seconds. She’d come to still lying on the floor as her uncle was shouting at her auntie not to help her.” This shows how physical abuse of her uncle pushed fwadaus to take bad decision of burning her

Read More
365 Words | 2 Pages

Nature was introduced in romantic novels and poems. In the poem ‘’Thanatopisis’’ by William Cullen Bryant he described death to something that was peaceful and to be embraced. He believed that you become one with nature, one with earth once you die. But in the poem ‘’Devil and Tom Walker’’ by Washington Irving he described death to be evil, sinful. He believed death to horrifying and something to not be embraced.

Read More
944 Words | 4 Pages

Going through a traumatizing event such as rape may alter a victim 's life, including those of their family. To recover from such an incident finding justice can be the best resort. Geraldine the victim in “The Round House” was raped and found covered in blood. Life on the reservation means that Geraldine will never be able to seek justice against her rapist. Her son, Joe, the protagonist in the novel further explains how he feels at the young age of thirteen.

Read More
619 Words | 3 Pages

All in all, after examining the arguments that have been put forward against Pascal’s Wager, the wager fails to provide acceptable reasons as to why claiming to believe in God will be beneficial to those who are believing in God

Read More
1124 Words | 5 Pages

A nation is not conquered until the hearts of its women are on the ground. Then it is done. No matter how brave its warriors or how strong its weapons.- Cheyenne Proverb. In “Round House” this quote was fitting because the sexual assault on the mother nearly destroyed her and the family.

Read More
801 Words | 4 Pages

When Montag is sent out with his brigade to burn down a book owner’s house, Montag sees that the owner stayed in the house and burned down with it. “There must be something in books… to make a woman stay in a burning house ” (51). Montag realizes that there must be something - something important, something worthwhile - to cause a person to commit suicide and die with that knowledge. At the start of the story, Montag sees fire as just a way to clean up, a way to keep things in line, a way to turn white pages into black ash. But fire develops a different meaning than that.

Read More
874 Words | 4 Pages

She worked hard but was not respected by her husband. The environment in which she lived was extreme. In the beginning the sheriff states it drops below zero at night in the house if the fire is not kept going at night. It’s so cold; someone could get pneumonia (968). She lives in these harsh conditions.

Read More
957 Words | 4 Pages

Captivity is defined as the state of being imprisoned or confined. A tragic experience is given a whole new perspective from Louise Erdrich 's poem, “Captivity”. Through descriptive imagery and a melancholic tone, we can see the poem and theme develop in her words. Erdrich takes a quote from Mary Rowlandson’s narrative about her imprisonment by the Native Americans and her response to this brings readers a different story based off of the epigraph. Louise Erdrich compiles various literary devices to convey her theme of sympathy, and her poem “Captivity” through specific and descriptive language brings a whole new meaning to Mary Rowlandson’s narrative.

Read More
796 Words | 4 Pages

“I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move” written by Louise Erdrich focuses on a child and a grandfather horrifically observing a flood consuming their entire village and the surrounding trees, obliterating the nests of the herons that had lived there. In the future they remember back to the day when they started cleaning up after the flood, when they notice the herons without their habitat “dancing” in the sky. According to the poet’s biographical context, many of the poems the poet had wrote themselves were a metaphor. There could be many viable explanations and themes to this fascinating poem, and the main literary devices that constitute this poem are imagery, personification, and a metaphor.

Read More

More about Supernatural Powers In Louise Erdrich's Tracks

Related Topics

Open Document