Plagues And Survivance

Louise Erdrich is one of the most prominent contemporary American Indian writers.Her novel The Plague of Doves is of strong regional feature,creating fictional places: the town of Pluto and the reservation,telling a story about the conflicts and integrations between Indians and the whites in nearly a hundred years.Erdrich depicts the oppression and persecution on Indians during the past century and the great disasters they have suffered.She reveals the abnormal social environment of legal deficiency,collective violence,and racial and religious oppression which have been reflected from the inevitable exchanges,intermarriages,conflicts,and communications between the Indians and the whites.She also describes Indians' struggles and surviving efforts in these catastrophes.This thesis takes spatial criticism as the theoretical basis and pays special attention to the profound connotation behind the multi-dimensional spaces shown in the novel.Through the analysis of physical space,social space and mental space in the novel,the survival disasters on Indians in The Plague of Doves are probed into.The problems of how Indians cope with survival dilemmas and rebuild their survival strategies are discussed.Territorial occupation by colonization and “Town Fever” together with communication and reconciliation in the 4-B's under the “common future” reflect the land disasters in the physical space and the surviving efforts the Indians have made.The social space is the space of dual persecution of race and religion.The Indians struggle in the gap of the collective violence and make efforts for legal improvement and tribal autonomy.Their unique optimistic nature and ethnic spirits of cohesion and resilience also help them live in this situation.At the same time,the psychological space of three generations in an Indian family presents the ethnic disaster from individual trauma to inter-generational trauma.Through the historical writing and ethnic memory reconstruction,Indians' unique qualities of forbearance and perseverance,as well as the strong self-healing ability are reflected in the novel.Through the analysis of the novel,American Indians' living situation and Indian's methods of survival could be reflected.To get rid of the Indians' land,racial,religious,mental and other multiple disasters,and to break the state of ethnic aphasia,besides inheriting traditional Indian culture as well as restoring the truth in the form of historical writing,Indians should also strengthen the exploration of tribal autonomy,and enhance the communication and integration with white people.