Corrupted Goodness In Lousie Erdrich's 'Saint Marie'

Corrupted Goodness
In Lousie Erdrich short story, “Saint Marie” (1934), she makes a very clear point that even the most loyal and well-disciplined can become corrupt. In this chapter from the book Love Medicine, Marie is young 14 year old girl. The young girl has been born and raised into the Catholic faith. Marie has gone to the convent for Sunday school for several years. With years in the making, she decided to join the Sacred Heart Convent. There were many nuns at the convent but one stood out the most. This nun was Sister Leopolda. Sister Leopolda was a violent, evil, and Satan-obsessed. Many had hatred for her; although, some found her quite pleasant. However, one day, Marie has a vision of the devil that causes her to smile. That smile

When being raised, we are always taught to say our please and thank you’s. We were taught those things when we were young and innocent so they’d someone be implemented into our manners by the time we were able to make our own decisions. However, these decisions could slowly become corrupted if we were born and raised with good manners. The ones raised without any discipline or obedience are the ones that are needed to be kept in check more often. Being kept in check can keep them from thinking or doing bad things. For example, the convent for the nuns is located on the “top of the highest hill” and has just recently planted a windbreaker before the bar to “hide the drinkers” from the nuns (Erdrich 1). This location and placement hide the evil from them so they aren’t capable to see the bad in the world, only the good. A healthy and happy upbringing can cause good behavior but can become easily corrupted by the unprotected, outside

Some outside forces include poor leadership, greed, competition, or even dishonesty. Most of the time, wrong decisions are easier to make than right decisions. Wrong decisions don’t acquire much thought where right decisions do. Thinking of the right is harder because “evil is a common thing [Marie] trusted”, as do us all (Erdrich 2). When we’re making decisions on the spot, we don’t think they are wrong until after when a consequence is attached to them. However, some consequences can trigger revenge. Revenge can influence ones decision making tremendously. Just like Marie’s decision making after Leopolda locked her in that closet. Marie didn’t think of Leopolda badly until that very action. That action lead her the wrong way and influencing her to “get to heaven first, and then… shut the gate” on Leopolda and send her to hell for locking her in the closet. Corruption doesn’t always happen in upbringing, it has added factors that can cause