Paradise Regained: Reading Women In Louise Erdrich's Fictional World

As one of the most prominent and prolific contemporary Native American writers, Louise Erdrich has received unprecedented popularity among readers of different backgrounds. Within roughly a couple of decades from 1984, she has produced the "North Datoka series" consisting of seven books, all centered on the suffering and the convoluted life of her Chippewa people in the contemporary American society. With the purpose to restore the female tradition which has undergone severe damage along with white assimilation, Erdrich's fiction highlights the women characters who suffer and struggle through their dilemma in the fragmented and even hostile world. A study on Erdrich's first three novels of a planned trilogy, Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, Tracks, this thesis probes into Erdrich's different women themes from feminist as well as cultural/historical perspectives. It intends to reveal the arduous process from the "fall" of the American Indian women to their final "redemption" as reflected in Erdrich's fictional world.In the introduction section, the declining of Native women's social status is examined in the particular American social and historical context, which lays the foundation for my exploration on the motif of identity-searching for Erdrich's women characters. This part generalizes how Erdrich's narratives contribute to revitalizing the traditional power of Native women despite their disruptive experience in the modern society.In the first chapter, the analysis underscores the crises of identity for the mixed-blood women characters caught in-between and particularly focuses on their isolation in an alien world, as well as the bitter course of identity-searching in the apparently unfavorable circumstances. In the second chapter, Erdrich's theme of retrieving the lost spiritual power is hightened through the revival of female myth intrinsic in the Native tradition.Finally, the discussion explores how Erdrich's narratives reach the climax when weaving out numerous women's communities. By adopting the multiple point of view, the lively and effective dialogues among different characters finally make it possible the transcendence over the limitations of gender and ethnicity.The thesis culminates in understanding Erdrich's women themes on a whole and assessing Native women's plural roles in shaping the tradition as well as the future for the tribal community.