Eight-Person Narrative Story Love Medicine - Essay Example

English: 16 October 2005 Love Medicine Love Medicine is an eight person narrative story which clearly depicit's two Native American families's struggling with life issues that have been the circle of existence since man-kind has been born. The dramatic and varied emotions expressed through the portrayal of each character are what bring the Native American spirit into the story. Each of the narrator's has their own compelling story to tell but they are all related in someway, with one ambition. They all are seeking to find loves' grace and hopefully find peace in the retribution it will undoubtedly bring to their lives. It seems not to matter that the stories are somewhat disconnected because they are all reaching for that ultimate precept that lies just out of reach, "love and forgiveness" (Woodford p.1) Love Medicine begins with June Kashpaw walking through the streets of Williston in an attempt to kill time before boarding the bus back to the reservation. Unfortunately she gets sidetracked thinking she see's someone familiar to her and ends up missing the bus thus getting stranded in a snow storm and freezing to death before she makes it back to the reservation. Her character is the key figure throughout the story, although she dies early on. It is her spirit that is sensed and felt rather vividly through the many facet areas of the other characters lives. It is this key element of the novel that seems to drive the characters forward and compels the reader to continue as well. Through reading on we learn June had two sons. One was accepted well and looked upon as a legitimate individual while the other seemed shunned and alienated in some ways due to his illegitimacy. These two young men were known as, "King" and "Lipsha". In the story we see King portrayed as an unruly person with an almost untamed wildness in him. Besides this fact there lies a sense of hopelessness in him at times; a lack of understanding of his true identifiable self. He is ridiculed because he leaves the reservation to purse his own educational interests and marries a white girl instead of a Native American. His Grandmother is none to happy with it although she was married to a Swedish man herself. King is very much wrapped up in a color trap and blames the white man for many of the changed characteristics of his tribe. He does harbor violent tendencies and at points seems out of control in his anger but seems to flounder in regards as to how to change the outcome of it all as so many of the male characters represent. While growing up he is Lipsha's tormentor, all the while seeming to be plotting the most cruelest and vilest acts against Lipsha. Perhaps he acted out because of jealousy or insecurity or maybe simply because they were so very different. Unbeknownst to Lipsha was the fact that King was actually his brother. Lipsha was relieved of his tormentor when King had to leave the reservation to go and fight in the Viet-Nam war. After that the separation between them carried on through a great distance in the novel. King is just one of the male figures in this story differing from Lipsha in that he and others are blasted by drink, idleness and war. One life after another ends in suicide or madness, in prison or the old folks home. Though through Lipsha we see instances where a collective sense is trying to be made in understanding what is happening to cause the declining collective fates of many of the male figures. Love Medicine does not seem to have a "central conflict or protagonist" (Flavin, p.57). What it does exemplify however, is the basic instincts of survival and making it on your own through many adversities. It portrays these characters existing in a world where they feel "God and Government seem to have forsaken them" (Flavin, p.57). When they have been left to their own devices of how to live their lives they seem to buckle under the pressure, especially the men who are depicted as "floundering" fish. Grounds are found for this assumption in Lipshas' own words when he asks, Was there any sense relying on a God whose ears were stopped Just like the Government I says then, right off, maybe we got nothing but ourselves. And that's not much, just personally speaking (Erdrich, p.195). Lipsha feels there is little support to justify the meaning of what has occurred to the tribe and indeed his own life. Even his grandmother, at one point, calls him "the biggest waste on the reservation" (Erdrich, p.189). Sadly he is not the only male figure who feels such despair as Gordie Kapshaw expresses his inner musings in much the same manner. The difference between Gordie, Nector, and King in regards to Lipshaw is the fact that Lipsha does not place blame on anyone else for his own predicaments and he doesn't wallow in self pity, drink or fight his anger and sadness away. He searches for a way to solve it to bring a reuniting to everything in a healing sort of way. In other words, he stands amongst the other male figures and relates to their feelings yet he is also one step beyond them in the fact that he is trying to change and accept responsibility for himself. Another example of how Lipsha differs from the older male members and his brother is shown in comparison to his grandfather, "Nector" and his lifestyle habits through the years. Though Nector and Lipshaw are blood related they also are very different in regards to mentality and going about analyzing issues within their tribe. Nector has never taken responsibility for any of the actions in his life be they good or bad. We see this in the literary wording he says here, It seems as though, all my life up till now, I have not had to make a decision. I just did what came along, went wherever I was taken, accepted when I was called on. I never said no. But now it is one or the other, and my mind can't stretch far enough to understand this (Erdrich, p.106). Through his own words, Nector details his own lack of responsibility and how he has never had to make a major life decision in his life and doesn't even know how to begin to do so. I think the main point of the story is finding one's true self as Lipsha surely did and he rose above the bleakness the other male members carried in their hearts. Upon finding out who he really was allowed him to come to terms with the issues in his life that he had not been able too before. He felt as if he was "reborn". His own search for truth actually turned out to be the love medicine that brought everything full circle and healed old wounds. So, through all the adversity presented Lipsha was able to become whole and find love for his mother, grandmother, and father but most importantly himself where some others who had tried had failed. Works Cited Erdrich, Lousie "Love Medicine" 1984. Woodford, Donna "Novels for Students." Title of a Essay, 1999 Gale Publishers Koot, Cynthia Review of Love Medicine: Book List, Vol.81, No.1, September 1, 1984 Flavin, Louise Love Medicine: "Loving over time and distance" A Journal Article, Critique, Vol.31, 1989 p.57 Read More