Cultural Analysis Paper - Becca Libby

Love Medicine

Becca Libby

I chose to read Love Medicine, by Louise Erdrich, because I love Native American culture and especially story telling. I’ve always admired how important stories being passed down through generation is/was to American Indians. This book however, surprised me. The author discusses many different families, that all seem to connect throughout the book. Each chapter is at a different time and focused on a different character. At first, this was a little confusing, but the farther along I read, the more I realized why the author chose to write this way, and it made much more sense. This book does not follow the stereotypes that come with many novels about Native Americans. All the characters in this book are tortured souls in one way or another. Between deaths, trust issues, and love triangles, everyone had an incredible story.

The novel opens with the death of a woman, June. She is described as a bit of a nonconformist and a party animal. Although she is married, she has been jumping from town to town and from man to man for many years. It does not state her exact age, but one gets the idea that she is probably in her 60s. She is described as “hard aged” but beautiful. After meeting a man in a bar, and having a few drinks with him, they retire to his truck. She finds that he is not quite the lover she had hoped and must pry herself from under his sleeping body and out into the cold. She begins an attempt to walk back to her home on an Indian reservation, but is frozen to death by the cold. Although her death was disappointing for me at first, it gave way to an incredible story. I soon found out that June has a past filled with turmoil and hardships, and perhaps she welcomed her own demise. In many Indians tribes in Alaska, when the elders of the tribe knew it was time for them to die, they would walk out into the cold of the night, on to the ice. This thought came to mind when June walked off into the cold toward home, knowing that she many not make it.

June’s sisters and mother are still very close, and live on the reservation June (and they) grew up on. June had been adopted by her aunt, who adopted many children throughout her life. Marie had many children of her own with her husband Nector, but she could never deny a child into her home. Marie was a favorite character of mine, due to her strong nature and intriguing past. Her parents were thieves and crooks, but she was different. As a child she had gone to a church, to become a nun, but soon discovers that there was more evil there than in her own heart. When her story begins, the rest of the story begins to fall into place. She meets her husband Nector, at what I expect would have been the most intense moment of her life. At 14 she realizes sees an evil one of the nuns that is training her, and she attempts to shove her into a fire. When the attempt fails, the nun turns and stabs her hand with a fire poker. It seems after leaving the covenant, her faith is in question and she is lost but still strong willed and fearless. I suppose it was her fearlessness that attracted Nector, a successful Indian who had been in movies and was for a time, a tribal chairman. Nector’s relationships create the biggest conflict and tension throughout the story. Although he loves Marie, and has many children with her, he has a hard time dealing with his life with her. He claims to be entering a “second childhood”, which I suppose we call a midlife crisis. He soon beings an affair with a woman flashy and energetic woman named Lulu, who was a love interest in his younger years. She has 8 boys, none of which have the same father. Although she sleeps around, she is stable and it completely capable to taking care of herself and her children. The relationship between Nector and Lulu is at first, just a fling, but as time goes on their feelings become more than that and Nector is forced to make a decision between his wife, and Lulu. One of the strongest moments in the book, came when Nector decides to leave Marie for Lulu. He writes two notes, one to Marie, saying he is leaving, and one to Lulu telling her how much he loves her and he wants to stay with her. He leaves Marie’s note under the sugar jar in the kitchen, and goes to Lulus to deliver hers. Upon finding the note, Marie is heartbroken, she is confused and in pain, but does not lose her wits. When she realizes he has come back and is outside, she slips the note under the salt bowl, next to the sugar. She does this so he will always wonder “salt or sugar?” and never be sure if she read it or not. Even if he does always carry a flame for Lulu, this was a fantastic, quirky description of the situation.

Lipsha is June’s son, although he never claimed him, but has been raised by Marie and Nector. He is a bit of a healer, he has the kind of touch that make people feel better. He uses his touch on his grandma, but his grandpa will not allow Lipsha to try on him. In Nector’s “second childhood” he taunts Marie by talking about Lulu. Marie tells Lipsha to use his “love medicine” to help Nector love her again. This was one of the only parts on the book that portrayed a more ancient view of Indians. Lipsha attempts to make Marie and Nector eat the hearts of geese; he chose geese because they mate for life. Nector will not eat his, so Marie attempts to force him, and he ends up choking to death on the goose heart despite Lipsha’s attempt to save him.

In the last chapters of the book, Marie takes care of Lulu after surgery. Marie tells about her troubles helping Gerry (June’s husband and cousin) with his drinking problem. The last chapter is Lipsha learning about his parents from Lulu. This closes the book with Lipsha driving his father to Canada. It gives emphasis on how important the loneliness that Lipsha felt truly was to the story and the closure he felt knowing and being with his father.