An Archetypal Interpretation Of Love Medicine

Love Medicine is Louis Erdrich’s masterpiece coming out in1984. Since its publication, it has brought about a lot of commendation and won many rewards for its rich heritage of Indian culture and true-to-life description of the living conditions of the modern Native Americans. Critics have done a lot of researches on Love Medicine from various perspectives. However, few critics have made studies upon it from the perspective of archetypal criticism. This thesis attempts to analyze the archetypal characters, images and motifs in Love Medicine from archetypal perspective.It consists of six parts:Introduction, four chapters and Conclusion.The Introduction makes a sketch of Louis Erdrich, her life story and her literary career. It also reviews the overseas researches and domestic researches on the novel Love Medicine.Chapter One focuses on the introduction to the basic theoretical ideas of archetypal criticism, in which Frye’s archetypal theory is mainly introduced.Chapter Two makes an analysis of the archetypal characters in Love Medicine. Marie, the reprehensive of Great mother, is the mother of life. She gives birth to many children, whom she nourishes and protects well. She is also an independent and dedicated woman courageous to shoulder the responsibility of protecting the interests of the Indian tribes. Gerry is the representative of the trickster. He has the ability to change his figure. Added with his witty mind, Gerry is very successful of several escapes from the prison. June is the embodiment of the scapegoat in the modern world. She is the victim of the racial discrimination of the American society.Chapter Three deals with the archetypal images of water and island. Water as a kind of archetypal image has a rich connotation. It can be interpreted in two aspects: it is both the homeland of spirit indispensable for the Native Indians and the medium of the death and rebirth. The archetypal image of island in the novel is an isolated place. It is just a fantasy of the author. Modern Indians can not return to the past lifestyle. The island is only a lost paradise for them.Chapter Four discusses the two archetypal motifs:the quest of identity and the death and rebirth. From the interpretation of archetypal motifs, we can find the conviction of the author:it is only when returning to the community can the separated orphan June achieves a spirit rebirth. Lipsha, as the young generation of the nowadays Indian tribe, can only achieve his identity and realize his value when he has a firm faith of returning to Indian tradition in his community.Love Medicine contains rich myth archetypes. From the analysis of the archetypal images, archetypal characters and archetypal motifs, we can learn that Erdrich express as much concern over the native American’s survival and presents her solution of how to help the Indians get out of their existing dilemma of marginalization. In Love Medicine, she conveys such an idea:embracing the traditional Indian culture is the only way for the Indians to establish their identity.