A Study On The Theme Of Justice In Louise Erdrich's Novels

Louise Erdrich(1954-)is considered one of the most important contemporary Native American novelists,whose fiction covers a variety of subjects,such as survival,history,identity,ethnicity,community,violence,trauma,war,love,marriage,family,mythology,religion,redemption,homosexual,etc.She has especially been concerned with justice issues over the great misfortune and unfair treatment of Native Americans.Being an important subject in Erdrich's writing,the theme of justice appears in her works of different periods,helping reveal the complexity and uniqueness of Erdrich's thoughts on artistic creation.As one of the highest values honored by people as well as a fundamental principle based on which social institutions are built,"justice" is a notion that exists in all types of society.However,as a concept with diversity and relativity,there are no ideas of justice that is absolutely authoritative and universal.Even the ideas of justice promoted by the western philosophers also have limitations and they can not reflect the understanding of justice of people from other parts of the world.Native Americans,as the aborigines in North America,have their own understanding of justice and claims for justice,though they don't have as systematic and complete works as those in the history of western thoughts.Once having been the aborigines of the North American continent,Native Americans made several hundred treaties with American Federal Government,so they enjoy a special political status in America.For Native Americans,the issue of justice is closely related to American Indian policy as well as their great suffering in American history,thus their claims for justice are mainly about the claims for sovereignty,from which develops other claims for justice,such as the recognition and observation of treaties made between American government and tribal governments,the restoration of tribal land,less interference with tribal justice by federal justice,religious freedom of Native Americans,the preservation of tribal culture,and so on and so forth.This dissertation,employing the methodology of text analysis,as well as spatial theory,Foucault's Theory of Power and Critical Discourse and Postcolonial Theory,together with the knowledge of ethics and sociology,takes eight novels closely focused on the theme of justice out of her fourteen independently-created novels,namely,Love Medicine(1984),Tracks(1988),The Antelope Wife(1998),The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse(2001),Four Souls(2004),The Plague of Doves(2008),The Round House(2012)and LaRose(2016),as the examples to analyze the theme of justice presented in these novels.The dissertation is roughly based on the fields that the theme of justice covers in different periods,which helps examine and understand the development of Erdrich's thoughts of literary creation in a consistent and comprehensive way.The dissertation mainly analyzes Native Americans' claims for justice from three aspects:the claim for justice on land,the claim for justice on religious freedom and the claim for justice on judicial sovereignty.In the end,it analyzes the reflection of the White on the colonial injustice and their actions.The dissertation consists of five chapters.The first chapter,through the analysis of the limitation of western theories of justice and the pluralism of justice chronologically and globally,reveals that the western theories of justice can not be applied to every nation in the world,thus may not be appreciated by Native Americans.The dissertation,then through introducing the origin and development of Native Americans' claim for sovereignty,explains the specificity and rationality of Native Americans' claims for justice.Lastly,it briefly presents the justice issue reflected in Erdrich's works as well as her thinking on justice.The second chapter dwells on the Native Americans' claims for justice on land.The dissertation,taking Tracks,Four Souls and The Plague of Doves as the examples,analyzes how Erdrich tactfully reveals the injustice of Manifest Destiny and Westward Movement,how she presents the adversity of Ojibway people whose land has been dispossessed,whose living space has been compressed and whose tribal spirits has been destroyed through spatial theory.It also explores the effective strategy to meet Native Americans' claims for land,thus revealing that Erdrich's thinking on justice is developing gradually.The third chapter focuses on Native Americans' claims for justice on religious freedom.Through theory of Power and Critical Discourse and post-colonial theory,it analyzes how Erdrich presents the religious prejudice and oppression of Native Americans based on the texts of Tracks,The Last Report and The Plague of Doves,and how she reveals the deception of Catholic mission and assimilation of Native Americans,thus further exploring the effective measures to seek religious freedom that Erdrich comes up with.The fourth chapter is an elaboration of Native Americans' claims for justice on judicial sovereignty.By comparing the historic and legal documents and based on the novels of Love Medicine,The Plague of Doves and The Round House,it analyzes the ways how Erdrich presents the legal problems that Native Americans suffered,such as the judicial discrimination,judicial complexity and rough justice.It points out that Erdrich is not in favor of the idea of violence for violence,instead,she believes that the rejuvenation of tribal legal system may help Native American obtain more judicial sovereignty.The fifth chapter turns to the reflection of colonist whites on injustice in colonial history.Through the theories of group guilt in psychology,it analyzes how colonist whites and their descendants examine and reflect on the injustice inflicted on Native Americans in the novels of The Antelope Wife,Four Souls,The Plague of Doves and The Round House,thus revealing the significance of Erdrich's writing on justiceThe closing part,through the analysis of the theme of LaRose,summarizes the three-step strategy that Erdrich indicates in her novels on Native American' pursuit of justice,namely,self-restoration,unity and hybridity,and approaching reconciliation,and finally makes comments on the value and significance of Erdrich's writing on justice.Justice is an important and complex issue to Native Americans.Only by acquiring real justice can Native Americans improve their living conditions and embrace the future in a positive and confident way.As an Ojibway author,Erdrich takes it as her obligation to uphold justice for her people.She feels and explores the sad yet positive inner world of Ojibway people,presents their miserable experience,adverse situation and their unremitting struggle for justice.On the one hand,she reveals the injustice and hypocrisy of American Indian policy over the past two hundred years,explores the way for Native Americans to acquire justice;on the other hand,due to her mix-blood,she tries to examine the issue of justice from the perspectives of both Native American and American white,thus making the public expand their living boundaries and experience boundaries with the greatest compassion,get rid of the prejudice and hatred that has not been reflected,so as to win the strong political alliance for Native Americans on the way to seek justice.These are the unique characteristics of Erdrich's Native literary writing.Erdrich's writing on justice indicates that in such an era of pluralism,people from different countries,nations,ethnic groups,and with different religious and cultural backgrounds have their own understanding on justice.In face of the issue of justice,we are supposed to be more inclusive,free from prejudice,and show our respect to people of different ethnic groups and religions,reaching agreement and reconciliation through communication and negotiations.Violence,discrimination and power definitely can not bring real justice.