Exploring The Indianness: An Ecological Study Of Louise Erdrich’s Love Medicine

As the earliest inhabitants on the North American Continent, the connectionbetween Indian people and nature surely becomes the core issue among AmericanIndian literature. This dissertation gives research on the ecological theme focusing onthe significant value of the deep interconnection of ecology and Native Americanpeople through analyzing Love Medicine, the first novel of the most important andprolific American Indian writer, Louise Erdrich.Following the footsteps of her literary forbears such as Momaday, Silko andVizenor, Louise Erdrich keeps writing on the natural theme in her works. Differentfrom the other American Indian writers, however, Louise Erdrich rewrites andtransforms it. This thesis claims, on one hand, the conspicuous and distinguishingfeature on ecological aspect and on the other hand, it reveals the problematic situationof contemporary Indian society and their changing culture.Chapter One explores the earth theme that is about the relationship betweenNative American and the land. In this chapter, the discussion will be displayed fromthree aspects: the land ethics of Native American people, the deep meaning of theborderland as well as the cultural and spiritual link between home and Indians. Thecontrast of Indian and White people’s notion on the land will be mainly analyzed toreveal the land ethics of American Indians demonstrating the difference on theecological respect. Then the unique cultural meaning of borderland in Love Medicineconnecting with the land culture of Indian American people helps to illustrate theecological imagination on Native Americans. At the end of this chapter, it gives theimportance of the Indian views on home. Based on the above analysis, the thesis inLove Medicine elicits the conclusion that it is uneasy for Indians to be ecological asthey were before because of the loss of the land.The following chapter centers on the theme relating closely to the ecologicaldimension about Native Americans. Firstly, it calls for attention to their specialreverence on life and the spiritual characters on cognition towards animals byanalyzing the Indian culture of totem. Secondly, Native American cultural myths will be analyzed in the context of Love Medicine giving further manifestation on theecological connection of animal, human and nature. Finally, the hunting culture ofNative Americans gives voice to the former and the present connection of animal andnature. Through giving the picture of the increase in the number of slaughterhouse inthe reservation, it conveys the information that the natural link of animal, human andnature has already been broken by the penetration of white culture.Chapter Three devotes itself to the study of the link between Native Americanfemale and nature. Being one of the most significant and acclaimed female AmericanIndian writers, Erdrich introduces women theme and portrays a large number offemale images in Love Medicine. The special link between woman and nature inNative American culture will be given at the beginning of the chapter before theimage of the earth of the mother unfolded via the analysis of the two main femalecharacters in Love Medicine, Marie Lazarre and Lulu Lamartine. In the end, throughanalyzing the situational connection of mother and child of American Indians and thecircumstances of June Morrissey, it concludes that the Indian women respected intraditional Indian culture have already been a group of people losing their power andvoices which declare the fact of the imbalance between human and nature.